Here’s the Storm’s path back to title contention without Jewell Loyd

In 2021, artists Mari Shibuya and Zahyr Lauren produced a massive mural on the corner of Mercer Street and Queen Anne Avenue. Stretching 50 feet wide and 20 feet high, their work towers along the intersection, a vibrant reminder of the Storm’s prolific past.

The mural — which beckons from the brick building that also houses Toulouse Petit Kitchen & Lounge — features four championship trophies and three players who helped bring them here:

Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd.

Gone, gone and gone.

The last of those dominoes dropped Feb. 1, when Loyd — the 2023 WNBA scoring champion and 2015 No. 1 overall draft pick — was granted a trade to the Las Vegas Aces. It was a merciful end to a messy split, after Loyd alleged player mistreatment by Seattle’s coaching staff and the Storm announced that an independent law firm had found no wrongdoing.

Though the three-team trade’s headliners were Loyd and guard Kelsey Plum (who was sent from Las Vegas to the Los Angeles Sparks), Seattle received the No. 2 overall pick in the upcoming draft and the Aces’ 2026 first-round pick, as well as Sparks center Li Yueru.

The Storm still have a capable core and an array of draft picks.

But no members of the mural.

So, in a post-Loyd era, what has to happen next?

“Seattle has a standard of excellence — and not just winning championships, but how you approach your craft, how you show up to work, who you are as an individual, being a great teammate and really, really being disciplined,” Storm coach Noelle Quinn said during an exit interview in September, months before the Loyd trade. “I think those are the type of players we want here — high character, that are going to add value in the locker room, add value not only on the court but in the community, to the organization in ways that are not only seen by putting the ball in the hoop or winning games.

“That’s who I want here — people who want to be here, people who are bought in to a standard of excellence that doesn’t waver through the good and the bad, and lock arms with everyone in the locker room to attain a goal.”

The goal was, is and will be a WNBA title. But despite improving from 11-29 in 2023 to 25-15 in 2024, the gap between fringe contender and title favorite was always evident. The Storm went just 4-10 against the four teams who finished ahead of them — No. 1 New York, No. 2 Minnesota, No. 3 Connecticut and No. 4 Las Vegas — before being swept by the Aces to open the playoffs.

The additions of point guard Skylar Diggins-Smith (15.1 points per game, 6.4 assists per game) and forwards Nneka Ogwumike (16.7 points per game, 7.6 rebounds per game) and Gabby Williams (10.3 PPG, 4.0 RPG), paired with Loyd (19.7 PPG, 4.5 RPG) and Ezi Magbegor (11.7 PPG, 8.0 RPG), propelled Seattle back to the playoffs. And despite Loyd’s departure, the remaining core four will return in 2025.

But shrinking the gap will require perimeter shooting.

After all, the Storm consistently struggled to knock down shots — ranking eighth out of 12 teams in field-goal percentage (43.5%) and dead last from beyond the arc (28.8%). Of their regulars, only Ogwumike (40.5%) converted more than 33% of her threes. Loyd was particularly inefficient, draining just 36% of her field goals and 27.4% of her threes.

Veteran guard Sami Whitcomb — whose three-point prowess plummeted from 38.5% in 2023 to 29.2% in 2024 — signed a one-year deal with the Phoenix Mercury last week. The Storm offset that loss by reportedly reuniting with 37-year-old sniper Alysha Clark, who averaged 6.0 points and sank 37.3% of her threes in 40 games with the Aces in 2024.

But those are relatively minor moves.

It’s time for significant swings.

The Storm’s first priority should be UConn senior guard Paige Bueckers, a franchise building block in the upcoming WNBA draft. Though she lacks the generational ceiling of 2024 No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark, Bueckers ticks the Storm’s needed boxes nonetheless.

Namely, the 6-foot Bueckers would seamlessly slot into the hole Loyd left behind, providing playmaking (18.7 points and 4.4 assists per game in 2024) and accuracy from beyond the arc (42.3% in 107 college games). If necessary, Seattle should deal draft picks to Dallas — they also have picks 21, 29 and 34 in 2025, and three first-round picks in 2026 — to swap the first and second picks and bring Bueckers to Seattle.

A starting five featuring Diggins-Smith, Bueckers, Williams, Ogwumike and Magbegor would be as balanced as any in the league — combining Diggins-Smith and Ogwumike’s experience and leadership, Magbegor’s length and athleticism, Williams’ versatility and Bueckers’ playmaking to immediately contend. The Storm, who have only eight projected players, would need to add rotational depth to fill out their roster.

But if Dallas declines to pass on Bueckers?

Plan B should be trading picks for firepower.

Take 28-year-old guard Marina Mabrey, who requested a trade from Connecticut on Wednesday. The 5-11 Mabrey averaged 14.4 points per game with the Sky and Sun last season, and is a career 36.5% three-point shooter. The Washington Mystics’ Ariel Atkins (14.9 points per game, 43.7% field goals, 35.7% three-point field goals in 2024) and the Atlanta Dream’s Allisha Gray (15.6 PPG, 40.3% FG, 34.2% 3FG) are logical trade targets as well.

If the Storm remain in win-now mode — as a one-year deal with the 34-year-old Ogwumike suggests — dangling their four first-round picks in the next two drafts for proven guard play should take priority.

Whether they bring in Bueckers, Mabrey or anyone else, the “standard of excellence” — Quinn’s words — can’t be compromised. The goal remains to produce moments murals are made of.

Even without Loyd, Bird and Stewart, they don’t have time to waste.

“When I say I’m on borrowed time, it’s a sentiment I hold in my heart,” the 40-year-old Quinn said in September. “Because in the time that I have on this Earth, I’m going to show people who I am. I am a positive light. I am a hard worker. I will do my best for this organization. I have pride for this city. I have pride for this team. I have pride for my players. I have pride for my staff. I have pride for my family, to give them what they’ve given me — a lot of love and support. I have pride in that.

“So I don’t want to waste time. I don’t want to waste moments. I want to win. I want to show everybody I’m a winner, and for everybody to have that same sentiment.”