MINNEAPOLIS — The partnership between rookie wunderkind Olivia Miles and hall-of-fame point guard/assistant coach Lindsay Whalen was always going to be a crucial one for the Minnesota Lynx. Head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve evoking Whalen’s name on draft night within a couple hours of selecting Miles with the No. 2 overall pick made that clear. Without directly stating the expectations were sky high for her rookie point guard, it wasn’t hard for those on the outside to set them at such heights, or at least as high as Whalen’s retired No. 13 banner hangs above the floor at Target Center.
“She’s just really gifted,” Reeve said back on draft night. “We felt like there was two players with generational skills in the draft, the generational skill of passing, and play-making, and point guard, and leadership. If Courtney Williams is watching, I don’t mean to suggest that she’s not a great point guard, but [Miles] is the first real point guard we’ve had since Lindsay Whalen. When I say ‘real,’ you know, that kind of generational [player], and makes a living doing it. We’re really excited, for sure.”
Miles showed up in Minnesota the next day ready to learn from her new coaching staff and in particular from the hall of famer who played her same position.
“Get ready,” Miles said to Whalen directly during Miles’ first press conference in Minneapolis. “Because you’re going to be tired of me.”
Miles went on to say she’d been on a Lindsay Whalen highlight binge in the hours after the draft and that she was ready to learn “literally everything” Whalen had to teach.
“I learned that they’re great basketball minds,” Miles said when asked about what she learned about the Lynx through the pre-draft process. “I love being surrounded by great basketball minds. I’m a film junkie, a data junkie, so I pay attention to all that stuff. That’s why we were on the phone for so long because we’re just asking questions back and forth. It shows how intentional they are and how detail-oriented the staff is, and that’s kind of what separates you.”
A teaching opportunity for Miles and the rest of the Lynx came after a particularly rough preseason practice. Thankfully for Reeve, Whalen, and the coaching staff, helpful visual aids for getting lessons across are never too far out of sight.
“One of the days we were [practicing] at Target Center and we have all those banners of all those amazing players, obviously Lindsay Whalen being one of them,” Reeve said before the game against the Chicago Sky on May 17. “When [Miles] struggles, it’s not an ‘if’ because they all struggle. Maya Moore struggled. Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen, they all struggle. It’s not a perfect world, even though sometimes they make it look good because you only see them on game night. I said to them, ‘Do you know how many times those guys were right here at practice, right here trying to execute and it was terrible? How many times we didn’t execute? You’re supposed to experience this so you know you can succeed, so you know what the pitfalls are.’
“No question about it she’s had moments, and she works through them quickly and she’s been very mature. … My favorite part about her is her curiosity. She’s really, really curious and willing. To me, that’s humility and that goes a long, long way.”
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In the days and weeks since that moment of struggle under the banners at Target Center, Miles has turned that curiosity into an incredible start to her rookie season. She’s written her place into both franchise and WNBA history by becoming the first Lynx to eclipse double-digit scoring in each of her first 10 games, and set the all-time league record for 3-point shots made in a game by a rookie when she went 8-for-11 from deep in a thrilling 87-84 win against Golden State. After eight games in May she was honored with the league’s Rookie of the Month (ROTM) award.
More important to Miles than all of that, though, is the fact that the Lynx are 8-2 and sit at the top of the hen house in the WNBA standings.
“Yeah it’s cool. It means I’m doing something right, but more importantly it means that we’re winning and we’re doing well as a team,” Miles said after the aforementioned win against the Valkyries on June 4. “I think one of the first things Cheryl said was I won [ROTM] because we’re winning, doing really well in the standings and we’re playing great basketball. That’s what I’m most proud of. I know the individual stuff will come eventually, I’m really just focused on getting wins, brilliant wins like this at home. It feels so much better to grind it out with your girls, you saw us hug at the end because we’re just like, ‘Thank god,’ because it’s hard and we just appreciate every win.”
Miles’ growth is tied to her growing relationship with Whalen, who’s never too far away and goes through pregame workouts with before every game.
“It’s obviously been fun to get to know her from watching her in college to when we met her at the airport, now through like two months in,” Whalen said after shootaround on June 4. “It’s been really fun to get to know her as a person. She’s always asking for more work and film. Says thanks to me all the time for workouts and different things. She’s awesome. It’s been fun to see her and continue to watch her grow. Obviously, she’s very deserving of the award.”
The curiosity and eagerness for more work has helped Miles get over the lows of her young rookie season. She’s used struggles that come in the shadows to perform when the lights shine brightest.
“I think back to that practice and different things, players now they can see the banners and the championship rings and you know, you [could] think that just was easy, that it just happened,” Whalen said. “But it did not come without a lot of struggle, a lot of times turning the ball over in practice and not having your best day, feel like you can’t make shots, or feel like you can’t defend. I think to just make sure that they know we had days like that. It doesn’t just happen. It was a journey along the way. It was the teammates and the fun and all those things that made it so worth it.”
As “true” point guards who have both now played the position under Reeve, Miles and Whalen will be forever connected in Lynx basketball lore. That the two have helped Minnesota get off to this kind of beginning bodes well for the chapters of Miles’ rookie season that are still yet to be written.
“It’s surreal and I say it everyday, I’m so blessed to be here and so lucky to be in this situation getting coached by the greats all around,” Miles said. “What [Whalen]’s taught me the most is just to be my whole authentic self. Getting to know her she’s so quirky and fun and just herself. I love that about her and it’s kind of translated to me on the court, my energy just being me on the court. She really helps me, obviously with the X’s and O’s, but also personality-wise and just being myself.”
At the 10-game mark, Miles has shown no signs of slowing down, but just in case she needs a reminder at any point all she has to do is look up. Those banners aren’t going anywhere and neither are the lessons they hold.
