Commentary: New Storm team wasn’t ready right out of box, but just give them minute to jell

There was a Megan Rapinoe sighting in the first half, which prompted roars from the Climate Pledge Arena crowd. The cheers were even louder when Sue Bird’s face was shown moments later.

Former Seahawk Doug Baldwin got some hurrahs, as did Reign coach Laura Harvey. But the actual players on the floor — the ones between the lines for the Storm’s debut? Those cheers were more muffled. This thing is going to take time.

It’s hard to glean much of anything from the first contest of a 40-game season. Whether it’s a blowout loss or a comeback victory, there is only so much to analyze.

The good news for the Storm in their 83-70 loss to Minnesota was that nobody got injured. The reality they are facing, however, is that there is no substitute for learning to jell together.

The term “super team” has been thrown around when describing this Storm squad and it’s understandable why. They added forward Nneka Ogwumike, an eight-time All-Star and former MVP. They acquired point guard Skylar Diggins-Smith, a six-time All-Star herself.

They have center Ezi Magbegor, who was twice on the WNBA’s all-defensive second team. And they have Jewell Loyd, the league’s leading scorer in 2023.

This never meant that this group was going to be the favorite to win a ring, but it is expected to be a massive upgrade from last year’s 11-29 record.

Training camp, however, is only a couple of weeks long. True continuity generally requires more than that. This was evident Tuesday, when the Storm scored 28 points in the first quarter but just 10 in the fourth. That’s when the Lynx, up by just one with 9:10 remaining, pulled away.

“I think it was kind of a culmination of all of the moments where we haven’t been playing together,” Ogwumike said. “More of those moments stacked on each other in the fourth quarter. They came out more aggressive in that fourth quarter.”

The juxtaposition of that first quarter and fourth for the offense was striking. So was the Storm debut for Ogwumike, who tallied 20 points on 10-of-18 shooting to go along with nine rebounds.

If she does something like that every game, the Storm are going to be contenders. But then there was Loyd — who had 10 points on 3-of-19 shooting.

This was an issue last year for the guard, who averaged a WNBA-high 24.7 points but did so shooting 37.1%. What seemed evident early on Tuesday, though, was that she had help. Diggins-Smith didn’t have her best night but was able to regularly get to the basket and finished with a team-high six assists. Magbegor had 15 points and nine rebounds herself.

That help slowly faded away, though. The shooting just wasn’t there from the Storm, who went 1 of 9 from three-point distance. It was the first time Seattle had just one three since 2016, which was also the season opener.

So was there panic at the postgame podium? Not even a little. Nor should there be.

“This is a new team, and though yes we have excellent players on this roster, it takes time,” Storm coach Noelle Quinn said. “Thank God that one day doesn’t determine the totality of what a team will be. Thank you. What it showed is that we have a lot of work to do.”

Quinn chalked many of the offensive issues up to a “lack of flow,” something that generally improves when players have longer to figure out each other’s tendencies. And it’s worth noting that Diggins-Smith hadn’t played a regular-season game since 2022, as she welcomed a new child last year.

The Storm were in this game for most of it, too. The idea that they are going to have many nights where they make just one three or have Loyd shoot under 20% would be far-fetched.

The two best teams in this league are still the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty, who met in the finals last season. Optimistic as Storm fans might be, it’s unlikely Seattle catches up to those franchises this year.

But “unlikely” is a lot different from impossible.

Do you feel like some of these cohesion issues will be fixed when you have more time to play together? Ogwumike was asked.

“I think we have no choice but to fix it,” she responded. “I think it’s a combination of a lot of different things. It’s a new team and new flow and people getting acclimated with each other.”

New team, but still a good team. Give this a second. It will be worth the wait.