Seattle Storm 2025 Season Grades: Dominique Malonga
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Emerging almost midway through her rookie season, No. 2 overall pick Dominique Malonga was as good as advertised in her first WNBA season. She is now poised to be the future face of the Storm franchise. Credit: John Mac [/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.
Emerging almost midway through her rookie season, No. 2 overall pick Dominique Malonga was as good as advertised in her first WNBA season. She is now poised to be the future face of the Storm franchise.
Road to 2025 season
Malonga has been playing professional basketball since 2021, even though she is still just 19 years old (she turns 20 on Nov. 16). The 6-foot-6 center has a dynamic skill set that brought comparisons to the NBA’s Victor Wembanyama, who is also from France.
When she was drafted by the Storm on April 14, Malonga became the youngest player ever drafted into the WNBA at 19 years and 5 months old.
Offense
The slow offensive start to the season for Malonga was more due to a lack of opportunity than it was the rookie being unable to contribute. Former Storm head coach Noelle Quinn and the rest of the staff had a plan for Malonga — easing her into playing time as she learned how to operate as a WNBA player.
Thus, Malonga played just nine minutes per game over her first 23 appearances, averaging 4.1 points and 0.7 assists. She converted 46.7 percent of her shot attempts and 69.2 percent of her free throws, but didn’t make a single 3-pointer. Malonga scored 10 or more points just twice in that span.
However, over her final 19 regular-season games, Malonga averaged nearly 21 minutes per game. Quinn opened things up for the team’s prized draft selection, and she posted 12 points (59.6 percent FG and 40 percent 3FG) and 1.1 assists per game over that latter stretch.
Malonga became an integral part of the offense. She had 13 total games with 10 or more points and three with 20 or more, posting double-doubles in two of the Storm’s three playoff games. Malonga’s offensive development was highlighted by a go-ahead and-one in Game 2 of the opening round of the playoffs with 31 seconds to play. Seattle went on to win that game.
Grade: B+
Reasoning: The second half of the season is what earns Malonga this grade. When she had playing time, she was productive. With all the offensive weapons the Storm have, Quinn didn’t need to throw Malonga straight into the fire. By the time she had ample opportunities, she was a key piece in clutch moments.
Defense
Malonga’s development defensively is where she took the biggest strides. Later in the season and in the postseason, Malonga became a true two-way player, giving Quinn no choice but to keep her on the court more and more.
In addition to her offensive output in Seattle’s Game 2 playoff win, Malonga was tasked with frequently guarding four-time league MVP A’ja Wilson. After scoring 16 points in the first half, Wilson was held to just five points in the second half in a comeback Storm victory.
Malonga was also one of the team’s best rebounders in the back half of the season, averaging 6.8 per game over her final 19 games. Finding her rhythm as a shot blocker, Malonga also swatted 1.3 shots per game over that same stretch.
She wasn’t quite the shot blocker that Ezi Magbegor was, but Malonga was a consistent defensive presence. That was a huge defensive boost for the Storm in the latter part of the season.
Grade: B
Reasoning: Malonga was far from the most important defensive piece the Storm had, but her steady improvement over the course of the season is enough to warrant a high grade. The playoff performance also boosts it, and she has many years to get even better on that end of the floor — especially if she fills out her frame with more muscle.
Overall value
This was a building block year for Malonga. The fact that her presence was felt at all — with the team able to look to the future — is a huge reason for excitement for Storm fans. Malonga’s value will only continue to rise, but she was a quality contributor this season.
“We know the potential of Dom, we got to see her in stretches this year and what she can do,” Storm veteran Skylar Diggins said during her exit interview on Sept. 20. “She’ll be the face of this franchise for a very long time.”
The steady improvement should provide the most hope for Seattle, especially for a 19-year-old. That makes her ceiling almost limitless at this point.
Grade: B
Reasoning: We can’t quite put Malonga up there with the likes of Skylar Diggins, Nneka Ogwumike, Gabby Williams and Erica Wheeler, but this is better than many expected her to do in Year 1. The Storm needed her, and she came up big in her first WNBA season.
