Over the final 12 days of 2018, each day we will look back at the year that was for a WNBA team, reminiscing over some of the best moments from the past year and looking ahead to the upcoming year as well. Up next is the Minnesota Lynx, who entered the 2018 season as defending champs, but closed it as a team entering a transition phase.

Season Recap

Record: 18-16 nine-game dropoff from 2017
Finish: 4^th in Western Conference, 7^th overall
Postseason: Eliminated in first round, snapped streak of three straight Finals appearances, and six in last seven seasons
Awards: Maya Moore, All-WNBA Second Team, Sylvia Fowles, Peak Performer (Rebounds), Second Team All-Defense; Rebekkah Brunson, Second Team All-Defense
Leaders: Points (Moore, 18.0); Rebounds (Fowles, 11.9); Assists (Danielle Robinson, 3.3); Steals (Moore, 1.7); Blocks (Fowles, 1.2); 3-Pointers (Moore, 1.9)

Key Offseason Questions

Is the Lynx dynasty done or just in need of retooling?

Minnesota’s run over the past eight seasons has been nothing short of remarkable. Beginning in 2011, the team has won four championships and played in six WNBA Finals. But after averaging 26 wins from 2011 to 2017, the Lynx finished with just 18 wins in 2018 as the combination of an aging roster and the rising level of competition across the league finally caught up to Minnesota.

While Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles are still All-WNBA caliber players, the team has lost Lindsay Whalen to retirement and fellow cornerstones Seimone Augustus and Rebekkah Brunson are in the twilight years of their respective careers. There is a sense that 2018 was an end of an era, but can head coach and general manager Cheryl Reeve make the moves needed to keep Minnesota’s championship window open in 2019?

How will the roster evolve heading into 2019?

Minnesota should have a very interesting offseason in terms of the draft and free agency. They currently hold the sixth, 14th, 18th and 20th selections in this year’s draft. The No. 6 pick is their highest selection since 2012 as the team has either drafted at the end of the first round (due to finishing atop the league standings) or traded away its top picks to acquire veteran players to contribute while the championship window was open.

Reeve can look to build through the draft or be open to trading picks and players to retool the roster ahead of the 2019 season. Reeve is ready for that challenge.

“It’s a little bit invigorating. There’s the GM part which will be a lot of work but then there’s the basketball part that I’m looking forward to,” she said. “Eight years of doing things a certain way was obviously really good, but things are changing, and we’ve got to change with it.”

Best On-Court Moment

Rebound Records Fall

In the fourth-quarter of Minnesota’s win over the L.A. Sparks on July 5, Rebekkah Brunson passed Tamika Catchings to become the WNBA’s all-time leading rebounder. She now holds the top mark at 3,356 career rebounds and looks to add more as she enters her 16^th WNBA season.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bk30MMxnjaM/

Brunson wasn’t alone in setting WNBA rebound records as her frontcourt mate Sylvia Fowles collected 404 rebounds during the 2018 season to establish a new record for total rebounds and rebound average (11.9) for a single season.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmvpbjenDC2/

Fowles climbed to fifth place on the WNBA’s all-time rebound list with 3,030 career rebounds. And while that list is topped by Brunson, Fowles is now the WNBA’s all-time leader in rebound average at 9.9 per game.

Maya Moore Winning Her 3^rd Straight All-Star MVP

Minnesota hosted its first WNBA All-Star Game this past season and the hometown fans got to see one of their own in Maya Moore take home MVP honors by leading Team Parker to a 119-112 win over Team Delle Donne. Moore finished with 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists in 21 minutes.

It was the third straight All-Star MVP for Moore, who also won the award in 2017 and 2015; there was no All-Star Game during the 2016 season due the Summer Olympics.

Moore joined Lisa Leslie as the only three-time All-Star MVPs and is the first to do so in consecutive All-Star games. Moore also surpassed Tamika Catchings to become the all-time leading scorer in All-Star history. Catchings held the record with 108 points; Moore has now scored 119 points in her six All-Star appearances.

Lindsay Whalen Day 

When Lindsay Whalen announced that she planned to retire at the end of the 2018 season, you knew the Minnesota fans were going to give the hometown star a great send-off.

A week later, in the regular season finale, in what would prove to be her final professional game in Minnesota, the Target Center was packed with over 13,000 fans to show their appreciation on what was declared ”Lindsay Whalen Day” by Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton.

And in true Lindsay Whalen fashion the game ended with a win as the WNBA’s all-time leader in regular season wins upper her mark to 323 before trading in her jersey for the coach’s whistle as she now leads the University of Minnesota women’s basketball team. The Gophers are currently 11-0 and ranked No. 12 in the latest AP Top 25 in Whalen’s first season on the sidelines.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bmbn-AZHssS/

Best Off-Court Moment

Maya Moore’s Wings poster inspires

On May 20, a new piece of artwork was introduced in downtown Minneapolis. It was a recreation of the famous Michael Jordan “Wings” poster, only with Lynx star Maya Moore in the place of Jordan.

Moore, who became the first WNBA player to sign with Jordan Brand back in 2011, is also featured in a video promo for the brand that highlights her career and concludes with her striking the Wings pose and the voice of Michael Jordan saying “No bird soars too high, if she soars with her own wings.”

What started as a strong marketing campaign got bigger only a few days later, when four-year Liliana Sikakane and her family walked by the mural and she asked her father, Justice Sikakane “Do girls get to play basketball too?”

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjGkRkSgJJL/

Not only did the father take a picture of his daughter standing in front of the mural, emulating the famous pose, which then went viral online, but he also purchased tickets to a Lynx game so his daughter could see women playing professional basketball. Moore would

A week later, Moore and Liliana took a picture together doing the Wings pose.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjdJAfpF4Zv/

Former Lynx Katie Smith enters the Hall

Katie Smith, who played the first six-and-a-half years of her WNBA career with the Minnesota Lynx, was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this year. During her tenure with the Lynx, Smith earned four All-Star selections, two All-WNBA First Team honors and won the 2001 scoring title. She would go on to finish her career playing for Detroit, Washington, Seattle and New York, but her time in Minnesota played a significant role in her journey to the Hall.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg_sorqF6m7/

GIF of the Year

The Lynx gave us plenty of GIFs to enjoy over the course of 2018, but when choosing the GIF of the year, we take a closer look at Lindsay Whalen, who epitomizes Minnesota basketball. This year we saw Whalen coaching in the huddle during a timeout (getting practice in for her next gig), calling to the crowd for more noise, and even fanning Sylvia Fowles on the sideline when the center was on fire.

But for the GIF of the year, we go to the final moment of her WNBA career as she was exiting the floor after the Lynx fell in the first round of the playoffs to the Sparks. The rivalry between the Lynx and Sparks over the past few years has been intense as they met in back-to-back WNBA Finals and split the two championships. Rather than meeting with the title on the line, this time they met in the single-elimination first round. As fiery as the rivalry was between these two teams, there was an underlying respect, which can be seen her with Candace Parker embracing Whalen after the game.

New Year’s Resolution

With Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles both still playing at an MVP level – Moore won the award in 2014, Fowles won it in 2017 – the window for the Lynx to compete for championships is still open, even if it is not as wide open as it once was. After an extended period of the success, the Lynx did not meet their lofty expectations in 2018, but the goal of winning the championship does not change even though the method of getting there might. Keep in mind, the Lynx have won the title in every odd year since 2011 (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017). Can they find a way to keep that streak alive?