Tomorrow's Champions: Why Seattle's Front Office Deserves Your Attention

The Seattle Storm have established themselves as one of the WNBA's best-run organizations by expertly balancing present success with future planning, particularly in their trades with the Los Angeles Sparks.

• Storm's roster features perfect balance of veterans (Nneka Ogwumike, Skylar Diggins) and young talent (Ezi Magbegor, Dominique Malonga)
• Seattle acquired valuable future draft picks from the Sparks while maintaining a competitive team
• LA faces pressure with players like Kelsey Plum and Rickea Jackson needing to perform without future draft assets
• Storm have positioned themselves for continued success with strong current roster and potential top draft picks
• Dominique Malonga adds excitement as a player who can "casually dunk" in transition
• Sparks still have talent with Plum, Jackson, Cameron Brink, Azurá Stevens and Dearica Hamby

Please make sure to like, subscribe, comment, and tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey, I'm the host of Get a Bucket - hope you all are having a good one.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing the Storm vs Sparks Breakdown
• 1:30 The Trade Breakdown and Draft Impact
• 3:45 Storm's Roster Strength and Depth
• 5:30 Pressure on Sparks Players
• 6:34 Storm's Draft Options and Future Outlook
• 9:30 Final Thoughts and Comparisons

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

What's up everybody. It's your favorite show's favorite show Get a Bucket. I'm your host, trey, and as usual, I hope you're all having a wonderful, wonderful day Now. Today we're going to talk about the storm in the WNBA and they come up. But before we do that, please make sure to hit that like and subscribe button. Comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show, trying to get the ratings up a little bit. You know, just a little bit. But, like I said, the storms come up in the WNBA Because it's been a little disappointing for me and I'm a Sparks fan, the reason why I say that, look, they've been doing a good job, all right, like the storm.

Speaker 1: 0:32

They drafted well, but also they've been paying attention to their future. And that's the tough part Because they had to deal with my damn team. But it's all right, because we get to talk about my sparks and the recap and player pressures for them as well as the storm, really. So y'all might be wondering well, why are we here? Like I said, we got to talk about the storm and my sparks because both of them have been doing pretty well and, as y'all can see, my sparks, we look and eye right. We got a a couple players who can hoop. Right, we got Cameron Brink. That came back, got you. If you go to the Storm, they got a couple players on their team too. Right, shout out Nneka and them. Skyler ain't no slouch, gabby, cool. Erica's a bucket Like Ezzy's, straddling Like bro, they got the pieces. Erica's a bucket Like as he's, straddling like bro, they got the pieces. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I mean, they kind of robbed us. They kind of robbed us Because y'all see the squads, right, y'all see the squads.

Speaker 1: 1:35

Well, this is where it all started. This is where it all started. So, right here, ladies and gentlemen, y'all peep Jewel Lloyd to the Aces. Kelsey Pld to the aces. Kelsey plum to the sparks. Where did jewel lloyd come from? The seattle storm and they acquired our number two pick.

Speaker 1: 1:52

Now, for starters, my sparks did lose out on the number one pick last year, which which turned out to be page beckers, which I'm pissed at because we had to settle for kelsey plum. No disrespect to, but when you look at, when I'm thinking about the future, that's a settle, but we have Kelsey on our squad. The Storm got Dominique Malanga, who can casually dunk. Yeah, we kind of missing that in the WNBA, right? So again, they came up well in that situation. But not only that. Again, y'all peep Like Kelsey Plum is here on the picture, but Jewel Lloyd's name is still in the mix and right now, currently constructed. Jewel Lloyd has not been playing the best basketball, but you know who has been Nneka Skyler, like these players, gabby Williams, the Erica Wheeler these players have been playing pretty well. So again, ladies and gentlemen, when I'm talking about, they robbed my spark.

Speaker 1: 2:50

So let's look at this, shall we? 2024, we traded for Kia Nurse and the number four pick Now that ended up being Rekia. So I'm not mad at that. Like in 2024, we got Rekia Jackson because of the Seattle Storm. So I'm not mad at that. Like in 2024, we got Rekia Jackson because of the Seattle Storm. I'm not mad. I'm not mad. But then we lose our second round pick in 2026, and we get Kelsey Plum.

Speaker 1: 3:21

We don't have any picks, by the way, this season, and this upcoming draft, and this upcoming draft looks pretty good. You know who does have picks though the Seattle Storm. And again, let's pull up their roster, because y'all see how they doing. Y'all see how they doing right, like, does this not look good to you? Nneka Skyler, gabby, erica Ezzie, that's a solid starting five, but then Dominique Malonga coming off the bench, you also got Alicia Clark, who's off the bench as well, lexi Brown, zia Cook. They have depth, ladies and gentlemen, even a Tiffany Mitchell, like they have depth, but, most importantly, they have balance from an age perspective. We have vets, we have youth. So the Storm, they could actually draft pretty well and start building for the future and this upcoming draft.

Speaker 1: 4:13

I mean, depending on where they rank, I think they get our pick and that might be a top pick. Like that could genuinely be a top pick, ladies and gentlemen. So if the Seattle Storm do get a pick, a top pick, I'm wondering who are they going to pick? Because, again, they're a contending team right now and they got the stars, like like Nneka is top five. Skylar Diggins she's a top three point guard in the WNBA worst case top five. Ezi Magbogor is one of the best young bigs in the game. They also got Dominique Malanga, who I said can dunk the ball pretty casually. I'm talking about doing a spin, move and dunk, like in transition. That's crazy. And then we got to talk about Gabby Williams, who might be the best perimeter defender.

Speaker 1: 5:06

Like this Seattle Storm team is pretty tough and you're saying that this team is going to be able to retool because of my squad tool, because of my squad. Now, with my squad, the Sparks I'll give us. We have pressure on us. We've been doing pretty well. We've been doing pretty well recently, as of recent, but we still got to make it to the playoffs, ladies. And we got pressure on Retea Jackson because, again, I talked about how we traded for this player. Mind you, kia Nurse is no longer on our squad, so 2024, we traded for a player to not have them on our team. No more. There's a little bit of pressure on Rekia because we got to show some sort of production or else that was just a failed tenure. Now, kelsey Plum, you requested to be traded here. I think it's fair to say you know what. We have pressure on Kelsey because she requested the trade. Rekia because, well, you know what. We do need to see some production and, quite frankly, if we didn't have that, we would have been okay with missing the playoffs this year because we would have been able to have a draft pick, but we had to trade a little bit. So, again, our focus is on playoffs this year.

Speaker 1: 6:31

Pressure on them For the Seattle Storm. Ladies and gentlemen, who is the pressure on? Like who would the pressure be on? Because right now they just got to go out there and hoop. So I guess right now it could be Nneka and them. But the young guns don't have no pressure as of yet. That's decent.

Speaker 1: 6:54

Now, if they do draft, well, right, let's say they get a top three pick, let's say they get the number one pick. Do you draft Lauren Betts, even though you have Dominique Milonga already? That would be pretty interesting. 6'7", 6'5". I think we could be talking about something kind of interesting. Olivia Miles, does she meet Skylar Diggins' timetable too? Because you could train Olivia up and pair her with Skylar. That could be a possibility. Olivia can play off-ball too. That's a possibility, I'm just saying. Tenaya Watson, I'd be interested to see how that shit.

Speaker 1: 7:33

They could go a couple directions with this, ladies and gentlemen. But again, the Storm. They've been doing well and I got to tip my cap to them because it's been at the. They got us a little bit, they got my girls a little bit, and they got us a little bit, they got my girls a little bit. So again, tip of the cap to the Storm, and that's why I think them and the Lynx are going to be one of the best teams for the future. Again, they're thinking about the future, they're preparing for the future right now. And, oh, it's crazy, because, again, they do such a phenomenal job. They really truly do. We really should talk more about them because, yeah, they do such a phenomenal job, they really truly do. We really should talk more about them because, yeah, they do wonders.

Speaker 1: 8:08

But, ladies and gentlemen, I am curious what y'all think about the storm. Like, were there any pressured players that I missed? Do y'all agree that the storm are doing a wonderful job, or did my Sparks actually do something? Because I mean, let's be honest too, now my Sparks do have talent. We could boast a team that has Kelsey Plum, rekia Jackson, cameron Brink, azareh Stevens and De'Erica Hamby as a starting five, and that's an extremely tall lineup. Kelsey Plum can shoot with reckless abandon. That's an extremely tall lineup. Kelsey Plum can shoot with reckless abandon. So can Rekia Jackson, because we should get the rebounds over most teams. But again, though, we've got to develop that cohesion, and I don't know if we're going to be able to have that because Cameron Brink's coming back off injury. So maybe my sparks might turn out better than we imagined in the near future. But for right now, it does seem as though the Storm are doing a wonderful job at balancing the present as well as focusing for the future. So, again, when we're talking about top organizations, maybe in basketball we might be considering the Seattle Storm as one of the best basketball organizations.

Speaker 1: 9:24

Period, point blank. But, ladies and gentlemen, that's about all the time I got. So I'm curious what y'all one thought about the show, of course. Two, have you been paying attention to the WNBA? If not, you should, because there's a lot of storylines to follow. But three, let me know what y'all think in the comments section about everything that I said thus far. If there's anything that y'all felt was wrong, let me know. I want to hear that. But until next time, ladies and gentlemen. So please make sure to like subscribe, comment, tell anyone who's anyone about the show. My name is Trey. I'm the host of Get a Bucket. Hope you all are having a good one. Take care, All right.