When Olivia Miles entered the draft, there was little doubt about her ability to be a star at the next level. The only question was where she would do it. Minnesota turned out to be the perfect destination. The team is winning—a lot—and Cheryl Reeve immediately trusted Miles with the keys to the offense.
Miles has made the most of that trust, hitting the floor running and putting together a Rookie of the Year and All-Star worthy stretch. She also quickly made Cheryl Reeve go from considering her a player with a generational skill to a point-blank generational talent.
“What I said on draft night was that there were two players that had generational skills,” Reeve said in a practice media availability on Monday. “I would now classify her as a generational talent.”
Olivia Miles has been outstanding for the Lynx
The “generational skill” Reeve is referring to is Miles’s passing. Just eleven games into her WNBA career, she has already established herself as one of the best passers in the league. Her 6.4 assists per game rank seventh in the WNBA and her 70 total assists are the fourth-most, trailing only Alyssa Thomas, Caitlin Clark, and Chelsea Gray.
Miles’s ability to handle the ball and make plays for her teammates allowed Courtney Williams to move back to her natural position and be on track for a career season scoring-wise. Natasha Howard is also experiencing a resurgence after a down year with the Indiana Fever, benefiting from having a pick-and-roll partner like Miles.
But passing is not the only thing Miles does for the Lynx. She also leads the team in scoring, barely beating Howard and Williams’s 17.1 points per game with 17.2, pitches in on the glass, and has put in more defensive effort than we ever saw her do in college.
Miles’s emergence as a day-one star has been a blessing for the Lynx. It has helped them survive injuries to Napheesa Collier, Dorka Juhasz, and Emma Cechova, as well as the numerous offseason departures.
It also provides a safety net in case the rumors around Collier’s looming free agency are true. Collier opted to sign a one-year deal instead of committing to a long-term future with the Lynx. Losing her in free agency next year would be a tough blow, especially considering how dominant this team could be with her in the mix, but it wouldn’t be the end of the world with another young star ready to lead in a new era of Lynx basketball.
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