
Let's start off this week's Lynx mailbag by talking about an issue that is facing the team right away: Its roster.
A reader asks if Odyssey Sims and Jessica Shepard will be ready should the season start. And, if they are, how difficult will it be for the Lynx to reach their 12-player roster?
This is a very timely question given a report by the Associated Press this week that said teams will be asked to pare their rosters to 12 by next Tuesday so that players can start getting paid June 1.
This will present teams with difficult decisions, including the Lynx, who will have to make decisions about a number of younger players – including their second- and third-round draft selections (Crystal Dangerfield and Erica Ogwumike) without having watched them practice with the team.
Sims and Shepard are question marks for different reasons. Sims gave birth to a son in early April. She has remained mum on whether she'll play this season, but the Lynx still believe she will be available, at least at some point.
In mid-June Shepard will reach the one-year mark from surgery she had after tearing the ACL in her right knee early in last season. Frankly, Reeve doesn't know exactly how Shepard is doing, in large part because of the limitations stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
I think it'd be safe to assume that, should a season get going this summer, both of these players might not be available when it begins.
Which leads us to another question, what does the depth chart look like at all five positions?