Host Howard Megdal is joined by Seattle Storm interim head coach Gary Kloppenburg, whose team has managed to steer itself out of the playoff-free ditch it found itself in just a few weeks ago, and won its first four games of the Kloppenburg era.
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Kloppenburg has a rich and varied history in the league, and it made for a fascinating conversation, determining which levers he intended to pull over this sprint of a final turn in the season. Back in 2012 and 2013, Kloppenburg ran ahead of his WNBA coaching colleagues in utilizing the three-point shot, with his Tulsa Shock leading the league in three-point attempts during both seasons.
Kloppenburg discussed this, along with strategic alterations intended to lift the Storm defense from its tenth-place rating at the time Kloppenburg replaced former Storm coach Jenny Boucek into the unit that finished in the upper half of the WNBA last season, a playoff campaign for Seattle.
Kloppenburg also weighed in on the way to balance the remarkable talents of Sue Bird with the development of Jewell Loyd, exactly how Sami Whitcomb and Carolyn Swords fit into his vision for the team, and what it all meant for Kloppenburg to get another chance to guide a WNBA team of his own.
Listen to the coach of the suddenly dangerous Storm here: