What’s it like largely working with experienced players?
“I feel like I’m coaching most of the new ones,” Reeve said.
Because players like Napheesa Collier and Kayla McBride are still overseas, and the veterans in-market are having their reps managed.
“We’re managing the physical part as much as anything,” Reeve said. “I don’t yet feel like I have a veteran team. I know when it’s all said and done I will, but I don’t feel like that right now.”
It may sound odd that the Lynx are managing reps less than a week into training camp, but this is a year unlike most. Take Damiris Dantas, for example. The Lynx’s stretch forward was limited in what she could do this offseason due to COVID-19 restrictions in Brazil. So she likely didn’t enter training camp in the best of condition, and neither did many of her teammates.
“We’re at the ultimate place that you don’t want to be, which is training camp is getting some of those players in shape,” Reeve said. “You’d rather them be in shape and you’re focused on performance, but we’re not there.”
In that respect, it’s crazy to think the Lynx are set to play their first preseason game — which Reeve said is more of a scrimmage — on Saturday, just six days into training camp.
“I don’t think anyone is going to be in shape for real, that first game,” Lynx point guard Crystal Dangerfield said. “It’s a quick turnaround for it. So that’s what we’re getting used to. We’re getting up and down the floor, just trying to get our lungs back, trying to get used to it, and we’ll see what happens when we play Atlanta.”
Reeve is no stranger to managing minutes, something she had to do a bit more of a few years ago with her veteran rosters. She’s cognizant of the health of her bigs, starting with Sylvia Fowles, who battled a calf injury for much of last season. Reeve held a couple of players out of practice Tuesday, the third day of camp. She limited Wednesday’s practice to half-court work.
“We’re just in this place that you start to feel a bit of tenderness somewhere in a muscle. You just start to worry that we’re just not in great shape,” Reeve said. “That’s what most of the coaches around the league are saying. I got a couple of calls about people saying, ‘Gosh, are you experiencing the same thing?’ And the answer is yes. We’re going to play a game on Saturday, and I don’t know how. We’re going to have to be really, really smart.”
It’s all a matter of management. Reeve and Co. are walking the line of making sure the team is ready for its regular-season opener against Phoenix on May 14, and also that the roster is healthy once the Lynx reach that point.
“Every day we’ve been ramping up and just getting ready,” guard Rachel Banham said. “Being prepared in the offseason, doing stuff in the offseason and getting your body right so this first week you’re not too beat up and you’re ready to go into the scrimmage and be somewhat in shape (helps), because you’re only going to be able to get in shape playing basketball, but preparing your body ahead of time always helps. This week, we’ve been slowly ramping up. And you’ve just got to push yourself. We’d rather it be hard in practice than in a game, so I think every day we push ourselves a little bit more, a little bit more, so that we are ready for that scrimmage.”
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Lynx, like many WNBA teams, having to use training camp to get players in shape - Pine Journal
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