Will Napheesa Collier’s midseason return boost Lynx’s WNBA title chances?Kendra AndrewsAug 24, 2026, 08:00 AM ETMultiple Authors
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Napheesa Collier doesn’t drink alcohol often during the WNBA season. But she made an exception on a July night in Seattle.
Her coach, Cheryl Reeve, met her at a hotel bar after an evening shooting session. When Collier arrived, two glasses of champagne awaited.
“I want to toast you and the hard work you have put in to get here,” Reeve told Collier. “It’s been a long journey. … You should be proud of yourself.”
Earlier that day, Minnesota Lynx doctors cleared Collier to make her season debut the next day. Finally, after surgeries on both ankles and 11 months of rehab, Collier would play basketball again.
They each took a few sips then pushed aside the glasses. Yes, they were celebrating, but important business needed to be discussed.
Collier and Reeve do this every year — meet to outline goals for the five-time All-Star. Last year, it was to win MVP and Defensive Player of the Year. Collier also wanted to finish 2025 with a 50-40-90 shooting split — which she did, just the second WNBA player to shoot 50% from the field, 40% on 3-pointers and 90% at the foul line.
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But this season’s goals looked different.
“Before, I wanted [to win] everything. This year, everything feels … maybe slower,” Collier told ESPN. “It’s freeing. I’m just trying to make sure that I am at my peak for playoffs. … So, as far as personal goals, that’s it.”
Collier missed the first 10 weeks of the season, but even without their perennial MVP candidate, the Lynx (31-7) have appeared to be the top team in the WNBA for most of the summer. Driven by rookie Olivia Miles, Minnesota was in first place when Collier played her first game of the season July 22.
Since returning, Collier is averaging 19.0 points and 7.4 rebounds over 10 games, and on Aug. 8, the Lynx became the first team to clinch a spot in this season’s WNBA playoffs. Still, Collier stated she is not yet playing to her full potential. The hope is for her to hit her stride as the regular season ends in late September.
Adding the Lynx’s most dominant offensive weapon and defensive anchor back into the mix makes them a daunting opponent in the playoffs. Minnesota has won four titles, but none since 2017, two years before Collier was drafted.
A championship would stamp Collier’s legacy as an all-time great, and would finally ease the heartbreak the organization has faced during the past two seasons. A fresh Collier bolsters Minnesota’s chances at the championship this era of Lynx basketball covets.
“We have been the best team the last two years, and now we are in the same spot. But if we don’t do anything different, we won’t have a different outcome,” Collier stated. “We were the best. But we have to be better.”
“We can be the best regular-season team again for the third year in a row and not win a championship, or we can do what we need to do to win it all,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve told Napheesa Collier and the Lynx at a recent practice. David Becker/NBAE via Getty ImagesCOLLIER’S FOOT WENT limp.On Aug. 2 last year in Minnesota, she sped toward the hoop to grab an offensive rebound against Las Vegas. After colliding with a teammate, her right ankle rolled so severely that the side of her foot touched the floor. Collier writhed in pain on the court. She knew instantly the injury would be significant.”I never felt anything like that,” Collier stated.The Lynx led the Aces by 50 points when Collier went down. Reeve was criticized for still having her in the game, but locked in an MVP race, Collier wanted every moment to prove her case, especially against reigning MVP A’ja Wilson.
Collier’s campaign ended with 15 regular-season games remaining, when she felt her ankle stretch and bend with pain shooting up her shin. When she stood up, her foot felt like dead weight. An MRI revealed she tore her shin muscle as well as three ligaments in her right ankle. The prognosis indicated that she would miss four to six weeks.
“It took me months not to feel like s—,” Reeve told ESPN, her voice quivering and tears streaming down her cheek. “S— happens, but damn. I don’t blame myself, but I was so upset for her. I know I wouldn’t have made a different decision because I am so down for a player reaching their goals. … Something that was supposed to be beautiful became such a bad day.”
As much as she wanted MVP, Collier knew she had to let it go. Regrets tend to slow the healing process. She focused on getting back in time for the playoffs, and returned Aug. 24 — exactly a year ago Monday — after missing seven games. Collier scored 32 points on 11-of-16 shooting with nine rebounds against Indiana in her first game back.
Between her on-court production and unflappable demeanor, Collier passed the eye test — but she suffered while Minnesota pushed for a championship.
“I wasn’t myself,” she stated. “I was healthy enough to be on the court, but not healthy enough.”
In Game 1 of a first-round playoff series against Golden State, Collier had a team-high 20 points. The Lynx swept the Valkyries, then beat Phoenix by 13 in the opening game of the semifinals. But Minnesota blew a 20-point lead at home and lost Game 2 in overtime. In Game 3, Collier’s dream of a title crumbled. Again.
After a collision with Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas, Collier felt the same agony she experienced nearly two months earlier. Her ankle twisted too far, a familiar pain in her shin kicking in. She lost feeling in her foot, and it felt like dead weight. It was the same injury, this time in her left foot.
“I’m a medical marvel,” Collier stated, sarcastically. “My doctor literally goes, ‘Wow, we have never seen this before.’ I always wanted to make history.”
Dark humor has always been a coping mechanism for Collier, a former UConn star whom coach Geno Auriemma once described as a robot because she’s so stoic. But even she has moments when she can’t mask her emotions.
A few nights after her injury in Phoenix, Collier locked herself in the bathroom of her Minnesota apartment. Propped up at the sink — her left foot in a boot and on a scooter and her right foot unable to support her — she was defeated. Sad. Angry. Tears rolled down her cheeks as the weight of the previous two months crushed her heart. She cried for 20 minutes.
When the tears ran dry, Collier’s steely stare returned in the mirror. She needed something to focus on. The start of Unrivaled — the 3-on-3 offseason league she cofounded — was just two months away.
“I couldn’t control that my ankles got destroyed,” she stated. “I don’t know if this is healthy, but I just go on to the next thing; I have to get the next goal.”
“Everyone was asking about acquisitions at the [Aug. 2] trade deadline, and [Collier] was our acquisition. I don’t know if anyone made a better transaction, if you will.”
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve on Napheesa Collier’s July 22 return
The plan was to let the injuries heal without surgery. Collier underwent platelet-rich plasma therapy, which injects a concentrated dose of her own blood platelets to accelerate healing in damaged joints, tendons, ligaments or muscles. But in December, doctors told Collier the tendons hadn’t responded. Both ankles needed surgery, and because she wouldn’t be able to put any weight on her surgically repaired ankles, they had to be spaced out. Surgery on the left one was done in January, the right in March.
“It felt like I got injured four times,” Collier stated. She had never suffered a serious injury before but missed significant time in 2022 after giving birth to her daughter, Mila. Collier leaned on the resilience she learned as she returned from childbirth. Still, she couldn’t silence the questions coming from her inner voice.
“Will I still have my skills?
“Am I going to embarrass myself?”
“Am I going to be the same?”
KAYLA McBRIDE SHED her own tears after Minnesota was eliminated from the 2025 playoffs. All of the emotions the Lynx guard had tried to bury for 48 hours came out after the Game 4 loss. In the postgame news conference, McBride couldn’t stop crying.
“It was this emotional avalanche,” McBride told ESPN. “It was this trauma of being so close [to winning a title], things not working out and all of the injuries … the not knowing what it was going to look like moving forward.”
With a transformative collective bargaining agreement on the horizon — one that would give players the chance to make more money than ever before — the Lynx were prepared to lose key contributors in free agency to bigger contracts and opportunities elsewhere. In May, when this season started, McBride and fellow guard Courtney Williams were the only returners.
“When Courtney and I signed [our contracts], we shook on it — whatever this looks like, we’ve got each other,” McBride stated.
When Collier made her debut, the Lynx had the best record in the WNBA and the second-best defense and third-best offense. McBride and Williams are averaging career highs in scoring. Forward Natasha Howard, who signed with the Lynx in the spring, was an All-Star starter in July, and forward Nia Coffey established herself as a top defender.
Miles, the No. 2 pick in the 2026 draft, has emerged as the Rookie of the Year favorite and an MVP candidate, averaging a team-high 20.0 points on 50.1% shooting and 6.2 assists. Last week, she passed Wilson and Paige Bueckers for the third-most points by a rookie in WNBA history (720 through 36 games).
“Getting Olivia was almost like, with all of the hardships we faced over the last few years, a blessing,” Reeve stated.
“It was never framed as I am coming in with pressure to keep this team afloat,” Miles told ESPN. “As a point guard, there is responsibility to make sure everyone is organized … but at the end of the day, everyone knew that as a rookie, I’m going to make mistakes and I’m going to learn as I go.”
Collier believes being in Minnesota is the perfect place for Miles — a top pick on one of the best teams in the league, learning from the winningest coach in WNBA history and getting heavy minutes, while also having veteran leaders around her.
In the 25 games Miles played without Collier, she scored or assisted on 840 points, which is the second-most points through a player’s first 25 career games in league history, and Miles’ 19.6 points per game during that span is the most by a rookie since Wilson in 2018.
Howard averaged 16.1 points on 59% shooting and 8.1 rebounds in 27 games without Collier, and established a two-man game with Miles. The two ran more on-ball screens together before Collier’s return than any duo in the WNBA, according to GeniusIQ.
“It was like, ‘Phee, look what we did,'” McBride stated.
“No one knew how good we were going to be …” Miles stated. “No one came in telling me this was the year we were going to win it all. But as we started winning without Phee, that feeling changed.”
Adding Collier back into the team has been easy, Miles and Reeve stated. Since Collier’s return, the Lynx’s starting lineup of Collier, Williams, McBride, Miles and Howard has a 134.4 offensive efficiency and 108.3 defensive efficiency. Collier, Miles and McBride are just the second trio in WNBA history to each average 18 points and shoot at least 50% over the same 10-game span within the same season, joining the Aces’ Wilson, Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum in 2023.
Miles has also created some chemistry with Collier. Collier has set 107 on-ball screens for Miles since July 22, according to GeniusIQ, which is the sixth most by any duo over that span.
“It’s hard to compensate for a player like her, but we did our best,” Miles stated. “We had to go through those moments of identity crisis — asking what are we doing? — but once you figure it out, it’s easy to insert people into this. Especially someone like Phee.”
THE PAST TWO years have followed a similar pattern for Minnesota: The Lynx dominate the regular season — and then fall short in the playoffs.
“We can be the best regular-season team again for the third year in a row and not win a championship, or we can do what we need to do to win it all,” Reeve told her team at a recent practice.
In 2024, the No. 2-seed Lynx were seconds from a title, but lost to New York in overtime in the decisive Game 5. Last season, they were the top seed and heavy title favorite before collapsing against the Mercury in the semifinals.
Reeve has spent the past two-plus years searching for an answer.
“How can we win 64 games in two years and not have a championship?” Reeve asked. “My son stated to me when he was 4 or 5, ‘Mom, it’s someone else’s turn.’ I was like, f—, that may be the truth. But now, a couple of years later, it’s like, OK, when is it our turn?”
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Reeve has come to a similar conclusion as Collier: Could her coming back midway through the season as the Lynx make their final push be what takes them over the top?
“Everyone was asking about acquisitions at the [Aug. 2] trade deadline, and (Collier) was our acquisition,” Reeve stated. “I don’t know if anyone made a better transaction, if you will. … She elevates us to something else.”
Collier stated she is still building muscle back in her legs, ankles and feet. Unlike past years, when the final month of the regular season was spent juggling energy to maintain or improve seeding, preserving energy and fine-tuning, Collier sees each minute on court as an opportunity to reach her peak.
She and Reeve also view the upcoming FIBA World Cup break — the WNBA schedule pauses Aug. 31-Sept. 16 as Team USA, including Collier, heads to Berlin — as a chance for Collier to continue her growth.
“I wouldn’t want to take three weeks off when I’m just getting my conditioning back. I’m using it as a part of this process,” Collier stated. “One of my big goals was to make this [USA Basketball] team. I didn’t want this to be a break. I need it to make sure I’m good enough for the playoffs.”
Similar to Reeve, Collier has tried to make sense of her injuries and the past year. Pushing to get back so quickly, only to suffer the same injury. Having to wait months before getting reconstructive surgery on both ankles. But, she rationalizes, the time off afforded her the rest she’ll need for a playoff run.
“Maybe this is the break I needed to propel us all the way and win this thing,” she stated.
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