LOS ANGELES — Stop me if you’ve heard this before: The Sparks are figuring it out, they’re growing, they’re learning and, oh yeah, they’re banged up already so they’re short-handed too.
It is what it is.
And it’s fine, I guess. Actually, it’s kind of a drag that this is where L.A.’s WNBA team is.
That one of the league’s original teams – and its original glamour team – is playing catchup while women’s basketball takes off nationally and locally, with all of UCLA and USC’s success.
But if you’re the Sparks, what else can you do?
It takes time to build a contender, to build continuity, to build genuine excitement – or, in their case, to rebuild all those things.
It takes more time when you keep hitting reset.
Under former coach Curt Miller, the team that had, at one point, missed the playoffs only four times in its 23-year history, went 25-55 over two seasons and missed the playoffs for the third and fourth consecutive seasons and just seventh and eighth total.
Those past two years look bad, sure, but consider the Sparks, who’ve been unlucky and oft-injured, yes, and limited by the WNBA’s 12-player roster cap – were entering a rebuild after Derek Fisher’s dismal final two years.
What’s more, those growing pains gained them not just experience, but the inside track to win the Paige Bueckers lottery, and then keep in mind: The WNBA Draft is the best way for a franchise to build when it isn’t offering potential free agents amenities like a dedicated training facility as most of its opponents are.
As it was, Miller’s new team – after the Sparks excused him, the Dallas Wings hired him as their general manager – won the WNBA Draft lottery and picked Bueckers, the former UConn star.
For the second consecutive season, the Sparks got the No. 2 pick, so after they drafted Cameron Brink in 2024, this year they traded the pick for two-time WNBA champion guard Kelsey Plum – fantastic decisions, both.
But, yes, now they’re starting over again in some significant ways. They have a new star around which to orbit, and a new coach – a WNBA rookie – is holding the reins of a team with exciting young talent and lots of upside. That features 23-year-old Brink, 24-year-old Rickea Jackson and 24-year-old Rae Burrell in the fold (and recovering from a torn ACL, a right leg injury suffered Friday and a facial injury in a collision on Sunday).
It’s a team that, by new Coach Lynne Roberts’ own account, has lots of work to do.
Look at the excellent Minnesota Lynx. WNBA runners-up last season, they beat the Sparks 89-75 on Sunday at Crypto.com Arena, where Roberts’ team fell to 1-1 following their 17-point season-opening victory over the expansion Golden State Valkyries on Friday.
“You saw that they’ve played together a long time, right?” Roberts said, talking about Minnesota’s precise on-court cutting that led to bucket after bucket as the Lynx improved to 2-0.
“That’s all timing-based,” Roberts continued. “And they’re ahead of us, in terms of where they’re at, offensively, defensively, you know? At this stage, when you have your key players back and the same coaches, you can start working on tweaking things rather than building your foundation.”
Coach Cheryl Reeve – who’s headed the Lynx since 2010 – said the Sparks got it right with Roberts, a modern-minded coach with an appreciation for three-points-is-more-than-two analytics, though perhaps not the natural shooting depth at her disposal to fit that notion.
“I’m … a fan of coach [Lynne] Roberts and the way that she has them playing,” Reeve said. “She is the right coach for this team, for sure. I suspect we’re going to have some good battles through the years here.”
Roberts believes so too.
I buy it too, and so should you.
But it’s not going to happen over the course of two games, or maybe not even two seasons.
“We’re two games in,” Roberts said. “I’m not stressed, like, ‘Oh my gosh, the sky’s falling.’ But we do have to get tougher. If we don’t get tougher, then it gets more concerning. But I trust these guys and I know they want what I want; they want to win.”
That is, of course, what L.A. wants – demands? – too.
But (especially short of the Sparks’ own practice site), winning demands patience. It just does.
Does this organization have what it takes, in that respect? Especially as women’s basketball booms elsewhere?
To be continued …