Seven games into her nascent WNBA career, Olivia Miles strolled into the press conference room at Target Center last week as if it were her living room. It might as well be, given how often she’s in there to talk about her game, and her easy manner with reporters.
Suddenly, Miles stopped. “It’s cold in here!” she said, an understandable reaction from someone still in her game shorts and a black tank top. Like everything else with the flashy rookie point guard, this observation was spot on; the Lynx keep the room as cool as a supermarket dairy aisle. Then Miles took a seat on the riser next to veteran forward Natasha Howard and began fiddling with Howard’s left ear, like an annoying little sister.
“What’s wrong with you?” Howard said.
Honestly? Nothing.
Five nights later, in Phoenix, Miles delivered her best performance yet, spurring the Lynx from the jump in a 111-77 blowout. She went 4-for-4 from the field and 3-for-3 from the foul line in an 11-point first quarter, pushing the Lynx to a 35-22 lead. Miles finished with 19 points, 10 assists, four rebounds and three steals, making her the only WNBA rookie besides Caitlin Clark to post a 19+ point/4+ rebound/3+ steal game, per the Lynx.
But even that stat line couldn’t adequately capture her impact. Coach Cheryl Reeve told reporters at the postgame press conference that some of Miles’s flashy passes elicited gasps from Lynx assistant coaches and support staff on the bench. Reeve didn’t specify which ones, but here’s one possibility: The bounce pass between two defenders in the third quarter that newcomer Teaira McCowan, running the floor ahead of the field, converted for a layup.
“I think she’s a better passer than I was, especially a lot of those windows she’s able to find,” said Lynx assistant coach Lindsay Whalen, the Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer and the club’s last truly great point guard.
All this from someone Courtney Williams called “a little baby Chelsea Gray” on Opening Night — Opening Night! — after her 21-point, eight-assist pro debut.
Few rookies have made the transition from college to pro as seamlessly as Miles. She scored in double figures in the first 10 games of the season, breaking the club rookie mark shared by Seimone Augustus, another Naismith Hall of Famer, and Tonya Edwards. Conspicuously absent from that list: Hall of Famer Maya Moore, a rookie on the first Lynx championship squad in 2011.
Thursday night against Golden State, Miles broke the league rookie record for three-pointers in a game (eight) en route to a season-high 28 points — this after making only two of 18 attempts beyond the arc before Thursday. Going into Saturday’s home game against Seattle, Miles leads all WNBA rookies in scoring (17 points per game), assists (6.4), steals (1.5), and minutes (30.4). Named WNBA Rookie of the Month for May, Miles is already top of mind in Rookie of the Year talk.
With Miles making such an immediate impact — she’s one of four starters averaging in double figures, along with Williams, Kayla McBride and Howard — the Lynx own the league’s best record (8-2) and net rating (13.0) without a single big-name free-agent signing. Who expected that?
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“We like what’s happening with the starting group a lot,” Reeve said.
Already, Miles is known for her no-look passes; her full extension, block-it-if-you-can right-handed layups; her lobbying of the officials, something generally reserved for veterans; and a kind of East Coast confidence and panache (she’s from New Jersey) rarely seen in these parts, at least on the women’s side.
Whalen marvels at how quickly Miles adjusted to the league.
“Her ability to put pressure at the rim is something that can take people some time because the speed of the game is faster than college, and some of the posts are very athletic and can get to different spots,” she said.
“She’s done a really good job of getting herself in those positions where she can finish or kick out. You see a lot of the highlight plays and reels and stuff like that, but I think her consistency of getting in the paint was something we just weren’t sure of, because this league is such a tough league. It’s been fun to see.”
Last week, with the Lynx finishing off a 96-81 victory over Atlanta, Miles tried to thread a bounce pass between Dream guard Jordin Canada’s legs, the kind of showy move that embarrasses the defender if it works. This one didn’t; the ball hit Canada’s foot. What did her coach, the one with the South Jersey/Philly roots, think of that?
“I want her to be herself, her confident, authentic self, whatever that is,” Reeve said. “Same thing we say to all of them: If there’s something we don’t like, then we’ll share it if it needs to be different. But we want her to be herself, for sure … If I see something, I might yank her back a little bit. But in general, I want her to go.”
Toronto Coach Sandy Brondello, who led Phoenix and New York to WNBA titles before landing with the expansion Tempo, isn’t surprised to see Miles do so well so soon.
“We knew she was always going to be a great player in this league,” said Brondello, who has her own standout rookie point guard in Kiki Rice. “She’s like a generational point guard. We haven’t had many for a while.
“Just her ability to pass the ball in the pick and roll, she’s great. This is a team that loves the pick and rolls anyway. She gets downhill. She can finish. But she’s also a great passer. She sees the whole floor. A great young talent to build around.”
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The second overall pick in this year’s college draft, Miles earned two degrees at Notre Dame before finishing with a final season at Texas Christian. She arrived at Lynx training camp a little jittery about running point for a team of seasoned veterans with a winning history.
“I came into the W like, kind of scared of that, stepping on toes,” Miles said. “People have been champions and people have won a lot of awards and done it before. I didn’t want to come in and upset anyone. But it was so easy. The culture, people just want to win. I’m very blessed, and I know this is very rare.
“There are absolutely no egos. Court (Williams), the second I stepped on the court was like, ‘Go run the one and I’ll be your running mate.’ It’s so easy with her. She’s in her natural position where she’s thriving. She’s playing some of her best basketball that I’ve seen. So yeah, it’s so easy to play with her and so easy to play with everyone when you have people willing to let you be you and trust you.”
At TCU, Miles said she refined her efficiency in the pick and roll game, a skill that transfers perfectly to the WNBA. Howard, a 13-year veteran who joined the Lynx in free agency after previously playing here for Reeve in 2016-17, has been the primary beneficiary, turning multiple passes a night from Miles into easy layups.
“It’s unbelievable,” Howard said. “She sees things before they happen. She’s got in her head what she wants to do before the play even starts.
“I’ve got to make sure my hands are ready at all times. I never know when she’s going to pass it.”
Howard said she established pick-and-roll chemistry this quickly with only three other point guards in her career, all WNBA greats: Sue Bird in Seattle, Sabrina Ionescu in New York, and Whalen with the Lynx. Miles said it came easily.
“She’s just cerebral,” Miles said of Howard. “You don’t really have to tell her where to screen or how to screen or what screening works or how they’re guarding it. She just kind of knows. It’s so easy as a guard playing with her, because I don’t have to direct her anywhere. It’s just kind of a natural energy.
“When both of us have that synergy, it’s really hard to stop us. And obviously she’s so skilled inside so when you give it to her, she scores.”
This was an unprecedented offseason for the Lynx. Virtually every veteran in the league became a free agent ahead of the new collective bargaining agreement, and four key contributors — league co-defensive player of the year Alanna Smith, Jessica Shepard, Natisha Hiedeman and DiJonai Carrington — signed elsewhere.
Superstar Napheesa Collier, still recovering from two ankle surgeries, only agreed to a one-year deal, sending Lynx fans into a panic that she was looking around as well. The Lynx also lost starter Bridget Carleton and reserve Maria Kliundikova in the expansion draft.
But Reeve found two underappreciated veteran free agents, Howard and Nia Coffey, who start and fit in well with the already established group. Williams, the point guard the last two years, thrived after moving back to the wing, her natural position.
And those of us who thought the Lynx should have drafted UCLA center Lauren Betts instead of Miles … well, we clearly forgot this basketball truism: Nothing raises every team’s game faster than a savvy point guard.
“You can call her a rookie if you want to,” Reeve told reporters in Phoenix. “She’s just always ready for the moment.”
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