Lynx’s Napheesa Collier poised for another WNBA title run after an offseason playing with Unrivaled
Lynx’s Napheesa Collier poised for another WNBA title run after an offseason playing with Unrivaled
Napheesa Collier drove to her left, stopped and hit a turnaround jumper over Aaliyah Edwards to capture the 1-on-1 tournament crown in the Unrivaled 3-on-3 women’s basketball league. When the shot went in, Collier let out a triumphant yell.
The moment captured how the Minnesota Lynx All-Star forward spent her WNBA offseason: Physically and mentally working on her game and raising her profile.
After Collier and the Lynx came up short in their bid for a title last season — falling to Breanna Stewart and the New York Liberty in the WNBA Finals — Collier went to work as a one of the marquee players in Unrivaled and co-founder of the league.
“You always want to keep building,” Collier said during Lynx training camp. “Even though I had a good year last year, there’s always things you can improve on, things that I wanted to get better at from last year. Things that I worked really hard at during the offseason and at Unrivaled.
“So really looking to implement that for this year.”
All of Collier’s skills were on display during her eight-week stint with Unrivaled in Miami. She dazzled chase-down blocks, tough fadeaway jumpers and 3-pointers. The reigning WNBA Defensive Player of the Year honed the pieces of her game that made her a matchup nightmare in the league last year, and Collier’s poised to be even better in the 2025 season, which starts later this month.
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve likes to compare Collier’s work ethic to that of Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson, a three-time MVP of the league.
“They each add something (to their game) every year,” Reeve said. “I think when A’ja Wilson comes back this year, she’s going to be even better than last year, which is scary — Same for Phee.”
Collier has added something each year, whether that’s becoming more aggressive in hunting her shot or being a more consistent scorer off the dribble. That was clear during her stellar 2024 season, when Collier finished fifth in the league in scoring, third in rebounding and was the MVP runner-up behind Wilson.
Averaging 20.4 points per game last season, Collier led the Lynx to their deepest playoff run since 2017, when a Sylvia Fowles-led squad won the championship one year after falling just short.
Collier is hoping for a similar run in 2025.
“No one is going to feel sorry for us,” she said. “We don’t feel sorry for ourselves, but it is something that we use to fuel us. It’s just a feeling you don’t want to feel again, so making sure we’re coming in every single day, starting today, with good energy.
“The coaches were telling us … about how they lost in a heartbreaker in 2016, and they used that to fuel them for 2017. That’s the story that we want to have for this year.”
For Collier, writing that story began with Unrivaled, the league she co-founded with Stewart to provide a stateside offseason option for WNBA players to compete while supplementing their income.
Collier was the most dominant individual competitor in the 36-player league, unveiling an assortment of shot-making and defensive aggression.
She was voted Unrivaled MVP after leading the league in points (25.7), field goals (10.4) and steals (2) per game while shooting 61.3% from the floor. Collier averaged 10.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists for the Lunar Owls, who finished with the best record in the league at 13-1.
Collier took home $200,000 and elevated her brand after breezing through the field during Unrivaled’s 1-on-1 tournament. She scored the second-most points in an Unrivaled game when she dropped 38 on 16-of-27 shooting against Stewart’s Mist BC in February.
“Phee shows why she’s one of the top players in the league,” said Collier’s Lunar Owls teammate Allisha Gray, who plays for the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream. “Every day she comes in. She works hard. Her conditioning is elite, top level. She’s somebody that if you want to get better, you’ll definitely want get in the gym and work out with her.”
Collier said her goal this offseason was to work on her ball-handling, which has improved since she came into the league out of UConn in 2019. Becoming a better ball-handler, she added, will help her be stronger in the paint. She also shot 32.7% from 3-point range at Unrivaled, her best from that range since her second season in the WNBA.
But remembering that feeling of defeat in the finals is fueling Collier.
“I’ve talked ad nauseam about last year,” she said, “but I think just using it to my advantage, honestly, where it does give me that leg up where I want to push just that little bit more. I want to win just that little bit more. That’s what it feels like. That’s what it felt like when I was playing at Unrivaled, and I want to keep that same mentality coming into the W season.”
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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
By ALANIS THAMES
AP Sports Writer
