For the first time in the week since training camp started, Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve had her entire roster at the team's practice facility Sunday.
Seimone Aug-ustus began practicing Friday. On Sunday, Rebekkah Brunson practiced for the first time with the Lynx — 10 days after she helped USK Praha win the Czech League title. She played her last game May 2, hopped on a plane back to the United States the next day, and got in some rest before getting to the Twin Cities on Saturday night.
"She looks great, she looks rested," Reeve said. "I think the week probably wasn't enough for her, but it gave her some time to give her legs a rest."
Reeve said Brunson brought her characteristic energy to practice. "Especially on defense," Reeve said. "She changes things. For young players to hear about Rebekkah Brunson is one thing, but to see it is a whole different world."
Said Brunson: "It felt good to be around the girls again, see what they're doing, how they're progressing. Everybody looks good."
Brunson joins the team as Reeve is transitioning away from teaching and installing plans and into practices that will be more scrimmage-based.
The team will play the first of two preseason games Saturday against Washington in Bismarck, N.D. Reeve is taking a different approach to the preseason from the one she used in recent seasons. "The last two years we used the preseason for our players who were going to be here," she said. "We haven't used them to evaluate who's going to make the team. This year it's a little different."
Reeve needs to look at the group of new faces competing for the final roster spots. "We need to give them the opportunity to see what they can do in a game to determine who makes the final cut," she said.
