Cheryl Reeve’s 2010 rookie season as a head coach in Minnesota was rocky, but it netted the franchise a No. 1 overall pick to select Maya Moore, ushering in a decade of excellence.
That wavered the previous two seasons when the Lynx fell below .500 in back-to-back years for the first time in Reeve’s tenure. They went overlooked in the preseason without the star-studded free agency signings of other franchises, but that didn’t matter.
The Lynx are back on top with the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, a 2024 Commissioner’s Cup trophy and a record fourth Coach of the Year award for Reeve, as well as Executive of the Year. The league announced the voting results on Sunday ahead of Game 1 of the semifinals. The Lynx host the No. 3 Sun at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Reeve received 62 of 67 Coach of the Year votes from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. New York head coach Sandy Brondello received four votes and Indiana head coach Christie Sides received one.
Reeve also won Executive of the Year, which involves a three-person ballot, voted on by the top executives from each team. Executives cannot vote for themselves. Reeve, who is also the Lynx’s President of Basketball Operations, received 10 points. Seattle’s Talisa Rhea received eight and Connecticut’s Darius Taylor received seven.
Reeve won Coach of the Year in 2011, one of seven coaches to win the award the same year as a WNBA championship. She also won in 2016 and 2020. Van Chancellor and Mike Thibault, the league’s winningest coach, each won the award three times. Reeve joins Curt Miller (2017, Sun) as the only coach to win Coach and Basketball Executive of the Year in the same season. Most organizations have separated the jobs.
The Lynx went 19-21 last year, but earned the No. 6 seed in the playoffs and forced a Game 3 against the Connecticut Sun in the first round. Napheesa Collier, Kayla McBride, Diamond Miller and reserve Bridget Carleton returned while the front office signed point guard Courtney Williams and forward Alanna Smith.
Reeve fit all the pieces together for a title contender she describes as a “collective,” rather than a super-team, like New York or Seattle. The Lynx finished second in defensive rating and fourth in offensive rating, up from ranking 10th and eighth, respectively. They won the Commissioner’s Cup over the favorite Liberty and took the season series against both the Liberty and Aces. Both franchises returned their entire starting fives from the 2023 Finals.
Collier, who was named Defensive Player of the Year, earned all but one second-place MVP vote behind runaway leader A’ja Wilson and is the anchor of the Lynx defense. Reeve said she told Collier at her 2023 exit interview she had to be at those levels for the team to take the next step. McBride is having one of the best 3-point shooting seasons of her career, as are most of the Lynx. Carleton is more confident and hitting clutch late buckets. Williams averaged a team-best 5.5 assists per game.
