​Napheesa Collier’s return to the Minnesota Lynx may be on the horizon, but head coach Cheryl Reeve stressed that her presence will not upend the team’s established pecking order once she steps back onto the court. “It’s still Phee’s team,” Reeve told ESPN’s Myron Medcalf. “There isn’t anyone who walks into the gym who doesn’t know that it’s still Phee’s team. What’s great is Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride, they’re very happy to declare that it’s Phee’s team.” Reeve’s remarks came in the wake of Minnesota’s 90-85 win over New York on Saturday, a victory that kept the Lynx at 17-6 and tied atop the WNBA standings with the Las Vegas Aces. With five games left on the regular-season slate, three of which are at home, Minnesota is poised to close out its schedule ahead of the All-Star Game in Chicago on July 25.
Collier, who has been sidelined while recovering from two ankle surgeries, has resumed practicing as she builds toward her season debut. Reeve did not provide a specific return date, noting only that the process will involve trial and error as the team evaluates game situations. “You don’t know what the game situations are going to bring, and so it’s going to be a little bit of feeling it out, trial and error,” Reeve explained. “I don’t have a date for you as to when, but obviously she’s getting really close.”
In Collier’s absence, rookie Olivia Miles has stepped into a primary playmaking role for Minnesota, contributing 23 points, five rebounds, and four assists in Saturday’s victory. Miles has earned an All-Star starter nod and is now viewed as a likely MVP contender alongside Natasha Howard, who added 16 points in the win. Kayla McBride led the Lynx with 25 points on five-of-11 from three, helping the team respond after New York guard Sabrina Ionescu sparked a third-quarter surge to seize a brief lead for the Liberty.
“I think when you care about one another and you’re trying to win every possession, you’re competing together, you’re always trying to find a way,” McBride said. “And then obviously adding an MVP candidate for the last couple years into that mix just gets us really excited. But we’ve been holding it down and it’s been a lot of fun. I think there’s a lot of cohesion, a lot of confidence in one another right now and just finding ways to win. And that’s the name of the game. That’s what this league is about.”
Reeve, who set the WNBA single-season coaching wins record with Minnesota’s 86-80 victory over the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday, believes Collier’s best impact will come from playing alongside a true point guard, as Minnesota legends Seimone Augustus and Maya Moore did in their prime. “She needs more than herself, and that’s for her to play with a point guard like Olivia Miles that Seimone Augustus got to play with, that Maya Moore got to play with—the natural point guard,” Reeve said. “Collier hasn’t experienced that yet. And this is what we’re going to be able to do, and for her to be able to see what that’s like. Then maybe let’s get some games with them together and figure out what they look like, and then we can start putting in a pecking order.”