The Secret Weapon Behind Minnesota Lynx’s Unstoppable Rise: Napheesa Collier’s Game-Changing Journey
What if the sting of coming oh-so-close to glory is exactly what fuels greatness? Napheesa Collier, last year’s near-MVP and a defensive titan, is writing a new chapter in 2025—one where “almost” just doesn’t cut it anymore. Despite a trophy case already brimming with accolades, it’s the haunting memory of a WNBA Finals loss that’s propelling her—and the Minnesota Lynx—to the top of the league standings. And believe me, Collier isn’t just playing better; she’s redefining what it means to be elite, shaking up the restricted area and midrange like never before. How does one elevate from star to force of nature? With the Lynx clicking on all cylinders and an electric partnership with Courtney Williams, the question isn’t if they’ll seize the crown, but how decisively. Ready to dive deep into a season where past heartbreak meets relentless ambition? LEARN MORE.
Napheesa Collier finished second in MVP voting last year. But she’s been even better in 2025, leading the Lynx to the best record in the WNBA.
Sometimes, there’s no better motivator than falling just short.
Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier had a more decorated 2024 season than most players can even imagine. She won her first Defensive Player of the Year, captured Commissioner’s Cup MVP, and was a unanimous first-team All-WNBA selection.
By all accounts, that’s a successful season. But the accolades seem to stick with Collier less than a disappointing loss in the WNBA Finals.
“I’m honestly not gonna apologize for that. I’m a competitor. I want to win. I shouldn’t get over that. I should use it as fuel, which is exactly what I’m doing,” Collier told Taylor Rooks of Bleacher Report in the offseason.
So far in 2025, the ghost of that Finals loss still haunts the Lynx superstar, who looks determined to dominate every night. After a career year in 2024, Collier has somehow upped her output – she’s currently the second-ranked player in DRIP (our projection of a player’s contribution to a team’s plus/minus per 100 possessions) – and gotten more efficient by becoming near-perfect in areas in which she was already proficient.
Great Wasn’t Good Enough
When a player is as dominant as Collier, improvements in any area of their game are usually marginal. Drastic leaps from “elite” don’t happen often.
But that hasn’t been the case for Collier in 2025, who improved significantly in places she was already great – like the restricted area.
In 2024, she shot 64.1% in the restricted area (on 4.9 attempts per game). That ranked 11th out of 18 among players who attempted more than 4.0 shots per game from there. Of course, that list consists of many of the league’s best post players, so it’s not as if Collier was bad down low. She was very good at high volume and drew as much attention on the block as any of her contemporaries.
And still, in 2025, Collier has made that rare, drastic improvement from elite to … whatever is above elite. She’s currently shooting 75.1% in the restricted area on 4.4 attempts per game; the volume has stayed level, but her shooting percentage has risen over 11%, an almost unprecedented leap.
Shots like this, which would be impossible for others, have become common for Collier.
That 75.6% clip is second out of 15 players who shoot four times per game in the restricted area, behind two-time MVP Breanna Stewart, and third out of the 26 players who shoot at least three times per game in the restricted area. Phee and Stewie stand alone when combining volume and efficiency around the basket.
And under the hoop isn’t the only place where Collier’s efficiency has risen. From 5-9 feet, she’s shooting 50.6% and from 10-14 feet, she’s shooting 51.9%, per WNBA.com. Both are career highs. In 2023 and 2024, Collier established herself as a threat from the midrange after being relatively inconsistent there in the first few years of her career. Now she’s taken an even greater leap to become a master of the midrange, as the great Mark Jones would say.
Part of what makes her such a tough cover in the midrange area is the variation of shot types she can make. Sometimes it’s a face-up jumper, like here against Dallas.
But perhaps the most impressive part of Collier’s repertoire is her fallaway jumper, which she has somewhat improbably mastered even while all of her momentum is going away from the basket.
The physics of this shot doesn’t make much sense.
Collier finished second in MVP voting last year. She was already dominant. But in 2025, she’s increased her scoring output by over three points and her true shooting percentage by nearly five points, to 62.4 – which is 13th in the WNBA.
Among the top 15 in true shooting, only three players (Collier, Aliyah Boston and Azura Stevens) average double-digit scoring. Collier’s combination of production and efficiency put her in a league of her own.
Queen’s Court is in Session
Collier is not a typical post player. Her handle, agility and vision allow her to create offense for herself both in the half court and in transition.
But that doesn’t mean she needs to do it all herself. The Lynx have capable passers (they’ve been comfortably first in assist rate the past two years), and in 2025, Collier is more involved in that passing network than ever before.
She is being assisted on 80% of her made baskets this year, according to Basketball Reference. That’s 10% higher than her career average. One of the main reasons for that jump is Collier’s connection with half of the StudBudz, Courtney Williams.
Williams is having a career year in Minnesota. She’s a second-time All-Star putting up some of her best numbers (14.1 points, 6.0 assists, 37.0% from 3-point range) and has been a sparkplug of offensive electricity whenever the Lynx need it. Her ability to create open shots – or simply make contested ones – comes in handy often.
But her passing has been equally important to the team’s 18-4 start. If it feels like most of Williams’ assists have been to Collier, that’s because they sort of have. Entering Monday, Williams had assisted on 51 of Collier’s made baskets – the second-most assists in the league from one player to another, trailing only Skylar Diggins to Nneka Ogwumike.
In 2024, Williams’ first year with the team, she assisted Collier 56 times the entire season. In Year 2, that connection has become one of the most electrifying two-person games in the league.
Williams is fantastic at using the attention she attracts to open up shots for Collier. Here, Collier finds Williams streaking to the hoop, and the threat of her driving draws in the defense, which then leads to a panic from the defense and a wide-open 3-pointer from Collier off a jump pass (which are good now).
The connection between the two does not always result in crazy sequences. Often, it’s Williams making the simple read, like seeing Collier seal off her defender down low here.
Or quickly getting rid of the ball when the double team comes and getting her teammate an easy look. When the defense has to choose between selling out on one All-Star and trying to contain the potential MVP, it’s a lose-lose.
Williams and Collier have become an elite tandem, posting a plus-10.8 net rating on the floor together entering Monday. That ranks seventh out of the 44 two-player combinations that have played at least 450 minutes together in the W as of July 13.
Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve runs plenty of plays through Phee in the post. Minnesota’s screen-heavy offense is designed, in large part, to set her up for success against defenders down low. That’s been the case the past few years, too.
Nothing has fundamentally changed about how the Lynx operate – they’ve just somehow become an even more efficient unit. An MVP-caliber campaign from Phee and an enhanced connection between the two All-Stars have led the way.
Leave No Question
The difference between the team that loses the WNBA Finals and the team that wins is often pin-sized. That was the case last year, when the Lynx lost Game 5 to the Liberty in overtime.
One bounce – or call, quite frankly – going their way would have changed the course of WNBA history. Alas, that didn’t happen, and the Lynx came into 2025 with the weight of defeat sitting in their stomachs. They’re on a clear revenge tour that every team in the league unfortunately has a date on.
These Lynx are doing everything possible to make sure that they’re so much better than the rest of the league that one or two bounces won’t make a difference in the postseason. Collier’s improvements both around the basket and in the midrange have helped that cause, as has her chemistry with Courtney Williams.
For a great team to elevate to a title-winning team, it must find an extra gear. As the WNBA season flies past its halfway point, the Lynx appear to be doing just that.
For more coverage, follow along on social media on Instagram, Bluesky, Facebook and X.
The post Lynx Awakening: How Napheesa Collier Has Taken Minnesota to New Heights appeared first on Opta Analyst.
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