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After four of their stars retired in the wake of their dynastic run, the Lynx could have decided to rebuild.
Maybe this is the time for them to belatedly do so.
They enter Sunday's game in New York with a 2-8 record, a slew of injuries and an offense that too often creates more turnovers than assists.
Their best player in terms of historic impact, Sylvia Fowles, is in her last season. Their best player in her prime, Napheesa Collier, will miss, at least, most of the season because she has a newborn baby. One of their most important players, Damiris Dantas, hasn't played this season, and their only pure, WNBA-caliber point guard, Moriah Jefferson, has already injured her hand and hamstring in her brief stint in Minnesota.
If that sounds like a recipe for rebuilding, here are eight reasons why the Lynx should try to compete rather than play for draft position:
1. Bad starts aren't fatal in the WNBA. Like most leagues, the W has engineered an expanded playoffs. Eight of the league's 12 teams will qualify.
Last year, the Lynx started 0-4 for many of the same reasons they are 2-8 this year — key players arriving late, an abundance of injuries, an in-season search for a commanding point guard. Then they won 22 of their last 28 games, earned the league's No. 3 seed and played host to a playoff game. Recovery is an option.
2. A postseason run remains possible. While the current version of the Lynx is hard to watch, last year the Chicago Sky went through an early seven-game losing streak, lost four of its last six regular-season games, and finished the regular season 16-16.
Then Chicago beat the Lynx at Target Center and went on to win the WNBA title. A talented team getting healthy at the right time can do damage in the playoffs.
3. The Lynx have talent. Here's what the Lynx rotation could theoretically look like by the postseason: Jefferson, Kayla McBride, Aerial Powers, Collier, Fowles, Dantas, Jess Shepard, Rachel Banham, Bridget Carleton. That would be a dangerous team.
4. The Lynx have a pedigree. I've had people in the league office tell me that the Lynx is the WNBA's model franchise, when considering the basketball and business operations. Tanking would mean shutting down fan interest in a competitive market.
5. Tanking might not work. What would be best for the Lynx and the league would be tanking in a way that led to Minnesota drafting Hopkins and UConn star Paige Bueckers, who would become the next Lindsay Whalen — a star playing in a market that reveres her.
Bueckers will be eligible for the 2023 draft, but it's not certain she will leave UConn before her eligibility expires. And the four non-playoff teams in the WNBA are entered into a draft lottery, which means that losing all of their games wouldn't guarantee landing the No. 1 pick.
6. Fowles' farewell. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve cares about legacy. The Lynx just retired the number of former star Seimone Augustus, even though Augustus left as a free agent, apparently with hard feelings, to sign with the Lynx's foremost rival, Los Angeles.
Fowles has announced her retirement, effective at the end of this season. Reeve wants to give Fowles every opportunity to play in meaningful games, and postseason games, before she's gone.
7. There's a record in the offing. The Lynx have made the playoffs in 11 consecutive seasons, the longest active streak in the WNBA and one shy of Indiana's record, set from 2005 to '16. Why stop now?
8. Next year is the year to tank. If the Lynx are going to tank for a high draft pick, next year would be the year to try out that strategy. Fowles will be gone. Even then, I don't expect the Lynx to enter any season under Reeve with the intent of losing as many games as possible.
This team has talent. With a little health and continuity, the Lynx could still make a run this year, or next.
