Seattle Storm 2025 Season Grades: Gabby Williams
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The definitive leader of the Storm’s defense, Gabby Williams posted a historic season on that side of the court that helped her earn the first All-Defensive First Team and All-Star nods of her career. 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.
The definitive leader of the Storm’s defense, Gabby Williams posted a historic season on that side of the court that helped her earn the first All-Defensive First Team and All-Star nods of her career.
Road to 2025 season
Williams was the fourth overall pick in 2018 by the Chicago Sky. With heavy international commitments, Williams hadn’t played more than 12 games in any WNBA season since 2022 — her first season with the Storm.
As a free agent at the end of last season, Seattle used the core player designation on Williams to try to retain her. Williams instead signed a slightly lower deal to give the team extra cap space. She committed to the Storm for the 2025 season and played in all 44 games.
Offense
Even though Williams averaged career highs in points (11.6) and assists (4.2), she was inconsistent in her offensive contributions late in the season. Williams scored 20 or more points four times in the Storm’s first 20 games, then had no such performances in the final 24 contests.
Over that same early-season stretch, Williams was converting 45.4 percent of her shots (35.4 percent 3-point FG). In the latter stretch, she averaged just 39 percent from the field and saw a drastic drop in her 3-point efficiency (23.5 percent).
Williams seemed to disappear down the stretch in a season where it seemed she was on her way to a breakout campaign. She surpassed double-digit points just three times in the final nine regular-season games and scored under 10 points in two of the team’s three playoff games.
It began to feel like the team would go multiple games without getting meaningful contributions from Williams. She was still critical on defense, of course, but the assertiveness on offense simply wasn’t there.
Grade: C+
Reasoning: This was supposed to be the season that Williams became a complete player, and we saw glimpses of it throughout the year. However, as time went on, she was felt less and less on the offensive end of the court. The growth she showed early in the season reverted, and that’s why this grade may seem harsh.
Defense
The defensive side of the ball is where Williams shines. She inarguably is one of, if not the best, perimeter defenders in the WNBA right now, with her elite anticipation, ability to disrupt passing lanes and willingness to lay her body on the line for a loose ball.
Williams was just two steals shy of setting the WNBA’s single-season record and fell one steal short of tying Teresa Weatherspoon’s record of 100, set in 1998. With a league-leading 2.3 steals per game — her new career high — Williams earned the first All-Defensive First Team and All-Star nods of her seven-year career.
There are almost no holes in Williams’ defensive game. She isn’t going to consistently reject shots at the rim, but she routinely prevents perimeter players from even getting there. The anticipation is what really impresses, and that’s how she was able to have three games with at least five steals in one season (high of eight on June 17).
Williams will always be employed in the league as long as she continues to excel as a defender, and it makes her a valuable piece of the Storm’s roster if she returns in 2026.
Grade: A+
Reasoning: What more is there to say? Williams is an exceptional defender, and that earns her the highest grade possible in this area. She was the heart and soul of the Storm’s defense.
Overall value
This is where things get tricky. With her inconsistent offense, it’s hard to gauge Williams’ complete impact or how much better the team could have been if she were a larger contributor on that end of the court. The Storm were in the bottom-5 of the league in 3-point percentage allowed (33.6 percent), but they also were fourth in points per game allowed (80.1).
The weakness of Seattle’s defense was on the interior — an area Williams wasn’t primarily responsible for. For the most part, she shut down the opposition’s wing players on a nightly basis and helped the Storm stay in games.
Whereas Nneka Ogwumike was the team’s best offensive player, Williams held down the defense. Those were two critical roles on this team.
Grade: A-
Reasoning: In this situation, the defensive excellence outweighs the offensive inconsistency. Anything below this grade would feel like a disrespect to Williams’ impact on that end of the court, especially beyond the numbers. It’s her intangibles and effort that make the biggest impact.
