A Championship In October Could Be This WNBA Coach’s Greatest Accomplishment

Minnesota Lynx Head Coach and President of Basketball Operations Cheryl Reeve has climbed just about every mountaintop a person can climb in the world of basketball.

Reeve has six WNBA championships to her name – two as an assistant coach with the Detroit Shock and four as a head coach with the Lynx. She’s a three-time WNBA Coach of the Year, a one-time Executive of the Year and coached the United States to a gold medal in the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in 2022. She’s even been a four-time head coach in the WNBA All-Star game.

On August 11, Reeve put an exclamation point on all of her achievements and coached the United States women’s national team to an Olympic gold medal .

Suffice it to say, of all the coaches in the 28 years of the WNBA , Reeve has certainly established herself as one of the league’s most accomplished.

This season, Reeve has already led her Lynx to the second-ever WNBA Commissioner’s Cup Championship , and with one half of the season to go, the Lynx have a real shot at their fifth championship in the last 13 years .

Reeve may have just spearheaded a gold medal effort on the world’s biggest stage, only further cementing her legacy as one of the greatest figures in women’s basketball history. With the landscape of today’s WNBA, however, leading the Lynx to a championship this October may just be the biggest feat of Reeve’s career.

Where Do The Lynx Stand Through One Half Of The Season?

The Lynx head into the second half of the season 17-8, which is the third-best record in the WNBA and good enough for first place in the Western Conference.

Holding a top-three standing in the league is a complete switch-up for the Lynx, who had shaky seasons the last two years navigating a post- Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles era. In 2022, the Lynx went 14 and 22 and missed the playoffs, and last year the Lynx went 19-21 and lost in the first round of the playoffs.

Flash forward to this season and the Lynx have been one of the teams to beat in the WNBA . With players like Napheesa Collier , who leads the Lynx in points, rebounds and steals and just helped lead Team USA to a gold medal, as well as Kayla McBride and Alanna Smith who are averaging 16.4 and 11.5 points per game, respectively, the Lynx have a strong chance to make a splash in their remaining 15 games.

“To this point, we sort of had our sights set on being one of the top teams, the top rung if you will, and we’ve done that,” Reeve said in a postgame press conference on July 17 before the mid-season break. “Now we have to see how we can improve and see if we can make it a really meaningful season.”

Who Do The Lynx Have To Worry About In The WNBA?

The Lynx are just one of several teams in the WNBA that could easily win a trophy come October. Even in the Western Conference alone, there are plenty of contenders that Minnesota may end up facing this postseason.

Perhaps the biggest contender the Lynx have to worry about are the Las Vegas Aces . The Aces may have the fifth-best record in the league at the halfway point, but they are certainly a team the Lynx have to look out for.

For the last few seasons, the Aces have run the WNBA. They are the back-to-back champions, and even though they aren’t at the top of the Western Conference, they have the players and playoff experience to try to become just the second team in league history to complete a three-peat .

The Seattle Storm are also a team to keep an eye on.

In the team’s second season without Breanna Stewart, the franchise once anchored by the four-time UConn champion has fared well. Seattle currently sits in second place in the Western Conference. With stars like Jewell Loyd , Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith , the Storm could make some traction just a year removed from missing the playoffs .

The Lynx also have Eastern Conference contenders to think about as the season winds down. If Minnesota were to make the WNBA Finals, there are a number of squads they could end up facing.

The New York Liberty , whom the Lynx faced in the Commissioner’s Cup Championship, are the team most likely, as of now, to emerge from the Eastern Conference. They sit in first place in the East with a 21-4 record and are the only team in the league with 20 or more wins.

Then there’s the Connecticut Sun , who are second in the Eastern Conference. With forces like Alyssa Thomas , who leads the Sun in rebounds, assists and steals, and DeWanna Bonner , who leads the Sun in points with 17.1 per game, there’s no telling how far Connecticut could advance.

There’s no question about it, with the WNBA as loaded with talented franchises as ever, the Lynx will have quite the workload ahead of them if they want another shot at a championship. Only time will tell how the standings ultimately shake out in the second half of the season.

If the Lynx are able to get over the hump, though, it may just be Reeve’s most significant accomplishment as a basketball coach, which says a lot given her resume up to this point.