Projecting Storm 2025 Roster Construction via Salary Cap, Draft Picks

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Seattle Storm forward Ezi Magbegor and her team during a game against the Minnesota Lynx on June 9, 2024. Credit: John McClellan [/caption]

The Seattle Storm’s season opener is less than two months away on May 17, and soon, the franchise will add up to four new rookies to a roster that already includes 14 players.

Included in those four picks is the No. 2 overall selection — a player who could eventually become the new face of the franchise now that Jewell Loyd is in Las Vegas and Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith are entering the late portions of their WNBA careers.

But head coach Noelle Quinn and the Storm’s front office will have tough decisions regarding the roster. In each of the last three seasons, Seattle has kept the league minimum of 11 players on the regular season roster. If they spend all four of their picks, that will likely be seven that have to be cut, left unsigned or suspended.

Two players are almost certain to be suspended: guard Nika Mühl and small forward Jordan Horston. Mühl tore her ACL and meniscus in early October and had surgery to repair her knee on Nov. 1. At the very least, she will likely be out until late in the season but will probably end up rehabbing into the offseason to avoid further issues.

Horston tore her ACL in February while playing in the Athletes Unlimited league. She is essentially guaranteed to miss the 2025 season.

With both Mühl and Horston currently under contract, suspending them trims Seattle’s projected training camp roster to 16 and frees up $145,225 in cap space. Here are the other players currently signed by the Storm (not including training camp contracts), according to Spotrac.

• F Gabby Williams ($225,000, protected)
• G Skylar Diggins-Smith (214,466, protected)
• F Nneka Ogwumike ($195,000, protected)
• C Ezi Magbegor ($186,000, protected)
• F Alysha Clark ($185,000, unprotected)
• G Lexie Brown ($96,408, protected)
• F Katie Lou Samuelson ($90,000, unprotected)

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Seattle Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike during a game against the Minnesota Lynx on June 9, 2024. Credit: John McClellan [/caption]

Williams, Diggins-Smith, Ogwumike, Magbegor and Brown are guaranteed to be with the team in 2025 and account for $916,874 of Seattle’s $1.507 million salary cap (61 percent). Clark and Samuelson would have to be significantly outplayed by rookies or the team’s younger training camp contract players to make Quinn consider letting go of the proven veterans.

The addition of Clark and Samuelson already eats up nearly $1.192 million (79 percent) of Seattle’s cap space and fills seven total roster spots. That would leave 21 percent of the cap for four out of the remaining nine other players the team is expected to have on the roster in training camp.

Here are the remaining nine players who are either already signed to training camp contracts, currently rookies or will be future draft picks.

• G Erica Wheeler (training camp)
• G Zia Cooke (training camp)
• F Brianna Fraser (training camp)
• F Mackenzie Holmes (rookie; 2024 third-round pick)
• C Li Yueru (training camp)
• No. 2 draft pick (1st round)
• No. 26 draft pick (3rd round)
• No. 29 draft pick (3rd round)
• No. 34 draft pick (3rd round)

Three of these players are nearly shoo-ins to make the roster unless training camp has significant surprises: Wheeler (nine-year veteran), Yueru (6-foot-7 rotational center) and the No. 2 overall pick, who could be a franchise-altering member of the backcourt or frontcourt (the former is more plausible).

Based on the minimum salaries of Wheeler ($78,831), Yueru ($68,061) and the top pick ($78,831) bringing Seattle’s active cap to around $1.417 million, the Storm likely wouldn’t have room to field a 12-player roster even if they wanted to. Wheeler could get more than the minimum as well, likely closer to Samuelson’s $90K salary. These are just the lowest possible numbers.

That leaves Fraser, Cooke, Holmes and three third-round picks competing for one roster spot, barring the aforementioned surprise in camp. This projection could be shaken if Seattle decides there’s a rookie they must have on the bench.

The Storm are heading into the 2025 draft with almost too many resources at their disposal. Regardless of how the final roster shakes out, they will have solid depth this season and a top 2 pick that could be a future star. It doesn’t always work out that way, but the opportunity is there.