For Minnesota Lynx general manager and head coach Cheryl Reeve, the start of training camp every year can be stressful, despite the accolades she and her team come in with.
But on Sunday, the first day of Lynx training camp, that wasn’t necessarily the case for Reeve, who enters her ninth season at the helm.
“I had a moment today where I was like, ‘I’m pretty chill.’ I don’t remember always being this chill,” Reeve said. “Probably in years past, I probably overshot it and tried to do too many things. When you get older, things get a little bit more simple, if you allow them to be. So it was enjoyable and relaxed.”
Most of Minnesota’s 18-player roster took the floor together for the first day of the week-long camp in preparation for the 2018 season and defending their title from a year ago — the exceptions were Maya Moore, Temi Fagbenle, Endy Miyem and Cecilia Zandalasini, who all still have overseas commitments.
“Day 1 is sort of a head-spinner sort of a day. And you all have to experience a little bit of that. But as I told them, the difference between good and great is the pace at which you make your mistakes,” Reeve said. “You can’t do anything where you’re half-speed, or you don’t care about the details of your action. This group was exceptional, I thought, with their energy and communication.”
The Lynx will enter another season with having their starting five of Moore, Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson and Sylvia Fowles still intact. The supporting cast, however, will look a little different. Additions like Danielle Robinson, Tanisha Wright and Lynetta Kizer, among others, will give Minnesota’s second unit a brand new feel.
“That’s what has made us really successful ever since 2013 when we had different players coming in and vets coming in. We want them for their strengths,” Whalen said after practice. “You might come into this team that’s won several championships and think, ‘Oh maybe I shouldn’t shoot this shot or do this.’ We want them to play their game. We want them to do what they’ve done their whole careers to get here.”
Getting those new faces familiar and comfortable within the system is atop the list of things the Lynx are trying to accomplish early on in camp this week.
“I’m still learning names but we have a few familiar faces here,” Augustus joked. “In a situation like this where you have a lot of younger players, you have to speak up and that’s what I’ve been doing, especially today. … (The veterans on the team) play a big part in helping that.”
The Lynx will hold five more practices at their practice facility in Minneapolis this week, before closing out training camp on Saturday with a practice at the Iowa Wolves practice facility in Des Moines, Iowa.
“I thought it was really good. As far as being chill, I thought we worked pretty hard,” Whalen said. “We got what we needed to get to today and we worked as hard as we could to make sure it was a really productive first day.”
Whether it was chill or not, day one of training camp is in the books for the Lynx, who will now look to hit the ground running in 2018 with a fair share of new faces.
