MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve put it plainly after her team’s 86-79 loss to the Chicago Sky on their home floor back on May 17.
“We’re just not there in repeating possessions, good possessions, repeatedly doing little things well over and over and over again,” Reeve said. “We’re not there yet, especially with our bench. Our bench is learning. We’ve got to get some help with our bench.”
The loss to the Sky was the first game the Lynx played after losing 21-year-old Czech rookie Emma Čechová for the season to a torn ACL she had suffered in the third game of the year against Dallas. Through two-and-a-half games, Čechová looked to have a way-too-early dark-horse candidacy for all-rookie and sixth player of the year honors.
Čechová scored in double figures in both of her first two WNBA games, scoring 12 and 11 points, respectively, on a combined 9-of-13 from the field while averaging 20 minutes per game against Atlanta and Phoenix. One non-contact injury while closing out to the corner later, and Čechová lost the rest of her rookie season, and the Lynx lost their biggest source of bench scoring.
The void left by Čechová was evident in the very next game, as the Sky bench outscored Minnesota’s 28-10 in a game where Kayla McBride played all but four seconds.
“We’re just not there yet, so we’re going to continue to spend time with that group,” Reeve added. “We told them the honeymoon’s over. Training camp’s over, and you made the team, right? That was the big thing. We had a bunch of players on our bench who weren’t sure if they were going to make the team; never played in the W before. So we’ve got to help them take a step and show [them] how to belong in this league and how they can help our team.”
A few short weeks and an eight-game winning streak later, a trio of Lynx players coming off the bench have completely changed their coach’s tune when talking about that group. Maya Caldwell, Antonia Delaere, and Anastasiia Olairi Kosu (commonly known as Ola) are all very different players who have taken different paths to their place on the 2026 Lynx, but as they’ve gotten to know each other over the last number of weeks, they’ve all found ways to help.
“I feel like that’s how it builds,” Caldwell said. “Getting more minutes playing together. In practice, getting the reps up, that’s exactly how you build chemistry. Even when we eat together before and after practice, all of those little moments.”
Despite a year with the Lynx under her belt, Kosu is the sixth-youngest player in the league at 21 years old.
Caldwell entered the year with 105 games in the W under her belt, with stops in Atlanta and Indiana. She arrived in Minneapolis after Reeve sent a 2028 third-round pick to Portland at the end of training camp, a move that is quietly looking like one of the better acquisitions of the year.
Delaere came in with the most total experience, having played professionally across Europe for more than a decade, but she is still categorized as a 31-year-old rookie navigating life in the W and the United States for the first time.
“They’re growing in confidence,” Reeve said after the team’s 88-68 win against Seattle on June 6. “I think our assistant coaches deserve a lot of credit as they pour into those players, and the players are working hard. It’s probably the best group that we’ve had on our off days. We call them ‘get-better days.’ It’s the best group that we’ve had in terms of how they’re approaching it.”
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All that isn’t to say Minnesota’s second unit has found an offensive explosion. The scoring has improved — up to 18.5 bench points per game in June compared to 15.4 in May — but it hasn’t gone gangbusters.
Overall, the 16.4 bench points per game on the season are second-to-last in the WNBA, ahead of only the Atlanta Dream (13.7). Last year’s Lynx team was fourth in the league with 22.8 bench points per game, spearheaded by a pair of sixth player of the year finalists in Natisha Hiedeman and Jessica Shepard.
During their current eight-game winning streak, the Lynx have won in blowout fashion in four of their last five. The continuing strong play of the starting lineup has been a key ingredient, of course, but each game featured multiple stretches when Minnesota’s bench came in and kept the collective foot on the gas pedal. Those stretches are proof that the work being done on those ‘get better’ days is bearing fruit.
“Every day [that] you can work with the staff we have, the players we have, it’s an opportunity to get better individually, but also as a team,” Delaere said before Minnesota’s 100-76 home win against Dallas on June 9. “I think for us as the second group, we take it as an opportunity to connect better because we’re together on the court [a lot]. I think we’re using those days really, really well, and it’s getting better and better when we’re in the games.”
A moment from Tuesday night’s blowout win against the Wings that really exemplified the growth came early in the fourth quarter. Despite the score, Reeve and the Lynx were not pleased with the effort in a third quarter that saw Dallas cut the lead, which had grown as high as 27, all the way down to 13.
All three of the aforementioned second-unit players were on the floor to start the fourth. A defensive rebound by Caldwell led to a Natasha Howard layup at the other end, Minnesota’s first of the quarter. Delaere started to fall back on defense, but sensed an opportunity and pounced on Maddy Siegrist’s inbound pass intended for Paige Bueckers. Delaere gained control of the ball in the corner right in front of the Lynx bench, before finding Kosu streaking to the hoop from the other side of the floor for an easy layup.
Just like that, the Lynx led by 19 again, and the game had all but been decided.
“You have to want to put in the work,” Lynx assistant coach and member of the organization’s four championship teams, Rebekkah Brunson, said. “There’s always going to be players who want to just show up and be good. They’re just waiting for the game, and that’s the most important thing to them. We have a group of players that understand that they have to put the work in first to be prepared for the situation when their name is called.”
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Caldwell, as the player with the most WNBA experience in the group, found the most consistent minutes early. Delaere has logged double-digit minutes in five consecutive games, and Kosu has done so for four, with both logging season bests in points, rebounds, and assists in the process.
“They come in ready to listen,” Brunson added. “They come in ready to learn, and they compete, and they have a good time. That’s special. Especially since we’re in a [time] where everybody wants to see what you did in the game. They want to see your highlight reel. They want to see the finished product. They’re not interested in seeing all the minutiae and what it takes to actually be a good player in this league, but they embrace that.”
Kosu — the only currently active bench player from last year’s team — looks especially comfortable with the additional playing time. On top of getting more comfortable in Reeve’s system, Kosu has grown significantly more confident with her English and is fighting less of a language barrier than she was as a rookie.
“I feel very [good] in the game,” Kosu said after a recent practice. “I’m just trying to do my best, trying to bring my energy to the game and get my stops … I just do my best trying to help my team, but I feel very [good] and am so excited when I come [in]to the game.”
Even in her second language, Kosu embodies the energy and enthusiasm-forward nature of a group that played like an afterthought through four games, but has been essential to the success over the last eight that has vaulted the team to the top of the WNBA standings.
“I’ve never been questioned on anything I’ve asked them to do on a get better day,” Brunson said. “They approach it with energy. They come in with positive attitudes, and you’re going to start to see that work show itself because of their approach.”
