Skylar Diggins understands what it takes to get better. She did it last season on her way to winning the WNBA Most Improved Player of the Year award. This year, though, she’s focused on taking an even larger step.

The All-Star guard is tasked with helping her Tulsa Shock team get over the proverbial hump and into the playoffs, a feat that the franchise hasn’t achieved since moving to Oklahoma in 2010. Last season provided a glimmer of hope in Tulsa with Diggins’ remarkable season coupled with a successful rookie campaign from her backcourt mate, Odyssey Sims.

That hope has the players believing they can get the franchise back to its winning ways of old.

“We want to really carry on the legacy that the Detroit Shock left with all their championships and the great players that came out of there,” Diggins said earlier this summer at Team USA training camp.

Tulsa’s roster boasts one of the more athletic, young cores in the league, and general managers across the WNBA are sold on the Shock. In fact, 83 percent of WNBA GMs picked the Shock to be the most improved team in the league this year.

But in order to live up to those expectations they’ll have to improve at closing out games. Fourth quarters weren’t kind to Tulsa in 2014, but that’s not uncharacteristic of a young team. Still, it’s a flaw that isn’t lost on Tulsa’s stars.

“We still have to find ways to win towards the end,” said Sims, “but once we finally get over that hump, we’re going to be really good. A lot of teams in the league don’t like to play us. We’re going to play hard for it, no matter what the score is, and you don’t really see that from a lot of teams. Not only because we want to win, but we’re so competitive.”

The Shock’s misfortunes in 2014 landed them the No. 2 pick in the 2015 WNBA Draft, which allowed them to draft center Amanda Zahui B. Her addition to the frontcourt could prove to be major factor in 2015.

“We’re glad to have her … we have a lot of power at the big spot, so it’s just a matter of getting her in, molding her,” Diggins said. “It’s what we need.”

Diggins and Sims understand that the change isn’t going to happen overnight. For Diggins, her personal improvements were the result of hard work put in off the court and in practice. In order for that to translate to teamwide success, they’ll need to have some patience.

“We have all the right pieces to really make some noise,” Diggins said, “not only in the [Western Conference] but in the WNBA this year and the league as a whole. I think we could be one of the top teams potentially on paper right now, so we just got to get on the court together and put it all together and see if we can put the puzzle together.”

If the beginning of the 2015 season is any indication, Tulsa’s pieces are fitting together just fine.

Head coach Fred Williams’ team boasted the league’s third-best offense in 2014. Through two games in 2015, the Shock haven’t missed a beat offensively. In fact, they’ve looked just as good or better.

Diggins and Sims have combined to make the Shock backcourt one of the most explosive in the league. Sims is averaging 20 points and 6 assists per game while Diggins is averaging 17.5 and 6.

Forward Plenette Pierson, who was a member of the Detroit Shock from 2006 to 2010, scored 18 points in the season opener and followed that up with a 19-point performance. Her presence, along with fellow newcomer Karima Christmas, who signed with Tulsa in the offseason, is helping fill the void left behind by Glory Johnson’s absence.

As a team, they scored 101 points in a win over Chicago — the kind of win over a quality opponent that will need to become the norm for Tulsa to make the noise it’s capable of making.

“Right now we’re just being patient,” said Sims. “We know that this is going to be a big year.”