Could Seattle's Nika Muhl be one of the WNBA's next stars? | The Boneyard

Could Seattle's Nika Muhl be one of the WNBA's next stars?

I don’t think so. To me she needs to stick around and forge a path that is similar to the one being taken by Veronica Burton. She can find a spot in the league similar to that.

It will be a challenge to stay on the Seattle roster and not move around a bunch like Burton has. The Jade Melbourne trade Seattle made looks like a poor one atm. And there will be more decisions that need to be made next summer. There is also an expansion draft coming.
 
Nika has the capability to be a minor two way player (with the team she's on.) She'll never start for the Storm as long as Loyd and Smith are there, but maybe in the future if she stays on, she can be a 10 minute player who gives one of them a break. Her defense is pretty elite, her offense not so much. If she can contribute 5-10 points along with her defense, she should be able to get some minutes next season.

Should she go to a less guard heavy team, maybe this would be a slightly different story.
 
Hopefully, she comes back from Europe ready to contribute. But, between the expansion draft and the anticipated new CBA, next winter looks like chaos. If there is a long-term place in the W for Nika, it is not likely she is staying in Seattle.
 
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Anything is possible. One thing we know, and we were lucky to be able to witness Nika's ability when you say she can't do X. She figures it out and goes into the lab to improve whatever the coaching staff told her she needs to improve. Or she watches and learns what the team needs and she develops that need on her own. She will not be outworked! That's for sure. So maybe not next year but a year after. Nika is going to be in the W for a while.
 
However Nika’s WNBA career turns out, the one thing you can be absolutely certain about, is that Nika will never come up short due to a lack of effort, toughness and motivation. If there is a path to achieve stardom through sheer will, Nika will find it.
 
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The deacon said:
I hope Geno's right, but he also said Caitlin Clark wouldn't do well in the WNBA as a rookie.
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Well he was right for the first half of her season technically speaking. Pretty atrocious FG%, TO machine, and didn't play defense, instead took that time to scream at refs over dumb calls. After the break, she finally calmed down a bit and did a heckuva lot better.
 
The deacon said:
I hope Geno's right, but he also said Caitlin Clark wouldn't do well in the WNBA as a rookie.
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Please, let's not get into this again.

As far as Nika, I think she could be a great player off the bench, but I don't see her as a starter for a while. As far as a star? I don't think so, maybe in Europe.
 
From what I’ve heard, she’s made a great impression on the coaches, her teammates, and presumably the front office in Seattle. If I wasn’t hearing that, I’d be worried she’d be out of the league rather quickly. She wasn’t able to secure many minutes and didn’t produce much (took 40 games to get a basket).

She’s a player that will benefit greatly from the upcoming expansion in the W. In just a few years time there will be 36-48 additional roster spots. I doubt there are 36 better active women’s basketball players not currently on W rosters. That should allow her to use the experience from this year, and years to come, to carve out a nice role on a team. I liked the Veronica Burton parallel earlier in the thread.
 
GoUconn7961 said:
Please, let's not get into this again.

As far as Nika, I think she could be a great player off the bench, but I don't see her as a starter for a while. As far as a star? I don't think so, maybe in Europe.
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'Tis about Geno, not Caitlin....
 
yhun89 said:
Well he was right for the first half of her season technically speaking. Pretty atrocious FG%, TO machine, and didn't play defense, instead took that time to scream at refs over dumb calls. After the break, she finally calmed down a bit and did a heckuva lot better.
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A more accurate description would have been to state, that the first fourth of the season (not half) she had a rough go. The TOs that people want to rave about negatively, were as much to blame on her teammates than on herself. She led the league in assists from the get go. It's difficult at best for a rookie PG to enter this league without some bumps and bruises. While she was sizing up her teammates and learning what they could and couldn't do, they were attempting to adjust to her and what she wanted them to do. Considering everything she's gone through, the notoriety putting tons of pressure on her to not just do well, but exceed immediately. That plus al the distraction of why she wasn't added to the Olympic team, etc., etc.

I was never a Caitlin Clark fan while she was at Iowa, but I certainly am now. Plus she's playing with a former UConn great in Katie Lou Samuelson.
 
DEpup said:
I'm sorry but I think Nika could have done a better defensive job last night than Vivians even with being size challenged.
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Nika, in limited action, appears to be a half step slower than she was at UConn. Is it indecision based on not knowing the league or players?
 
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HopJim said:
Nika, in limited action, appears to be a half step slower than she was at UConn. Is it indecision based on not knowing the league or players?
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It could be a lack of unfamiliarity with the players and league but when I saw her play, she was her "UConn" self. Fighting through or going under screens. Pushing the tempo, passing and cutting. She looked like a rookie who only got 2-3 minutes a game. Doing the best she can out there. I thought she did well, especially on defense.
 
HopJim said:
Nika, in limited action, appears to be a half step slower than she was at UConn. Is it indecision based on not knowing the league or players?
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Could it be that the players she is now playing against are much bigger, faster and more athletic than the players she was playing against in college?
 
oldude said:
Could it be that the players she is now playing against are much bigger, faster and more athletic than the players she was playing against in college?
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Of course they are. Only the very best players from all the colleges are in the WNBA. Nika must have something going on that her coaches really like or they would have cut her long ago.
 
I love Nika but I think her only chance to play a real role on a team in the WNBA will be in expansion. At that level you are 1 of 12 and your skillset needs to be so diverse that a person who can only do one of two things really struggles unless that one thing is shooting. She might be able to get on a team that needs lots of defense but too much offense and find a niche but a starter wil be very tough.
 
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Nika's Besiktas team is 0-1 but does not play again until October 12. Nika did not play for them in their loss on September 28 but I would expect to see her on October 12. Her image is included in a recent Besiktas Instagram post.

They have a couple of other very good guards, Holly Winterburn from Great Britain and Dana Evans from Louisville and the Chicago Sky. Winterburn scored 25 in their first game. Evans played for them last season as well. So Nika will need to carve out a role in Turkey, no pun intended.

Her Seattle teammate and fellow UConn star Gabby Williams will be playing for Fenerbahce in Turkey as well.

For those not familiar with European basketball, Eurobasket is a good website to follow for team info, scores, etc.
 
Did anyone see the 60 Minutes piece on Caitlin and the WNBA? She, Phee, and Aliyah Boston were interviewed. The pics of the pre-game fashion walk into the arena included Nika. She is definitely a fashionista.
 
MilfordHusky said:
Did anyone see the 60 Minutes piece on Caitlin and the WNBA? She, Phee, and Aliyah Boston were interviewed. The pics of the pre-game fashion walk into the arena included Nika. She is definitely a fashionista.
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I saw it. Unfortunately about 1/2 of the segment was about the person who shall go nameless on this board. I did enjoy seeing Nika. It was a good news story about the W.
 
So will Nika be picked in the WNBA " expansion draft " on December 6, 2024?
Teams can only "protect" 6 players and the Golden State Valkyries can only pick
one player from each team. Given that the Valkyries will be looking for
guards, forwards, and one (?) "post" player this could be very interesting.
If Nika is not in the first 12 picked from this draft, I think she has a great
chance to be invited to the training camp. What do the other Boneyarders
think?? The "protected" players won't be know until late November so..this
may be a ""much" too early thread.
 
I would think she will be unprotected in the expansion draft and could wind up a bew squad.
 
I LOVE Nika. But in a way she suffers from the Kelly Faris syndrome. Tenacious defender, top notch effort, athletic enough, has a decent 3 point shot, but just isn't really able to put the ball in the basket.

Until Nika is able to score on a consistent/regular basis, IMHO she will bounce around the W until she slowly fades away. Having said that, I can't think of any player who will work harder than Nika, especially on the deficiencies in her game as it translates to the WNBA.
 
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