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Voting for the 2024 WNBA All-Star Recreation concludes Saturday, June 29, and with their star-studded beginning lineup, the Seattle Storm are positive to have a number of representatives on the annual exhibition.
Final week, the WNBA launched an early return of All-Star fan votes that featured three Storm gamers: Nneka Ogwumike at No. 13 general, Jewell Loyd at No. 21 and Skylar Diggins-Smith at No. 28. That’s not a assure that each a kind of gamers shall be named an All-Star—the fan vote counts for 50 p.c of the general vote, with participant and media votes accounting for 25 p.c apiece—however we all know that Loyd, as a member of the USA Basketball Ladies’s Nationwide Staff, will already be collaborating, and it will be a shock if a minimum of one in all Ogwumike and Diggins-Smith didn’t make it as effectively.
With that in thoughts, as we anticipate the ultimate outcomes to be tallied, let’s take a short take a look at every of the Storm’s finest gamers and their instances for WNBA All-Star consideration.
Nneka Ogwumike
Of Seattle’s big-name gamers, Ogwumike most likely has the very best case to be named an All-Star. She’s been the crew’s most constant participant, averaging 17.5 factors and seven.6 rebounds per recreation whereas scoring at her normal excessive effectivity (60 p.c true taking pictures; No. 13 within the WNBA), and she or he’s additionally main the Storm in steals at two per recreation. Ogwumike has made a Corridor of Fame profession of environment friendly, basically sound play, and she or he’s been as helpful as ever in her first season in Seattle, along with her steadiness holding the Storm afloat throughout a tough early-season patch. At 33 years previous, Ogwumike continues to be one of many WNBA’s prime frontcourt gamers, and she or he’s well-deserving of a ninth profession All-Star look.
Jewell Loyd
Again in 2021, the WNBA launched the USA Basketball Ladies’s Nationwide Staff to its All-Star festivities as a means of holding the annual occasion going throughout an Olympic 12 months. The league will take an analogous method for 2024: Staff USA’s 5×5 crew shall be competing towards a 12-player roster of WNBA All-Stars, that means that everybody who’s on the Olympic crew, which was announced on June 11, mechanically qualifies to be part of the All-Star Recreation.
That features Loyd, who shall be making her sixth-career All-Star look. The WNBA’s main scorer in 2023, Loyd has not been fairly as constant so far in 2024, however nonetheless ranks No. 6 within the league in scoring (19.3 factors per recreation) and is averaging a career-high 5.5 rebounds per recreation. Loyd is the Storm’s major perimeter scorer, and she or he’s among the many finest within the league at creating her personal shot, leading to loads of highlight-reel buckets that make her a must-watch participant in any sort of recreation—particularly an All-Star recreation.
Skylar Diggins-Smith
Diggins-Smith was launched alongside Ogwumike as Seattle’s two main offseason additions, and although she missed all of final season after giving beginning to her second little one, she’s making up for misplaced time in her first season with the Storm. It took Diggins-Smith just a few video games to get again into recreation form and to regulate to her new teammates, however she’s nonetheless averaging 14.4 factors and 6.2 assists per recreation, the latter of which ranks No. 5 within the WNBA. If the fan vote finally ends up being just like the way it regarded in final week’s reveal, Diggins-Smith might want to depend on respect from her friends and WNBA media to make the All-Star Recreation, as she at the moment ranks sixth amongst non-Olympian guards in fan votes.
Ezi Magbegor
Magbegor’s title wasn’t on the record of the highest 30 fan vote-getters within the current reveal, however that doesn’t replicate simply how indispensable she’s been for Seattle. The younger heart is averaging 13.5 factors and a career-high 9.1 rebounds per recreation, and she or he’s additionally been one of many league’s prime defensive playmakers, posting averages of 1.6 steals and a couple of.4 blocks. Maybe most significantly, Magbegor has been the centerpiece of a Seattle protection that at the moment ranks third within the WNBA in defensive rating (94.4 factors allowed per 100 possessions); that might not be sufficient to persuade fan voters, however gamers and media may even see issues otherwise, and it will be laborious to argue with them in the event that they do.
