Miller applauds trade to Lynx, hopes sister can join her

Kelly Miller was with her Russian women's basketball team in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, when she got an urgent call last week. It was her mother, Kathy. Kelly initially thought something was wrong.

Instead, the call was to tell Kelly that she was returning to Minnesota. Phoenix had traded her to the Lynx on Friday in a three-player deal.

"It's exciting to come back to Minnesota and play," said Kelly Miller, a high school star at Rochester Mayo in the mid-1990s along with her twin sister, Coco.

"Every time [Phoenix] played Minnesota, I could see how talented they were," Kelly Miller said on Tuesday on a conference call from near Moscow. "We're definitely a playoff-caliber team. We have all the pieces."

The Lynx will be Kelly Miller's fourth WNBA team. She was going into the third and final year of her contract at Phoenix. The Lynx picked it up.

Miller was the Mercury's point guard in 2007 when it won the WNBA title. Last season she averaged 8.3 points and four assists and again started every game.

"Hopefully, I can continue to play as long as possible," said the 5-10, 140-pound Miller, who turned 30 in September. "I feel good right now, so I feel I can keep playing for a while longer."

In the past, the Lynx have tried to acquire Coco, who has two years left on her contract with Washington.

"We're certainly hoping that it happens," said Kelly, who owns an offseason home in Phoenix with Coco. "It's always been a dream of ours to play together in the WNBA. I guess we'll wait and see."

The Lynx signed Coco Miller to an offer sheet in 2006, but the Mystics matched it. Coco has played for Washington since the Mystics drafted her in 2001 with the ninth overall pick. Kelly was taken second overall that year by Charlotte.

"[Coco] is extremely happy for me," Kelly Miller said.

The two are training partners in the short offseason they have, waking up at 5:30 a.m. to run 9-10 miles, then lifting in their weight room at home.

"We had a young club," Lynx coach Don Zierden said. "But bringing Kelly in, her experience will help -- and not just verbally -- through her actions and her tremendous work ethic."