SEATTLE — When Jade Melbourne was drafted by the Seattle Storm No. 33 overall in 2022, she didn’t immediately join the team. By the time she came to the WNBA from Australia the next year, there was hope that the then 19-year-old was Seattle’s point guard of the future, the answer to having no Sue Bird for the first time in 20 years.
But the next season, the Storm went in a different direction, recruiting veterans like Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike, instead of leaning into youth. So, during training camp, they traded Melbourne to a team where she’d get playing time: the Washington Mystics.
But after two seasons in D.C., she is back in Seattle, having signed a two-year contract as a free agent in the offseason, and ready to be the young team’s point guard.
“I think honestly the two years in Washington were the best thing that could have happened to my basketball career,” Melbourne told The IX Basketball after practice on Tuesday. “Washington needed a backup point guard at the time. I moved into a role where I was playing. I was growing in the league. And I think, as a young player, when you can get game reps and game experience, that’s unbelievable. So I was definitely able to grow. You hear from new voices, you play with new teammates, you understand the league. There was an opportunity there.”
Now it feels funny for Melbourne, coming back to a team that traded her at such a young age. But she says she has a lot of appreciation for the Storm finding a trade during training camp when it would’ve been easier for them to cut her. She’s come back feeling a little closer to expectations: the same player, but more mature.
Seattle guard Jordan Horston, who was a rookie alongside Melbourne on the 2023 Storm, thinks she’s come back “a completely different Jade.”
“Of course she has the knowledge, games under her belt, so the experiencer, her physicality — everything I feel like just evolved over time,” Horston told The IX Basketball. “You can just tell she’s grown up a lot.”
Storm teammate Stefanie Dolson, who played those two seasons with Melbourne in D.C., told The IX Basketball she has seen a lot of positive growth from the guard, particularly in her pace. That was one of the things Melbourne worked on with player development coach Marcus Tibbs as a rookie and now laughs about with him because she is pulling it off.
“When she first came here, she was super fast, didn’t know an in-between speed. Now she looks like she has three different gears,” Tibbs told the IX Basketball.
Melbourne is averaging 8.9 points, 3.8 assists, 1.0 steals, 2.1 rebounds and 3.6 free-throw attempts in 23.2 minutes played per game. All except the minutes are WNBA career highs. Her shooting, another area of focus as a rookie with Tibbs, also improved to shoot 50% from inside the arc and 30.2% from outside. She hopes to continue to improve her shooting, particularly from 3.
“I think one of my goals coming into the season was just being super consistent with the way I showed up every time,” Melbourne said. “So bringing energy, bringing consistency, bringing a downhill presence, creating shots for myself and teammates has been huge, and I think I’ve done a better job than any other season doing that.”
The 23-year-old could easily be a part of the long-term young core that the franchise is building around. Centers Dominique Malonga and Awa Fam are 20 years old and rookie guard Flau’jae Johnson is just 22. Melbourne was the starting point guard for the bronze-medal-winning Opals squad at the 2024 Olympics and was named the tournament’s Rising Star. But Melbourne isn’t taking anything for granted.
“I’m feeling more and more comfortable every day … so if that’s a role I can step in and is where Seattle can see me in the future, that’s fantastic. But it’s one day at a time,” Melbourne said. “I do also understand that I am 23 and, you know, I’m only scratching the surface with what I can do as well.”
Back with a bang
Melbourne particularly showed off her growth in possibly her best performance of the season, on June 25 against the New York Liberty. The team was on an 11-game losing streak and Melbourne had been ruled out of the previous game, an overtime loss to Dallas, due to a tendonitis flare-up. She returned with a vengeance, scoring a season-high 18 points, dishing out seven assists, plus recording two steals and two rebounds in 25 minutes in the 99-88 victory.
“I mean she had open lanes and she made them — finishing school,” rookie guard Johnson praised after the game. “Jade is super quick but she also made the right passes. Like when they started collapsing — boom, hit the pass, boom. Like she played with just great pace and poise. I think Jade is one of those players where it’s like, I would hate to guard her. But she can really get those paint threats and really make us better, and she just plays with the right mindset for real.”
Dolson credited Melbourne’s aggressiveness as the reason for her impressive stat line and contributions towards the team’s win.
“When she’s being aggressive, it opens the floor for everyone else because she’s so fast,” Dolson said. “I think in that New York game she was just being really aggressive, attacking the defense. She kind of knew exactly what they’d give her and she took advantage of it.”
Melbourne thinks it was one of the best performances of her entire WNBA career, or at least the best half. She described how she had two turnovers early in the third quarter, so head coach Sonia Raman, who has started to understand her player, realized she was sped up and needed a breather. Raman took her out and put her back in a bit over two minutes of game time later. That break allowed her the “perfect” opportunity to reset.
“Then I come back in and just be me,” Melbourne said. “I’ve always thought I was a smart player and maybe the skill and the pace of the WNBA has kind of left that in the dark because you’re trying to keep up a lot. But I’m finally coming into my own player and matching it with the pace and the physicality of the game. So I think that was able to come out. It’s come out a bit this season, but I think especially in that New York game, I was able to back it up against Atlanta, and I hope that’s my benchmark going forward.”
The next game, against the Atlanta Draem, Melbourne contributed 10 points, five assists, four rebounds, one steal and no turnovers in the 105-90 win. Before the back-to-back wins, Melbourne was on her own tough streak of five or so games, getting away from the aggressiveness that served her so well at the start of the season.
“I think, honestly, and I don’t want it to be an excuse, but I think the build up of probably my foot,” Melbourne said of her tough stretch. “I felt it but I didn’t kind of bring it up or anything like that. But I knew kind of something was going on in the background. I don’t know if that was playing on my mind but I did get away from that and I think it probably didn’t help the team at all.”
She came back from four days of rest and her first missed game of the season, realizing how important that aggressiveness is. Getting to the rim, drawing fouls, and even missing layups causes defenses to overload her and opens opportunities to kick the ball out. The paint touches she initiates are really important, and her teammates and coaches have continued to reinforce that with her. She appreciates the belief they have in her, but also realizes the team relies on and expects it.
During that winning week, Melbourne said she also felt she found her niche in the team.
“Something I’ve always prided myself on as a player is, I love to do all the little things that help the team win,” Melbourne said. “Like, I never want to be the person that scores 30 — that’s never been my role — or had the big stat line. It’s like, where can I fill the gaps for whichever group I’m in with, to help a team succeed?
Whether scoring or assisting, that aggressive play is key. That is why Malonga told The IX Basketball the team just needs Melbourne to be herself.
“When she’s herself — aggressive, fast — not a lot of people in this league can catch her speed,” Malonga said. “Taking the shot that she needs to take too. She’s a great shooter too and sometimes she kind of hesitates. So trusting her game.”
Of any Storm player, Malonga, the team’s leading scorer, has received the most assists from Melbourne. The young French player thinks the Aussie’s aggressiveness and downhill drives naturally pair really well with her screening, pick and roll, and pressure on the opponent’s posts.
“Jade is an amazing playmaker. She sees the floor really, really well. I think she’s really, really smart,” Malonga praised. “But I think, me or anybody, she can pass the ball to anybody. … She sees everything, so it’s just super easy to play with her.”
Melbourne is doing all this while moving in and out of the starting lineup — starting 12 of the 21 games she has appeared in this season. Raman has trust in Melbourne in both situations.
“She really exemplifies that she’s ready, whatever you need. Whether it’s plug her into the starting lineup, whether it’s coming off the bench and give us a shot in the arm of energy and defense and toughness and floor general and all the things, she’s very much mentally tough and able to toggle back and forth in that way. It’s not an easy thing to do, but I think she’s just really exemplified what it means to be a pro,” Raman said.
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While Melbourne has enjoyed being a spark off the bench, she says she is happy to play whatever role the team needs from her. She has also played a lot of different roles in her short career between the WNBA, WNBL and national team, so she has been able to combine that knowledge, making the adjustment not too tough.
“I think I’ve started to figure out that, like, I brought a spark off the bench, but now it’s like, how can I bring the spark from the very get-go?” Melbourne said. “You just got to get used to the unpredictability of this league. It’s all part of it, and as role players, we understand that.”
Joy and grit
It’s become a theme for the Storm this season: playing with joy. And Melbourne is yet another one of those players whose teammates praise the energy she brings. Malonga described her as a “walking joy-ball.”
“She has something special, like an energy,” Fam said. “It’s like Flau, you know, they are two people that have an energy that we need. … We can be a really good team if she’s here, and if she’s not here, we are gonna know that she’s not.”
“Just the happiness that she exudes — you know, she’s out there, she’s always having fun and it’s contagious for everyone,” Dolson said.
Horston said she loves that this energy often comes through as singing songs, and that Melbourne has some pretty good jokes. Whether it is singing and dancing in practice and shootaround or her smile on the court, that energy is always there for her teammates.
“She’s always the one that will cheer us up, pick up our heads, especially mine,” Malonga said. “She knows I can get hard on myself, she always kind of knows when I have my moments. … She’s just the ultimate teammate.”
But Melbourne is also incredibly tough. Malonga described her as someone who would “never give up.”
“She’s a fierce player. She won’t back down to nobody. … She’ll take a charge. She’s a gritty player and we feed off that. … She’s always on the ground. If a tooth flies out or not, we don’t know,” Horston said, referencing when Melbourne re-lost her front tooth in the season opener. “She’s always going to come out with some blood or something after a game.”
Young veteran
While Melbourne is still just 23, she is in her fourth WNBA season, making her less experienced than only four of her teammates. On top of that, as a point guard, she plays a position that naturally requires leadership on the court.
“That’s just who Jado is,” Horston said. “She’s kind of got an old soul, an old spirit. So everybody has a voice here, but off the court that’s who Jado is. She’s a goofy girl but we all listen to her, she has some wise things to say.”
Dolson, the team’s ultimate veteran, said she thinks Melbourne has answered the call, teaching people where she can and leading on the court. While Melbourne is increasingly comfortable in the role, she doesn’t feel completely like a veteran.
“I still feel like a young player to be completely honest with you,” Melbourne said. “There’s some times when I feel like a veteran because of some of the stuff that rookies do, and it’s not even on-court stuff. … I’m like, ‘oh, come on, grow up,’ but then I’m also their age.
“Because I’ve been playing professional basketball now for like six years, I feel like a bit of a veteran, but there’s also mistakes I make and I’m like, ‘yeah, okay, you are also 23 as well.’ So I think it’s a fine balance.”
This time, more than ever, the team wants her to use her voice and take on a leadership role as a point guard. So she is owning it and finding how she can use her youth to her benefit.
“The cool advantage for me is like, someone like Flau’jae, who’s only a year younger than me, can relate to me because we’re like the same age,” Melbourne said. “So just being able to speak to her about real-life like experiences and situations and stuff in the league, there’s like that common kind of understanding rather than her speaking to like an older vet, for example. Because we like speak the same lingo, we have the same slang. … I definitely feel like I’m young and old.”
Her teammates and coaches have also helped her feel comfortable in leadership, encouraging her to share her thoughts with the whole group and engaging with what she says.
“The fact that whenever anyone speaks in this group, you’ve got the attention of the whole group, it encourages you. They take on the message. They’re like ‘hey great talk Jado,’ and you’re like ‘okay that was welcomed, I’m going to do that again,’” Melbourne explained. “So I’ve definitely kind of moved into having that belief in myself to share the message and understand that I know what I’m talking about.”
Melbourne still has plenty of room for growth in her game and her leadership, but if she continues on this path, she could solidify a role in the franchise’s future.
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