The Minnesota Lynx have re-secured the signature of Rebekkah Brunson. This means the championship front-court is back together again.
This off-season has been one of the more difficult for the Lynx. Plenette Pierson retired at the end of last season. Then, in the space of less than a week the Lynx lost back-up point guard Renee Montgomery to the Atlanta Dream and veteran Jia Perkins also decided to retire.
However, the Lynx did do something which will keep in the upper echelon of teams for the near future, they re-signed Rebekkah Brunson.
This means the entire of the championship starting five from last season are back together for another season. Other teams are putting together front-courts they hope will compete. The Lynx know theirs is always going to.
Anyone who has watched the Lynx play knows the value of Brunson, a five time WNBA champion. The all-time offensive rebounding leader is not the main weapon of the Lynx front-court. She is the perfect foil for last season’s MVP, Sylvia Fowles.
As stated before, Brunson leads the entire WNBA in offensive rebounds with 1129. To put this into perspective, the closest current WNBA player to her is Tina Charles with 780. However, Brunson was not even the best offensive rebounding player on her team.
Sylvia Fowles had 3.6 offensive rebounds per game compared to 1.7 for Brunson. Fowles was able to get so many offensive rebounds as other teams could not afford two players to box her out. If they did, Brunson would slide in for the rebound.
Between Fowles, Brunson and Maya Moore, the front-court averaged 22.1 rebounds , 6.5 assists , 4.3 steals and 46.4 points per game. These numbers are nothing short of amazing.
Is it any wonder this team was so hard to beat last year. Throw in Seimone Augustus and the evergreen, ever-feisty Lindsay Whalen and this is still a team with so much left in the tank.
Other teams are coming at the 2017 champions, the Atlanta Dream have developed their own scary front court. The Connecticut Sun may the most complete and deepest team this season.
The Dallas Wings vaulted themselves into contention when they added Liz Cambage. This is not even mentioning last year’s runners up the Los Angeles Sparks who are always going to be dangerous from every position on the court.
This is going to be a tremendous season and once again, the Minnesota Lynx have set themselves up as one of the top teams in the league.