It certainly worked for the Storm before, taking a Connecticut guard who wore No. 10 with their first pick in a WNBA draft, and they went that route again Monday night.
Sue Bird was taken No. 1 overall by the Storm in 2002, and she led Seattle to four WNBA titles before retiring after the 2022 season.
In Monday’s WNBA draft, the Storm selected Nika Muhl with their first selection — the second pick of the second round and No. 14 overall — and got the player who broke the all-time assists record at UConn.
“I am excited to bring who I am to Seattle, my hard work ethic,” Muhl, who is from Croatia, said on the ESPN telecast.
With the second pick of the third round, the Storm took Mackenzie Holmes, a 6-foot-3 forward from Indiana.
It was a huge night for the WNBA. With Iowa star Caitlin Clark leading perhaps the greatest draft class in league history, interest in the draft was at an all-time high.
But the Storm were spectators in the first round as Clark, as expected, was taken with the No. 1 overall pick by Indiana, and that was followed by the selections of big-name players Cameron Brink, Kamilla Cardoso and Rickea Jackson.
Seattle could have been part of the early action, having received the fourth overall pick in the draft lottery, but it traded that pick and Kia Nurse to the Los Angeles Sparks for their first-round pick in 2026.
That deal gave the Storm financial flexibility to add big-name free agents Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith. But it also meant they didn’t pick Monday until the second round.
Storm general manager Talisa Rhea said the team didn’t expect the 5-11 Muhl to be available when their first pick came.
“We thought that she would go in the first round so we were really excited when she was still available,” Rhea said.
Rhea said the team eyed Muhl after the first round was over, “and we were pretty ecstatic once the 13th pick happened” and she was not taken.
Making the Storm’s regular-season roster of 11 or 12 players will be no easy task for Muhl. Seattle returned eight players, and in addition to Ogwumike and Diggins-Smith, they added four training-camp invitees.
“We’re really open to evaluating our entire roster and having the best 11 players on our roster for the start of the regular season, and whatever that combination looks like is what we’re committed to doing,” Rhea said. “But we’re really excited for Nika to get here and get integrated with the rest of our team. We’ll see how camp goes and how our roster shapes up.”
But Muhl will come into training camp with a great résumé. She was Big East defensive player of the year the past two seasons, and held Clark to 21 points (seven points below her average) on 7-of-18 shooting in Iowa’s 71-69 win over Connecticut in the women’s Final Four.
Muhl was a pass-first guard while starting in 109 games for UConn, averaging 5.8 points per game for her career. She finished with 686 assists and set a school season record with 284 as a junior.
Muhl improved her outside shooting as a senior, shooting 40.2% from long range after shooting 34% in each of her first three seasons.
“Her versatility sticks out to us,” Storm coach Noelle Quinn said. “Her ability to stretch the floor — being a 40% three-point shooter — and her size. You saw what she did defending multiple star players in the postseason.”
Holmes averaged 17.2 points per game over five seasons at Indiana, with a high of 22.3 points per game as a junior.
She battled knee issues during her collegiate career and announced on social media before the draft that she would be undergoing knee surgery and would not be available to return until 2025.
Even with the impending surgery, Rhea said she was surprised Holmes was available when the team took her.
“We see it as a developmental piece and someone you can bring in next year who’s going to have an offseason to go through the rehab process, but also to have some skill development time,” Rhea said. “I think she’s a really fundamentally sound player.”
