This time, Napheesa Collier walked in without notes.

One year earlier, Collier, in her role as vice president of the WNBA Players Association, took a seat at the Lynx end-of-the-season media availability and read a multipage statement ripping the league for poor leadership and questionable officiating. Collier’s comments, with players and management negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement, sparked fan and media debate coast to coast and lingered over the talks.

The new CBA created a vast cohort of free agents, one of which was Collier, who returned to the Lynx but only on a one-year deal. That raised eyebrows, but it made sense given the risk on both sides. Collier was coming off two catastrophic ankle injuries that required extensive surgery, and the Lynx lost five rotation players from the squad that reached the league finals in 2024 and the semifinals in 2025. 

So last Thursday, two days after the New York Liberty dominated and eliminated the Lynx in the first round of the playoffs – a stunningly fast dispatching of the league’s No. 1 seed – Collier faced the expected questions about her future, in the same room at the Mayo Clinic Square practice facility where she made news the year before. 

“Honestly, I haven’t even thought about that,” Collier said. “We lost less than 48 hours ago, and we didn’t expect to be here at all, so I really haven’t had any time to decompress or anything like that.

“I can tell you I love it here, I love the organization, I love my team and everything like that, but I just haven’t had time to give that any thought.”

One year ago: Lynx’s Napheesa Collier sends a message ahead of WNBA labor talks: Start listening to players

Within minutes, WNBA fans took to social media to parse Collier’s comments, convinced she had already decided to sign elsewhere. The vast majority showed Collier zero grace. Pragmatic comments from coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve later in the session faced similar scrutiny.    

“Phee knows exactly what exists here,” Reeve said. “Phee knows the care, the love, all the things that have been poured into her. She’s well aware of all of that. This is a Phee decision, and it’s probably more than basketball. And so wherever she lands, it’s going to be because whatever she chooses, whoever she chooses, is the right place for her.

“Sometimes you stay, and sometimes you go, because maybe there’s something … I don’t say better, but maybe better for her. And that’s something I respect … She knows what’s here. If she lands on being here, great. If there’s something better for her, that’s life.”

Here’s a radical idea: How about taking Collier at her word? She spent the rest of her ten-minute question-and-answer session referring to the Lynx as “we,” without a telltale slipup. And she insisted she could coexist in the same offense with Olivia Miles, the sensational WNBA Rookie of The Year whom the Liberty shut down and frustrated in the series.

“Olivia is an amazing point guard,” Collier said. “She’s been so much fun to play with. And there’s room for both, for her to do her thing and for me to do mine.”

As for Reeve, well, she’s right about one thing: Collier, after eight years with the Lynx, has all the information needed to decide whether Minnesota is the best place for her long-term. She’s lived here. She’s trained here. She’s rehabilitated injuries here. There’s nothing Reeve or anyone else can tell her that she doesn’t already know. 

It appears Reeve is just giving Collier space to make up her mind, a sensible approach when a decision is out of your hands. If Collier leaves, the Lynx will still field a team, and Reeve still has to figure out how to win that elusive fifth league championship.

How Lynx’s rising expectations unraveled

The Lynx exceeded all kinds of expectations to finish 33-11, tops in the league for the second consecutive season. Reeve won her record fifth WNBA Coach of the Year award for what appeared to be a masterstroke of development and roster assembly.

But things began to unravel later in the season as the undersized Lynx struggled to defend taller, more physical teams. After holding 10 of their first 19 opponents below 40 percent shooting from the field, long a Reeve defensive target, the Lynx hit that benchmark only twice in the last 25 games. 

That stretch began with a 99-86 loss to the Liberty in Brooklyn on July 3, which Reeve cited as the start of the club’s troubles. Guard Courtney Williams wasn’t as specific, but said she could tell something was off. “I can’t tell you when I felt it,” she said, “but I felt it.”

Related: With flashy confidence, Minnesota Lynx’s Olivia Miles makes seamless entry to WNBA

Overall the Lynx lost seven home games, too many for Reeve’s liking. In five of those, the Lynx led (four) or were tied (one) in the fourth quarter, another disturbing sign. The Lynx backed into the top seed while losing four of their last six games, all to playoff teams. Then they drew the worst possible matchup in the first round in eighth-seeded New York, a club with size, skill and depth that belied their seeding. 

Led by 6-4 superstar Breanna Stewart and 6-6 center Jonquel Jones, the Liberty exploited the Lynx’s shortcomings and Miles’s inexperience in a two-game sweep, taking away the pick-and-roll game with Miles and Natasha Howard that had been a Lynx offensive staple all season. The Lynx led for less than four minutes in Game 1 and not at all in Game 2, losing back-to-back postseason games by 15 or more points for the first time in club history. 

Since the WNBA abandoned first-round byes for a 1 to 8 seeding format in 2022, a No. 8 seed had never won a game from a No. 1 seed, let alone a series. 

“We like our roster a lot, but we have a flawed roster in some ways,” Reeve said. “There are some matchups that are going to get to us.”

What the Lynx need ahead of 2027 WNBA season

Something else Collier said, away from cameras, drew even more social media scrutiny. During her media session, she mentioned how much she was looking forward to working on her game, something she hadn’t done since the spring of 2025, before the ankle injuries. She specifically mentioned her perimeter game and three-point shooting – valuable skills for a small forward as well as a power forward. Perhaps she understands she might need to switch between positions?

The Lynx returned to prominence with an undersized lineup. As the Liberty series showed, that’s no longer good enough. The 6-1 Collier, though an all-league defender when healthy, struggled late in the season to guard taller, physical power forwards. Stewart dominated their matchup in postseason, outscoring Collier 55-26. “Obviously I wasn’t 100 percent,” Collier said, “but I gave 100 percent of what I was able to.”

So as Collier was leaving the room, I asked her, regardless of where she played next year, if she was open to playing small forward if it could help her team win a championship and possibly extend her career. “I would go wherever a coach wants to put me,” she said. “So, yes.”

Finding more size that fits the club’s schemes and character won’t be easy for Reeve and her staff. They still hold the rights to the 6-5 Dorka Juhász, who never fully recovered from the foot injury she suffered overseas while winning the EuroLeague MVP award, and Emma Čechová, the 6-5 center from Czechia who showed early promise before tearing a right knee ligament in May and missing the rest of the season. The Lynx also need depth across the board. 

“The things that we need, they don’t grow on trees,” Reeve said. “They’re not plentiful, and (it’s not like) nobody else wants them, either … We’re not the only team that would like to have size that shoots 3s, and can pass, defend and rebound. That’s what I’m looking for.”

The key for Reeve and her staff: Finding an underappreciated veteran whose game is on the rise, like Alanna Smith in 2024-25. But, mindful of the salary cap and 2027 contract obligations to Williams, Kayla McBride and possibly Collier, that veteran must be willing to accept less money for a reduced role and a shot at a championship. 

All the players who spoke Thursday declined to say exactly what the Lynx need. That’s up to Reeve.

“I ain’t the G.M., bossman,” Williams said. “Let them do their job, and I do mine. But it’s something. We need something.”

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