The Minnesota Lynx mused on the past, present, and future in post-elimination reflections.
Those who wished for the Minnesota Lynx to post a historic season will have to be more specific next time.
The second round of the 2026 WNBA Playoffs is set to get underway on Sunday but it won't include the top-ranked Lynx. Minnesota is on the wrong end of a unique WNBA upset after dropping a postseason couple to the eighth-place New York Liberty, as it's the first No. 1 seed to be vanquished in the opening round since the league switched to an eight-team, no-bye format in 2022.
No. 1 and Done
The melancholy closer was an 87-71 decision on Tuesday at Barclays Center, coming less than two years after the Lynx fell in the 2024 WNBA Finals under the same grassy roof.
Since then, Minnesota has the best regular season record in the WNBA by far at 67-21, six games better than runner-up Las Vegas. But duplicating that success in the postseason has been a challenge: last year's Lynx won its opening round set with Golden State before dropping four-game set to the Phoenix Mercury, one where franchise face Napheesa Collier was felled by an ankle injury.
Emotions were on full display in the immediate aftermath, with regular season success quickly forgotten in the wake of another metropolitan heartbreaker.
"There are sometimes when you have that [championship or bust] team and that would be the case, you should feel that way," longtime Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said. "I have not felt like we've had that team over these three years, and so what we're doing is sort of maybe exceeding expectations in the regular season, and then when it comes playoffs, maybe we don't quite have the right group to be effective."
"We won 80-something percent of our games [n the last two] seasons, and we don't have much to show for it, so of course, it doesn't feel very good," Kayla McBride declared two days later. "When you do have a target on your back, it comes with a different level of expectation, a different level of focus, a different level of confidence of knowing that you're going to get everybody's best. Everybody wants to beat you ... Everybody's talking about that swirling emotion of being a number one seed, that target on your back end. I think we haven't lived up to that in the playoffs."
How It Started
A deeper look at the tour was somewhat manageable on Thursday, when the 2026 Lynx convened for the last time. While there was undeniable acknowledgement of the accomplishments gathered, some couldn't help but still feel uncomfortable knowing that they weren't supposed to be there that day.
"I think we had a great team this year," said Collier. "We did not end the way we wanted and I think there's things that we all need to work on every single off season. You try to get better, and I don't know what that looks like yet. Again, it's like it's so hard to say so close to the last game and the ending of the season."
"I don't want to take away from what we've done this season, from these special groups, special people, special women, from this staff, our coaching staff," McBride added. "Every day I come to work, I'm just like the kid in the candy store. I love being here, I love wearing Minnesota across my chest. But with that, I think that there are so many things that kind of came to light. "[There's more] understanding how individually we can be better, how we how we can be better as as a group in where the league is now, and like what we need to do in order to be you know successful in this league. I think we had a lot of success, but there's still so many things that I can do better. Knowing that you still have so much more to give, I think that's the exciting part."
How It Was Going
The year began with many observers believing that there were too many gaps in this chain of Lynx to maintain residency in the WNBA penthouse. The offseason frenzy took a bite of the defending regular season champions, uprooting Bridget Carleton, Natisha Hiedeman, Jessica Shepard, and Alanna Smith from their established Minneapolis homes.
To top it all off, Collier continued to rehab her ankle injury, leaving affairs in the hands of second overall pick Olivia Miles, returning Minnesotan Natasha Howard, the stalwarts McBride and Williams, and incoming role players like Nia Brodie (née Coffey) and Maya Caldwell. That group could've included Dorka Juhasz but another injury, this one endured in EuroLeague play, ate away at another developmental season.
"Courtney [Williams] and and [Kayla McBride] came to training camp without Phee, who was rehabbing in another space, then looked around going, "Where's all my people?" It was hard for them," Reeve recalled. "I don't know if they even talked about it, but it was really hard for them," Reeve recalled of the start of the year. "I had to [say it] quick: we don't have time for that s***.
"We do not have time to wallow in who is not here. This is about who is here. Everybody made choices. Remember, Court, you were real happy for everybody, you know what I'm saying? Once we kind of had that conversation, we said let's get to it."
By now, the rest is history in more ways than one: Miles and Reeve manned the lifeboats to the tune of hardware-gaining seasonal runs, the former doing well enough to garner MVP consideration as a rookie. Howard remained timeliness as she picked up the workload for a deleted post game. When Collier returned in July, the Lynx were 21-6 and she put up a 24-point, 10-rebound triple-double. McBride hit a WNBA record 10 three-pointers in an August win over Dallas.
Fate of the 3
Perhaps all of that was to say that the Lynx faced a daring question: if not now, when?
It's a query that could've been avoided had the Lynx secured the expected title. Now that it's officially raised thanks to the Liberty's upset, it's time to start conjuring answers.
The current era of Lynx basketball almost-seamlessly transitioned from the Seimone Augustus/Sylvia Fowles/Maya Moore triumvirate to that of Collier, McBride, and Williams. That trio has penned some of the more thrilling chapters of recent WNBA history and Reeve said "of course" there's enough for the group to capture an elusive title, even if they need "more help."
Even so, Reeve prided this year's group on expanding beyond the headliners: the continued prowess of Howard and Miles allowed them to stick around in the elite talent categories while Brodie and Caldwell were highly complementary in their own rights. Miles figures to be a mainstay in the conversations of the elite, even with a brutal playoff showing against New York. The Notre Dame/TCU alumna carried a quiet confidence in defeat after recalling her regular season success and Reeve expressed confidence in her recovery despite the early postseason hiccup.
""Instead of worrying about the X's and O's and this and that, the data and whatever, [the game's about] just going out there and going to hoop because both teams know each other," Miles said of what she learned in year one. "You know what the other team's going to do. At that point, it just becomes who can get to their spots and do what they do best the best. I learned a lot through that experience, and I'm excited that I had it."
"We just couldn't get we couldn't get her reprogrammed and there was a bit of a spiral for her," Reeve said. "It's hard. Those lessons are the hardest ones, very, very painful. She's super competitive. She cares deeply about the vets, and she knows her time is more plentiful in playing basketball than theirs, so she took a lot on."
Phee Agency
Of course, a potential full-time transfer of power to Miles if another conversation that could've well been avoided if not for the circumstances presented.
Only six players are under contract for next season but fortunately that list include Brodie, Howard, McBride, Miles, and Williams. The newly-minted 35-year-old Howard stated that she "absolutely" intends to return next season while McBride lauded the "home" she has built in Minneapolis. But chief among not just the Lynx's free agency list but perhaps the WNBA's as a whole is Collier, who has spent the first eight seasons of her career in the Midwest's special shades of blue and green.
"She just finished year eight, 30 years old," Reeve noted. "Sometimes you stay and sometimes you go because maybe there's something, I don't want to say better, but maybe better for her, and that's something that I respect ... We're honest with each other, and she signed a one-year [deal] for a reason, right? Whatever she decides, we're both going to be okay and that's something that I feel strongly about."
"What Phee has given this franchise, we're super proud of, and we're super proud of the work that we poured into her," Reeve added further. "She knows what's here. If she lands on being here, great. If there's something better for her? That's life."
Considering the way the Lynx conducted themselves amidst Collier's rehab this season, it's fair to see where Reeve is coming from. Still, moving on from a perennial MVP candidate and a leader on both a local and national level is a major move that could likely disrupt the otherwise impenetrable of a team that has lingered at or near the top of recent WNBA ledgers.
For her part, Collier was not ready to comment on her future, thanks in part to discussing it earlier than expected thanks to the elimination.
Bigger Bite
Ultimately, a dream season for the rest of the W's contenders, one where the top seed is no longer with them on the bracket, could wind up being the ultimate nightmare: the champions of varied varieties gathered in Minnesota made it clear that they plan to engage in a broader, more brutal reflection, one that they hope provides the boost required to get over the recent roadblocks.
"I wasn't at the level that I expect for myself," Collier, earner of collegiate, international, and Unrivaled titles, admitted after her return from injury. "My ultimate goal was to get back on the court, and ultimately, to help my team win a championship. Obviously, we fell short of that, so that's hard. But still, I'm proud of what I was able to accomplish, and, more than anything, proud of the team as well. This season was incredible, despite the ending ... They were such a joy to be around this whole season. I just personally enjoyed and just appreciated that so much. Obviously I wasn't 100 percent but I gave 100 percent of what I was able to."
"I look inward. I couldn't get us to the space that we needed to be," Reeve said. "I would spend a lot of time really trying to understand it as I talk to the players and get more information. I told them this: I have to, too, get better in the offseason. I like being challenged. I don't like failing, You have a choice in how to handle it. Being down is a natural part of it. But I also think that there's a time limit on that, and we're still within the time limit right now."
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
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