Lynx Begin Training Camp in Preparation for 2025 Season

The Lynx opened up training camp April 27, the first day of preparations towards the upcoming WNBA season which tips off May 16.

The 2025 WNBA season is upon us, with the new year officially beginning Sunday with the start of training camp across the league.

For the Minnesota Lynx, around 20 players took the court at the team’s practice facility at The Courts at Mayo Clinic Square on Sunday afternoon, practicing together for the first time in organized team activities.

After coming up one game short of a WNBA title in 2024, Minnesota has retooled its roster in hopes of not only returning to the Finals, but achieving the ultimate goal by the end of the year. And that journey begins on day one of training camp, as it did a season ago.

“Our starting place is different than last year, in that this group formed its identity throughout training camp. We know our identity (this year), so our starting place is obviously accelerated,” Cheryl Reeve said after practice Sunday. “But now, where can we go to be even better? We can’t be exactly the same as we were last year, it’s not going to work.”

The Lynx are returning most of its roster from the Finals team in 2024, but have added a few new faces to the team to add to the depth and versatility of the squad. The only thing is, that will make for a very competitive camp that will result in some tough decisions for Reeve and the Lynx coaching staff.

Entering camp, here is the look at the full roster:

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Revenge Tour

With the start of the new season, it also gives the Lynx an opportunity to finally put the 2024 season behind them and the heartbreak that unfolded against the New York Liberty in the WNBA Finals.

“It’s over. We don’t agree with the outcome, but it doesn’t matter. You can sit there and wine about it or you can say we will use it as fuel,” Reeve said. “What that means for each person is different. … They are each going to handle it differently. For me, I know every journey is so different. I’m not even thinking about getting back to the Finals. We’re in training camp, we’re trying to be successful in winning drills and play how we want to play. The other stuff takes care of itself.”

Minnesota knows this team is different, this season is different and there’s nothing it can do to change the outcome of 2024. But that doesn’t mean the Lynx won’t use that heartbreak as fuel to hopefully break beyond that point in 2025.

“(The end to last season) is a feeling you don’t ever want to feel again. So just making sure we’re coming in every day, starting today, with good energy,” Napheesa Collier said Sunday. “The coaching staff was talking about how they lost in that heartbreaker in 2016 and used that to fuel them in 2017. That’s the story we want to have for this year.”

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Lynx Announce Staff Updates

Ahead of camp starting, Minnesota announced the following updates to its basketball operations staff under head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve.

• Eric Thibault has been named Associate Head Coach. This will be Thibault’s first year with the Lynx after serving as head coach for the Washington Mystics for the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
• Lindsay Whalen has been named Assistant Coach. Whalen returns to the Lynx after helping them to four WNBA titles over her 15-year playing career with Connecticut and Minnesota. She most recently spent five years serving as head coach of the University of Minnesota’s women’s basketball program.
• Sefu Bernard has been named Director of Player Development. Bernard joins the Lynx after serving in the same role for the Washington Mystics from 2015-24.
• Celia Marfone has been named Director of Video and Player Development Coach. Marfone most recently spent time with the Las Vegas Aces as a special assistant from 2022-25.
• Amiee Book has been named Video Coordinator. Most recently, she served as a coaching associate and assistant video coordinator for the G League’s Indiana Mad Ants, where she assisted the coaching staff in player development and led film sessions.
• Michelle Blexrud has been promoted to Senior Basketball Operations Manager. Blexrud joined the Lynx in 2016 as a basketball operations associate and was elevated to Basketball Operations Coordinator in 2020.
• Paul Swanson has been promoted to Senior Basketball Operations Analyst. Swanson has been an integral part of the Lynx’s analytics team since the organization’s inception in 1999.
• Madi Schiller has been promoted to Data Scientist and Player Personnel Manager. Schiller joined the Lynx in 2023 as a data scientist after spending time with the Phoenix Suns focusing on basketball research and strategy.
• Timothy Wijaya has been named Basketball Analyst. Wijaya joins the Lynx after serving as a basketball analytics intern for the Los Angeles Sparks last season, where he created analytical scouting and player reports.