Seattle Storm 2025 Season Grades: Brittney Sykes
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Joining the Storm midseason via trade, Brittney Sykes was acquired to lock down the perimeter. She did that, but Sykes fell short of expectations on the offensive side of the ball. Credit: Brittney Sykes/Instagram [/caption]
The 2025 WNBA season is over. With a pending agreement on what will be a transformative collective bargaining agreement between the players and league, this offseason will bring sweeping change prior to the 2026 campaign.
But before all that, there’s still plenty to recap on last season.
The Seattle Storm finished the regular season with a 23-21 record and lost to the would-be WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces in the first round of the playoffs. Seattle has just four players under contract for next season, including rookie phenom Dominique Malonga.
With all that in mind, The Emerald City Spectrum will be dishing out grades for each player who stepped on the court for the Storm in 2025 on offense, defense and overall value.
Joining the Storm midseason via trade, Brittney Sykes was acquired to lock down the perimeter. She did that, but Sykes fell short of expectations on the offensive side of the ball.
Offense
Seattle brought Sykes in midway through a five-game skid to begin August, hoping to fortify their perimeter defense — arguably the veteran guard’s top trait. But the true advantage would’ve been if Sykes could become a reliable third scoring option next to Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins.
For the most part, she wasn’t that.
Sykes played just 14 regular-season games (17 total) with the Storm after Seattle traded for her in early August. She averaged 15.4 points (37.9 percent FG) and 4.4 assists per game with the Washington Mystics. With the Storm, however, Sykes averaged 11.8 points (38.6 percent FG) and 3.3 assists.
With Washington, Sykes had two games with 30 or more points (season-high 32 against Chicago in June) and nine games with 20 or more. Sykes scored 20 or more points just once with the Storm, totaling 27 in her second game with the team.
Sykes ended up filling a similar role to what Gabby Williams was already doing for the Storm: providing sound defense with inconsistent offense. That got worse in the playoffs, as Sykes scored just 15 total points in three first-round games against the Las Vegas Aces. She was a non-factor in the postseason.
Grade: C
Reasoning: This may seem harsh for a player who was scoring nearly 12 points and adding 3 assists per game. But the Storm could’ve been much better than they were if she had produced similarly to her time in Washington. The expectations play a factor here, and Sykes was rarely felt on offense
Defense
For the most part, Sykes did what she was supposed to do on the defensive side of the ball. She created turnovers (1.2 steals per game) and made it difficult for opposing guards. Whether that made it worth trading a first-round pick for a less-than-half-season rental is another story.
Still, Sykes occasionally looked lost in the rapid-switching defensive set that former Storm coach Noelle Quinn ran. That’s somewhat expected when changing teams mid-season, but that was Sykes’ main purpose with the team.
Quinn’s system was flawed, and it created weaknesses in all areas of the Storm’s defense. It’s hard to blame Sykes for that, especially when she’s been a premium defender most of her career.
Grade: B
Reasoning: It never appeared that Sykes lacked effort on defense. She was always near the ball but could easily get caught on screens and moved away from the play. Most of her shortcomings were likely due to the system, and she still improved the unit overall.
Overall value
This is the tricky one. If Sykes joined the Storm and they immediately went on a run, it would be an obviously huge upgrade from what they had prior. Instead, they broke even at 7-7 in the regular season after trading for her. She wasn’t a huge factor in the playoffs.
The trade for Sykes was supposed to be the move that pushed Seattle over the edge, which is why the franchise gave up a first-round pick for her. When going for an expensive rental, the team is saying it’s in win-now mode.
Instead, the Storm were eliminated in the first round. Sure, they showed grit in Games 2 and 3 of that series, but it wasn’t the result they were targeting. That makes it a failed move, especially if Sykes doesn’t return following the agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement.
It would even be hard to say Wheeler was more valuable than Erica Wheeler, who came off the bench the majority of the season.
Grade: B-
Reasoning: For all the reasons above, including the below-expectations performance on offense, Sykes was far from the most valuable player on the Storm roster. She places just ahead of Ezi Magbegor (C+ overall value grade) for the lowest grade among Seattle’s starters. A more consistent offensive output would have pushed this higher.
