Seattle Storm fans have watched Mackenzie Holmes cheering her heart out and making an impact when given the opportunity this season. As for her most consistent contribution?
Being the best teammate.
“Mack is the teammate that everyone dreams of having,” point guard Jade Melbourne said after a win over Washington on May 27. “She’s the ultimate team player. She’s the one to hype you up. She’s going to be there on your good day, your bad day. … You’re going to think you did something really little and Mack’s going to make you feel like Superwoman. … It just comes down to she’s the best teammate and we’re lucky to have her on the Storm.”
Second-year center Dominique Malonga echoed that sentiment, telling The IX Sports that Holmes is her best friend on the team and these past two seasons wouldn’t have been the same without her. Malonga sees her as both a supporter and an example of hard work — an amazing light who never gives up.
“I know that whenever I look at Mack it will just give me a burst of energy,” Malonga said. “Whenever I feel a little bit down, I know I can talk to her and I know she will just lift me up and it’s just great.”
Veteran center Stefanie Dolson, in her 13th WNBA season, told The IX Sports she doesn’t think she’s ever played with someone who brings such continuous positive energy.
“Just cheering, constant communication, but like in a cheerleader way that it’s just always building people up,” Dolson expanded. “Always one of the loudest, if not the loudest, but also knows how to read the room. It’s not in an inauthentic way. She does it because she really means it, and I think that means a lot to teammates.”
That energy is most outwardly visible to fans through Holmes’ cheering on the bench during games. Veteran point guard Natisha Hiedeman said she definitely notices it during games but even more so after the game when she gets the pictures and sees “Mack on the side going crazy.”
Head coach Sonia Raman sees Holmes constantly talking to her teammates, checking on them, encouraging them, noticing if someone needs an extra boost, not just on the court. Whether it’s grabbing coffee with someone, going to dinner, or making an appearance at something like RunBudz, Holmes shows up for others.
“She asks people how they’re doing and really wants to know the answer to the question,” Raman said. “She’s really an extraordinary person in that way — caring, kind and fun. That’s a huge part of Mack too; she’s fun to be around, and I think her teammates really gravitate towards her.”
She brings that same energy to the work she puts into her game.
“I just think she leads by example,” Hiedeman said. “She shows up with a good attitude every day. Really, she’s probably the first person at the gym every single day, [showing] her work ethic.”
Rookie guard Flau’jae Johnson, who has similarly been praised for her positive, high energy by teammates, told The IX Sports that Holmes is even more positive than her. She finds it particularly impressive that Holmes maintains that energy and work ethic knowing she is unlikely to play.
“Still, every day she comes in and outworks a lot of people,” Johnson said. “You got people on the bench that could be negative, but she always got something positive to say, something uplifting, something that’s going to help the team progress forward. So just good having her, being the loudest person and being the most caring person at all times. You can depend on her.”
Johnson added that Holmes has “got the most fire music taste ever” and “is the curator of the locker room” — high praise from the professional rapper.
For Holmes, being the kind of player who is praised for being a good teammate is both important and natural to her.
“Honestly, nothing I do I feel like is forced. It’s just how I am,” Holmes told The IX Sports. “Who I am is just trying to lift other people up. When I’m feeling bad about myself or how I play, I respond by pouring into others. It’s really easy, and it’s a really long season to kind of go inward and be upset about our record or how I’m playing, but I feel like I just try to defer and pour into other people, try to see things that maybe they don’t think people notice, and just be a great teammate.
“I’ve always been someone that has tried to control everything I can control, and I know that I’m always in control of my attitude, always in control of my effort, always in control of how I treat my teammates and people around me. So, I love being here; if I’m able to make the people around me feel that, then I feel like I’ve done my job.”
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A coach’s dream
In the same way she is the teammate players dream of having, Holmes is the kind of player coaches love to coach.
“I think my favorite part about Mackenzie is how hard she works and how much she wants to get better,” Storm assistant coach Natalie Achonwa, who does the most individual work with Holmes, told The IX Sports. “Her desire to understand the details, to be good at the details, and how hard she works really makes it fun to be her coach. …
“She shows up consistently every single day. She does the gritty things. She’s the one that’s going to dive on the ball. She’s the one that crashes the rebounds defensively and offensively every time. She’s a hustle player. … She’s constantly picking people up. She’s the first to cheer if someone misses a shot. She just pours into people, and she’s just a great person.”
Raman agrees that work ethic and attitude make Holmes a joy to coach. She also says Holmes acts like a glue person in the locker room and off the court.
“Mack is going to be the player that works her butt off. That everything is for her teammates,” Raman said. “She’s constantly staying ready when her number’s called and really putting in the work that fans coming to games may not always see. She does all the intangibles on the court. … Just the way she embraces her role and her responsibility to her teammates and the organization — it’s really cool to see.”
Holmes maintains this regardless of how many game minutes she’s getting. As a result, Achonwa said she has grown immensely throughout the year even without extensive game reps.
“She’s just hungry to get better and that’s going to dictate how her career keeps going,” Achonwa said. “We always say stay ready, regardless of whether you’re going to get in the game or not. We saw that in the Washington game when all of a sudden we were like, “Mack, you got to get in.” Instant rebound. Instant effort. Those are intangibles that you can’t teach. And so I think the Mack attack of just staying ready and being aggressive in everything you do – that’s natural.”
On-court impact
It is hard to statistically judge how Holmes’ play impacts the Storm because of her limited minutes. Early in the season, Holmes was called on more often while Ezi Magbegor was out injured, Awa Fam arrived late from overseas, and Malonga missed some time with a concussion. But since then, she has gotten a “DNP-Coach’s Decision” designation in the final box score more often than not — not playing in 15 of her team’s games.
When she has played, she has averaged 2.7 points on 55.3% shooting, 2.8 rebounds, 0.5 assists and 0.6 steals in 9.7 minutes per game. Raman said she has given the team really valuable minutes regardless.
“Her minutes reduced, but her role has kind of been the same no matter what, which is like be ready, go in there, make plays, make reads, clean the glass and bring energy to the court whenever your number’s called,” Raman said. “She can’t control the minutes she’s getting on the court; that’s ultimately my decision. But she can be ready, and she can make the most of those minutes, and I think that she’s just been so high level with doing that.”
With Magbegor and Katie Lou Samuelson out for the rest of the season, the backup big is likely to find her role increased. In Seattle’s game on Thursday, their first without the duo, as well as guard/forward Jordan Horston, Holmes played 10 minutes. She brought exactly what Dolson expected to that game: effort.
“Her multiple efforts. I mean, getting offensive rebounds, getting great possessions, deflections on the ball. That is how she is in practice and is how she plays. It’s just constantly moving, constantly working hard. She never really takes the possession off,” Dolson said of what she thought fans would see from Holmes on Thursday.
Malonga similarly expected to see the hustle and energy that Holmes brings on both ends of the floor, knowing she will always finish plays, play great defense with high hands and shoot the ball efficiently.
“Anything that you don’t want to do as an individual, Mack wants to do. She’s the one percenter. You think it’s a 30% chance of getting a loose ball; Mack’s going to find a way to go get it. She’s on the floor. She’s getting after the loose ball. There’s not even a chance to get it, and Mack’s still going to try and get it,” Melbourne said. “But it’s that Mack knows exactly what her role is on the team. She knows her spots. She knows when it’s her time to go get it. She knows when to set a teammate up for success.”
Johnson specifically pointed to the rebounding effort Holmes consistently brings.
“Her tenacity to be on the boards and all of that, like she will hit you and she will be physical,” Johnson praised. “I’ll put it like this: When Mac [is] under there, I’m not going under there.”
Developing into a forward
Holmes has had to evolve her game significantly since her college days at Indiana University, where she graduated as one of the best players in program history. She finished her collegiate career as the program’s all-time leading scorer (2,530 points) plus all-time leader in field goals made (1,043), field goal percentage (63.9%) and wins (123). Holmes ranks in the top five in seven additional categories and was the program’s first First Team All-American by any organization (AP, USWBA, WBCA), finishing her career as an eight-time All-American. But she did all of that as a relatively classic center.
Standing 6’3, however, she is too undersized to play the five in the WNBA. Holmes also pointed out that the league has been trending in a direction where bigs need to be able to hit shots from the perimeter, be able to handle the ball, and generally move toward that positionless basketball. So she has been working with Achonwa to develop the skills to play as a forward.
To make that adjustment, Achonwa says they have shifted away from focusing on the details of individual games. Instead, they work on how she sees the game as a whole and “her overall understanding of the fine details of how to play five-on-five basketball.”
“When you shift to more of that four, perimeter player, you have a lot more decision-making in it,” Achonwa explained. “A big thing we’ve been working on lately is passing. So whether that’s like the guards making cuts to the basket, and we’re finding them. Whether it’s like high-low action, if you’re playing with another post player. … Then also defensively, how are you guarding more of a perimeter post player, someone that’s facing up.”
Indiana head coach Teri Moren noticed this evolution in Holmes’ game both watching her in WNBA games and when she came back to Bloomington to help train her Hoosiers squad. She told The IX Sports she sees her former player becoming more of a facilitator in space.
“Her decision-making out there with the ball, whether it was a DHO, whether she was making backdoor passes or over the top, I mean all of it — I think that’s where she’s really grown in her game,” Moren said. “For us, obviously, we had her in the low block a lot — and now she’s playing away from the rim.”
Moren said it was fun to talk basketball with Holmes too because her IQ has gotten even higher and she was able to pick Holmes’ brain about what the Storm do in their offense.
Holmes gave a lot of credit to Achonwa for these developments. The No. 9 overall pick out of Notre Dame in 2014 played nine years in the WNBA and represented Canada consistently at international competitions, including three times at the Olympics (2012, 2016, 2020). At 6’3, Achonwa was also the kind of post player capable on the perimeter that Holmes wants to be. Holmes fondly remembers watching her passing and handling abilities at Notre Dame and for the Indiana Fever.
“I can’t express how grateful I am for the relationship I built with her over the year because I feel like not only has she made me more confident, but she’s taught me so much as a basketball player. I feel like I’m such a smarter basketball player just being around her, learning from her,” Holmes said glowingly. “I feel like she’s continued to push me and hold me to a high standard throughout the season. I think that’s another reason why I just continue to do what I do each day. She holds me to that standard. She’s amazing. I could go on and on.”
With Achonwa’s guidance, Holmes is continuing to utilize the skills she already had as a post player while developing herself as an outside shooter, screener and ball handler, setting herself up for future success.
From beyond the arc
Perhaps the most evident evolution of Holmes’ game since college is in her 3-point shooting. Across five seasons at Indiana, Holmes took 42 total shots from beyond the arc at a 23.8% clip. In her first season with the Storm, she took no threes. This year, she has taken 11 in just 252 minutes of playing time with 54.5% accuracy. Yes, it’s a small in-game sample size, but it is representative of what her team sees in practice every day, so much so that Johnson was shocked to find out she wasn’t a shooter in college.
“She had a weakness, worked on the weakness, and now that’s a strength,” Hiedeman remarked of Holmes’ long-range improvement.
However, the work to add a strong 3-point shot did begin in college. When it became apparent that she had a real chance to play professionally, Moren said extending her range was at the top of the list of ways to help her get to the next level.
“She didn’t shoot a lot of them when she played for us at Indiana, but she worked on them, especially in the offseason leading up to being drafted by Seattle. That was the one thing she was consistently working on,” Moren said.
That work has continued since leaving Indiana. The team uses a system called Noah that tracks how many and the quality of shots players get up in practice, and Holmes consistently leads it.
“She’s in the gym, and whether that’s on the gun or with me or just trying to find a practice player, someone to rebound, she is in the gym. And that’s how you develop your shot. That’s how you get consistent in your shot is the repetition, and she’s getting them in,” Achonwa said.
The work has been less about changing shot mechanics, as Achonwa said she’s had a shot; the change has been in the frequency she gets the opportunity to use it. As Holmes has gotten more reps in, they have also gotten more creative in the drills they work on. Throughout the season, they have moved from working on pure mechanics of shooting, to spot shooting, to now having conditioning drills that are 3-point drills that try and simulate the game pace, urgency and defensive contest in practice. All this has helped transfer the practice to games.
Holmes agreed that the pure volume of shots she gets up has been invaluable in her improvement, but there has also been a key mentality aspect.
“Trying to take the mentality piece out of it — not thinking so much, trusting the work I’ve put in and getting comfortable shooting them in practice. Then once I shoot them in practice, feeling comfortable shooting them in games,” Holmes explained. “It’s just kind of a process the same way everything in my career has been.”
Even throughout the season, Dolson says she can tell Holmes has continued to get better and more confident. It is visible in the way she approaches her shot when she gets them both in games and practices. And that confidence is good to see because Dolson feels that whenever you shoot with confidence, you are more likely to make it.
Fortune favors the prepared
Holmes’ role on the Storm requires that she always be ready to step in at a moment’s notice. So she prepares the exact same every single day, whether she knows she will play or is pretty sure that she won’t.
“Everyone knows I have literally no off switch,” Holmes laughed. “I’m going to give it my all every single day. … That’s kind of something I’m proud of myself for this year is, no matter what my role has looked like, I haven’t changed who I am or what I do and how hard I work.
“If anything, when I’m not playing, I work even harder. So I feel like I’m prepared for whatever opportunity I’m given. And if I’m not given any opportunity, I know that I’ve worked really hard, regardless, and I’m going to be the best teammate, the best hype man on the bench.”
Admiring her work ethic, Hiedeman recalled one time she saw Holmes at the gym in their apartment building and how shocked she was because they had already practiced that day.
From Holmes’ example, Johnson says she “learned the real definition of work ethic and character.”
Holmes’ role in Seattle is very different from her college experience of being the star who plays heavy minutes, and even her offseason experience in Australia playing for Geelong Venom. Overseas, she led the team in scoring (21.87 points per game), rebounding (9.61), and blocks (1.09), and was named to the All-WNBL First Team. Switching between roles, she goes in with the mindset that she is getting to live out her dream of playing basketball for a living.
“No matter what my role is on a team, just keeping the mindset that I’m very blessed, very lucky to be here,” Holmes said.
No matter what, Holmes said working hard is the foundation of everything she does. In college, it was working really hard on being a great finisher. While rehabbing from the knee surgery that delayed her joining the WNBA by a year after being drafted, it was working hard to be in great shape to make the transition easier. Now she is working hard to continue to improve and bring her best every day.
Many of the characteristics that Holmes has drawn praise for can be traced back to much earlier in her career. Her reliable, hard work ethic, for one, is something she has prided herself on since she was young.
“I love when people describe me as that because I feel like those are the players that are the most fun to play with and be around. … If my teammates and coaches all know that I’m going to give all of myself when I go out on the floor, I think that’s what’s most important to me,” Holmes explained. “I think it’s just always been how I grew up from Maine. I’m from a small town, and kind of I’ve always had to grind my way to this point that I’m at now.”
That was further solidified in Indiana, where Holmes played on some of the program’s all-time best teams. Crucially, Moren says the success of those squads had less to do with talented stars and more with out-culturing their opponents.
“The best teams that I’ve coached here in Indiana have all fallen in love with each other’s success,” Moren said. “They didn’t care who scored, who got the rebound, who was guarding who; they just wanted to win games. But they were also, and I mean, really genuinely happy for each other, and that was part of the secret sauce for us.”
Holmes was a star at Indiana, yes, but she also had plenty of teammates with smaller roles who were asked to accept and star in their roles. It all taught her the value of those different roles and the value of being a good teammate regardless of your role.
The positivity that makes her such a good teammate has always been there too, but Moren says it took some time for Holmes to confidently bring that to the team. She came to Bloomington very quiet, according to Moren. It’s not exactly that she struggled with confidence, but Indiana being the only Power Four school that recruited her made it easy for questions to creep in about her ability to play at the level the Big Ten required.
Moren and her staff could see the “God-given” ability she brought, like quick hips, scoring with her left and right, big wingspan, and the kind of plays you can’t teach. So Moren felt she was skilled in a way that just required them to keep working and pouring into her, and she would gain confidence. And sure enough, as she got older and more mature, she started to know her own talent and demand the ball as her coaches wanted.
With that, Holmes also got more talkative as she heard Moren say “a quiet gym is a losing gym” probably one thousand times. That is one of the non-negotiables of Moren’s teams.
“I feel like we have got to be great at the things that take no talent, and those are like your energy level, talking every day, communicating and listening,” Moren said.
Now Holmes says she is a yapper because of the principles Moren instilled in her.
“A lot of what I’ve learned as an athlete and as a player is from my college coach,” Holmes said. “So I feel like whenever I notice that the energy’s low or people are quiet, I try to be that person that’s consistent. And no matter what it looks like, you’re always going to hear my voice.
“And sometimes it might feel forced a little bit, but I feel like that’s how we get momentum and get going. And I kind of feel an obligation, and like my role on the team is just making sure that the energy is up, people are talking. Anytime I can create energy when there are gaps, I’m going to do that.”
All these qualities that contribute to why Moren is so grateful she had the opportunity to coach her, and her Storm teammates and coaches love her, don’t go unnoticed by the fans either. Holmes fondly recalled a recent season ticket holder event where she was shocked by how many fans knew her and commented on her sideline celebrations.
“The fact the community and the fan base here has loved me and taken me in the way they have as someone who really doesn’t play that much, and they still see me as valuable and recognize me means the world to me … and I don’t think a lot of fan bases can say that they are so familiar with every single player on the roster,” Holmes said.
“You don’t realize that people notice those things; I just do them. So the fact that so many people have noticed my hustle, my energy, my joy, I think that is what was most special to me. And I hope that that can continue to be who I am in Seattle: someone who has joy and plays with an immense amount of passion.”
