The Minnesota Lynx hope to get back on top after experiencing one of the worst heartbreaks in professional sports. Led by Napheesa Collier, the Lynx were one of the best teams in the WNBA last season and made it all the way to the finals. They then lost to the New York Liberty in Game 5
, narrowly missing out on a chance to add another championship to the team’s resume.
The offseason was rather uneventful for the Lynx. The same core that carried the team to the finals last season is back in Minnesota and ready to prove they can do it all over again. Minnesota is expected to be one of the strongest teams in the WNBA again and one of the contenders for the 2025 championship.
The other contenders are the New York Liberty, Indiana Fever, and Las Vegas Aces. Those teams, as well as some underdogs, will give the Lynx plenty of challenges, but the team is still well set up to get revenge for last season’s heartbreak and win the title.
The Lynx know exactly how to deal with their current situation
The Lynx know what it is like to narrowly lose out on a championship and come back even better the next year to win it all. In 2016, the Lynx came off a championship and waltzed into their fifth finals appearance in six years but failed to repeat, losing the finals to the Los Angeles Sparks. Just one year later, the Lynx were back on top, beating the Spark in five games to win the franchise’s fourth title.
While the roster looks much different, there are still plenty of people in the Lynx organization who remember the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Cheryl Reeves is still the team’s head coach, and assistant coaches Rebekah Brunson and Lindsay Whalen were a part of the championship team.
So, the coaching staff knows exactly what it takes to recover from losing in the finals and come back even stronger in the next season. The Lynx have plenty of talented players, including an MVP and Defensive Player of the Year candidate in Napheesa Collier, as well as the necessary experience to deal with the situation. Despite the strong competition, Minnesota is about as well set up to win a title as they could be, and that should worry the rest of the league.
The Lynx are hungry to win and have a clear plan.
“The coaches were telling us in the circle—I don’t know if Courtney [Williams] already said that—but telling us about how, you know, they lost on that heartbreak in 2016 and they used that to fuel them for 2017,” Napheesa Collier said during training camp. “That’s the story that we want to have for this year.”
At least early in the 2025 season, all eyes will likely be on the defending champions and the Caitlin-Clark-led Indiana Fever, but no one should underestimate the Minnesota Lynx and their motivation to make up for last season’s disappointment.
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