SEATTLE — After the Seattle Storm huddled up to end shootaround on Friday, rookie guard Flau’jae Johnson suddenly disappeared to the locker room while her teammates started getting shots up. She came back out for her own shooting practice wearing a fake Meredith Gray hospital badge, the titular character from the Seattle-based TV show Grey’s Anatomy.
While Johnson’s life bears no real resemblance to the character whose show features increasingly insane story lines, both excel as young stars in their fields, even though they are just one member of a team. Both are extremely dedicated to their crafts, and the pursuit of getting better.
Perhaps Johnson also sees those similarities as she told The IX Sports that she was wearing the badge because it is one of her favorite shows and, only somewhat jokingly, because she is Meredith Grey. The show represents all she knew about Seattle before joining the Storm, wrongfully expecting it to be cold and raining all the time. Now, 15 games into her rookie season, Johnson has deepened her knowledge of both Seattle and basketball, but the work ethic that got her here remains.
So far in her rookie season, the No. 8 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft is averaging 11.5 points (fifth among rookies), 5.3 rebounds (first among rookies), 2.5 assists, 1.0 blocks (first among rookies) and 0.8 steals in 26.7 minutes per game. She has scored in double digits during nine of her 15 games, and made at least two field goals every game. The LSU graduate became the first rookie in 2026 to record two double-doubles when she recorded 14 points and 12 rebounds against the Sparks on June 8. However, these statistics are not what have stood out to Johnson herself about her rookie season.
“It’s been such a growing experience for me,” Johnson told The IX Sports at shootaround on Friday. “It’s been so fun being able to play basketball, being able to learn the game, learn the system, and then operate at a high level. I think that’s been super cool.”
As far as how she evaluates her start to the season, she is not as complimentary as her statistics and the Storm promoting her for All-Star selection might suggest.
“I don’t know, I’m hard on myself,” Johnson said, adding that her head coach would give a better answer than she could. “But I think I’m just learning and growing every day and making an impact where I can on the floor, on offense and on defense.”
If you judge Johnson’s rookie season by the growth she is focused on, her coaches and teammates think she’s been fantastic.
“Every game you can see a different Flau’jae,” second-year center Dominique Malonga told The IX Sports. “You can see that she’s got more composure in the games. She’s really willing to improve and to listen to every single [piece of] advice everybody has to give her. I think now she’s taking her time more. You can tell that the game has slowed down for her, and she’s just seeing the floor more and managing her pace better. I’m just really proud to see her growth and the energy that she brings every day.”
Her veteran teammates, guard Natisha Hiedeman and center Stefanie Dolson, agree that Johnson has grown a lot.
“Her reading the game has come a long way,” Hiedeman told The IX Sports. “Her IQ of the game has grown tremendously from day one until now, and I think it’s going to continue to grow because she’s really locked in on elevating that part of her game. Her skill, her athletic ability, all of that is there.”
Dolson agreed, telling The IX Sports: “She was already so competitive, so skilled, making shots, making reads, so I think her growth doesn’t shock me because of how willing she was to learn, to ask questions so fast. I think some rookies come in, they want to feel it out first. She came in guns blazing.”
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Head coach Sonia Raman said that Johnson has been putting in the work, and that effort is translating, particularly to her reads on offense and understanding of matchups, how to guard certain actions, what schemes the team is trying to be in and how they want to guard specific players. Raman noted that work is particularly evident in recent games.
Across two games, June 8 at Las Vegas and June 10 hosting Los Angeles, Johnson became the first rookie to record 13-plus assists and zero turnovers in a two-game span since Michelle Cleary in 2000, and just the third player ever to do so in WNBA history (Cleary, Jennifer Azzi). The seven assists against the Aces and six against the Sparks are examples of her improved decision-making and increasingly fluid reads.
After the Sparks game, Johnson credited her performance to her teammates being elite shot makers, Raman for pushing her to make an impact beyond scoring and her work with assistant coach Jarell Christian.
“I work every day with Coach Jarell; he’s really hard on me about being better, making the right reads, and being dynamic,” Johnson told media. “I feel like I draw a lot of crowds and stuff, so learning to get my teammates involved is doing something that I really appreciate.”
A few moments in the Las Vegas game stuck out to Raman as exemplary of Johnson’s growth. The first was a play where they got the ball to the second side and executed some of the triggers they had been working on.
Coming down to set a pin and slip to the rim as she did “[was] a little bit against her natural instinct and what she would normally do in that situation,” Raman told The IX Sports. Fellow rookie Awa Fam found her for the layup where Johnson drew the foul.
“She’s been working on that particular read for so long now, in her breakdowns, in her work with Jarell, and I think that play was symbolic of a lot of plays that she’s been making,” Raman said.
Raman also pointed to a play where Johnson assisted Dolson to hit a corner 3-pointer.
“She’s so impactful at playing full force and getting downhill, and then for her, understanding, learning that help comes over, where her teammates are, and she just made such a fluid read on that,” Raman said.
Assists have been a focus of Christian and Johnson’s work together. Raman assigned Christian to work with Johnson as she thought his experience with younger NBA G League players gave him an “understanding of what is ahead of her, what she needs to be a pro and to really make an impact in the league.” She also noted his ability to teach the game paired well with her hunger to learn.
Johnson views his help as instrumental to her growth because of his honesty and refusal to rush her development process.
Part of Christian’s initial evaluation of Johnson was based on what he views as “the responsibility of making the right plays and making the right reads that aren’t always reflected in the box score.” He wanted to help her see the defense and how they’re guarding her, and understand how she could get her teammates involved.
“She really wants to get better. She really wants to learn,” Christian told The IX Sports. “I think with her specifically, the growth that she’s had in just two weeks has been phenomenal. At first, it was a lot of frustration on her part, because she felt like it wasn’t as easy as she thought it was. And once we watched the film, she could see where she was making some mistakes. … So her actually being able to find those pockets and be able to execute on some of those passes is fun to watch.”
The main issues, according to Christian, have really been simple rookie mistakes, namely, a lack of disciplined in spacing and a tendency to play at 1000 miles an hour.
“It’s one of those things of getting her to slow down and process the floor, but it’s also like once you get the ball, take a beat, let everybody get to where they need to be, and now those lanes are a lot more open,” Christian explained.
Johnson can’t constantly go at full speed, Christian explained, because she needs to allow her teammates to get into space and draw their defenders further away from the paint. In a pick and roll, a slower pace allows the big to roll below their defender, creating a two-on-one, or allows them to pop and actually get the pass back.
“Once you’re able to slow down physically, all the stuff that you see on film, you see it in real time,” Christian said. “It all starts with being able to get into those spots and then having the discipline enough to and the maturity of actually being able to slow it down in your mind.”
While Johnson’s assists haven’t been mind-blowing, they have been effective, simple and valuable.
Adjusting to a losing record
While working on her game, Johnson has also had to adjust to losing. The Storm are on an eight-game losing streak with a 3-12 record. Playing in more than 140 college games over four years at LSU, Johnson’s Tigers lost just 20 games and won an NCAA National Championship in her freshman season.
“She got like really high with the wins and really low with the losses,” Storm guard Jade Melbourne told The IX Sports. “And in the 44-game season, you can’t afford to do that. So she’s become more consistent in that, where it’s like, the losses, she’s quick to learn; she’s now mature enough to like have those conversations, be like, what did you guys see, how do we learn from this. … She’s an energetic player, so she’s still going to get really high, but the ability to kind of balance that throughout a 44-game season and not get as low as she was, I think, is a real big sign of growth and maturity.”
It’s the reality of being a professional athlete: the games happen so quickly, you can’t dwell on a loss or get so excited about a win that you create a false sense of your team; you have to keep perspective. While Seattle has had to work through this as a group, it’s also something Johnson had to figure out individually. The losses still disappoint her, but she handles it differently now.
After losing to the Sparks on Wednesday, Johnson walked into the press conference visibly and audibly less energetic. Friday morning, she admitted she was really sad after that result.
“I was so sad because I didn’t do enough to help my team win,” Johnson said. “So just upset, but also understanding that it is a process. Understanding that that’s a good feeling to have, that means I can get better, that means I can grow, that means this is not my ceiling. … I was so irritated, but then like my perspective just kind of shifted, just really getting out of that moment and seeing the process.”
In that game, she scored 14 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and added six assists. But “pretty good ain’t great.” She felt she could’ve hit more shots and made more passes in the 88-83 loss.
Johnson used to judge her own performances on wins and losses, but now she’s learning to focus on the process.
“Did you do everything you could to ensure you got the right outcome and the outcome just didn’t come?,” Johnson told The IX Sports. “… I show up every day, and I put in work, and I watch a lot of film with the coaches. I’m always picking everybody’s brain. I just feel like that process has made me such a better player in such a short period of time.”
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That shift to focus on the process seemed to happen before the media’s eyes as her mood lightened throughout the presser and she finished the press conference almost thankful for the loss:
“I like it because I’m a winner, … and I’m just learning more about the process,” Johnson said after losing to the Sparks. “They say no rain, no flowers, and I feel like, as long as we’re growing, it’s gonna happen; … I was in a press conference in Dallas, and it was like Paige [Bueckers], and them they only won, like, 10 games her rookie year … now they’re a top team in the league…”
“The thing about this organization is that every day it’s like next play mentality … If it was bad energy, I would be out of it, but, like, man, these people that I’m around are so special, and all we’re trying to do is build, build, build every day. So it makes you really believe in that process. So I don’t know, I’m a winner, and I’m gonna figure out how to win, and we’re gonna figure out how to win.”
Malonga has been impressed with how quickly Johnson has adjusted to the condensed WNBA schedule, part of what makes staying level-headed so important. It’s something Malonga wished she had gotten a handle on earlier in her own rookie season.
“[Johnson]’s a competitor, she wants to win, we all want to win, and we are on a losing streak right now, and sometimes it’s hard and you just get down on yourself,” Malonga said. “But I think she got that you can’t just think about the last game; you got to move forward, you got to move forward quickly. And I think she picked that up pretty fast. She’s really hard on herself; she would get down, and now she’s really like next game and she’s always coming back the next day with a smile.”
How is Johnson processing losses now? By immediately addressing what she could’ve done better, either working out or watching film. On the road, she will sit and watch the entire game in flow with Christian on the flight back. At home or traveling, she will break down offensive clips with Christian and defensive clips with assistant coach Michael Joiner, and be completely honest with herself.
“I feel like I’ve got a lot of people here who are going to tell me the truth. They don’t tell me what I want to hear; they’re going to tell me what it is,” Johnson said. “… I feel like everybody here understands where I want to go and who I want to be, and they’re trying to help me get there. …
“It’s easy to point the finger when you lose, but it’s hard to take accountability, and I feel like it starts with yourself. Like you take accountability first, and then that will go through the whole team. So that’s always what I try to do after a loss. I always talk about what I can do better, not trying to point the finger; I’m not trying to do none of that. And I think that goes a really long way in the locker room.”
Consistency
But adjusting to the losses hasn’t been the hardest part of her rookie season, Johnson said; it’s maintaining consistency.
“I would say the hardest thing is just being able to show up every day and give everything,” Johnson said. “Because I’m that type of player, like 100% or nothing, every day I come out here, like even on bad days when I don’t feel like it and I’m tired as hell. … That consistency can be hard, but it’s very meaningful, especially when people notice it, when they notice, like, you never have a bad day. … That’s the kind of player that I’m becoming — a culture person, culture player.”
Despite struggling for it, the consistency Johnson is striving for is exactly what her teammates have noticed.
“That energy ain’t going to shift or change; that’s who she is no matter what, and that’s what I love about her,” Hiedeman said. “It doesn’t matter if she’s got two points or 20 points, her confidence, her energy, how she supports her teammates, always the same.”
That is also Malonga’s favorite part about playing with Johnson: “She’s on every ball, she’s always running up the floor, she always makes the high-level plays and she just gives her 100% all the time.”
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That consistency isn’t just for the benefit of her teammates, though. Johnson said consistency is what helps her keep her sanity when things go wrong.
“So when something goes wrong, I know it wasn’t my fault because I showed up,” Johnson explained. “Not blaming other people but just knowing that I checked off every box to be like I showed up, I did my routine, I did what I had to do, and it just didn’t go my way tonight. So it just gives me sanity to know that I put the work in and I got something to fall back on.”
One thing she consistently does to this end is her pregame ritual of meditating out on the court, something she has done since her sophomore year of college after her grandma showed her meditation practices. Every game she works to silence her mind amidst all the noise and the distractions of the arena so she can be still.
Through the struggles, Johnson has also stayed consistently herself – a positive and confident individual.
Teammates have praised Johnson’s energy and joyous spirit since training camp. Now a third of the way through the season, that personality has shown on the court in her hyping up her teammates and the crowd, showing her emotion and passion, lifting her teammates with her.
“It does impact me, and I always say to her, I’m not the most expressive, and sometimes we’ll do big plays and she’ll come hype me up and I just have like a stoic face. I tell her, ‘don’t worry, I’m with you, just keep cheering for me because I’m really getting nourished by your energy,’” Malonga said.
“It keeps me young,” Dolson said. “You know, I’m always tired; sometimes it’s hard when you get in the grind of the season. So to have someone like her, and honestly, a lot of the girls on the team are just very light, very happy constantly, so I think that helps just uplift everyone.”
Christian says he is glad to be working closely with Johnson, both because of her playing ability and the person she is:
“She’s a special spirit,” Christian said. “She has like a light about her that I never want to dim. And she just has like natural, God-gifted talent on the court, but she’s also just a person that changes the room when she walks in, and she doesn’t even have to say anything. It’s just her presence.”
During games, Johnson is very expressive. She is never afraid to talk a little trash, no matter the opponent. Early in the season, when the Storm were playing in Connecticut, Johnson scored a layup over Sun center Brittney Griner and then did the ‘too small’ gesture at the 6’9 Griner as she ran back down the court.
“I feel like in this league you can’t be scared of anyone, because if a veteran smells out that a rookie has got an inch of fear, they’re going to grab that and go, ‘right, I’m coming right at you for an and-one,’ so you can’t afford to be scared,” Melbourne, who is in her fourth WNBA season, said. “That’s Flau’jae’s way of doing things, and I think she’s done a fantastic job of, usually, when she talks, or she does things like that, she backs it up as well, which is really impressive.”
That consistent confidence and competitive nature, along with holding herself accountable, are almost like superpowers that help her impact now and continued growth.
“Once she gets on the court, she doesn’t care who you are, where you’re from. She’s just gonna come at you like you’re just another opponent,” Melbourne said. “That’s what makes her special and what makes her great. But she’s her hardest critic. So she comes to the bench, she’s like, ‘Damn, that’s on me.’ She’s gonna own it, we don’t really have to tell her what she’s done wrong. She’s the one that’s going to be like, “Oh, I did that, I did that, … but she still walks into the gym the next day smiling, happy.”
All-around impact
Everyone knew Johnson was an elite scorer when she came into the W, but she wants to make an impact all over the floor.
“I think she takes real pride in being a two-way player in this league, which is really, really important,” Melbourne said. “A lot of people come in and want to score all the time, or they want to get on the boards and do the things, but she’s doing things both offensively and defensively, and even things that don’t show up on the stat sheets.”
Already, Johnson made Storm history as a shot blocker, as she became the fastest guard in franchise history to reach 15 blocks, and leads WNBA guards and all rookies in total blocks (15). She was the second rookie guard in WNBA history to reach 15 blocks in 10 games, joining Elena Delle Donne.
“As a guard that’s a shot blocker as well, that’s a unique skill. She’s probably got more than I have in my whole career,” Melbourne joked. “She’s got blocks, but she’s stopping great players. … someone looks like they’re burnt, but Flau’jae is there, and now she’s helping her teammates. So she’s really bought into the defensive end.”
Dolson noted that Johnson’s defense is so impactful because of the effort she has brought from the beginning. At the same time, she thinks Johnson has gotten better at making opponents second-guess.
Along those lines, Raman also praised Johnson’s aggressiveness on defense. She acknowledged that sometimes it will result in leaving her feet or committing a foul, but she wants all of her players to be aggressive like that.
“I want them to really try to get out of their comfort zone and find a place to impact winning, and then we can dial it back if we need. But I think mistakes and aggression are much better than hanging back. So we love the energy that she brings on the defensive end and the blocks,” Raman said.
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Johnson said rebounds are one stat she will focus on as a measure of her impact. After Wednesday’s game against the Sparks, when Johnson grabbed a career-high 12 rebounds, Hiedeman talked about how fun it is to watch Johnson rebound; from the bench Hiedeman looked up in awe as Johnson pulled down board after board.
“It’s her energy, it’s the type of teammate she is, it’s her energy on the bench when a teammate scores, it’s her celebrating her teammates’ success, it’s just like the passion that she brings to practice every day, everything’s competitive with her,” Christian said. “A rookie that’s drawing that type of attention and being able to impact the game while she’s on the floor, but also while she’s on the bench, but like being able to draw a crowd and make the right read and have the discipline to do that is special.”
Early in her rookie season, Johnson has, by her teammates’ own words, been one of the Storm’s best players. All the while, she has clearly improved key aspects of her game to make an even greater impact. With her consistent work ethic, desire to learn and focus on the process, Johnson has the chance to grow into a starring role in Seattle.
