Minnesota’s rookie point guard, Olivia Miles, has pushed the Lynx to a 11-3 start while Napheesa Collier recovers from an ankle injury. Coaches describe her as a “throwback” to a “true” point guard—yet her game runs on modern pace, decision-making, and attacki
Minnesota’s season didn’t just catch fire when Olivia Miles arrived. It caught on in a specific way—fast, organized, and built around choices she’s making before the defense even finishes deciding what to do.
Miles. a Minnesota Lynx rookie. has been starting at point guard for what the team has turned into the WNBA’s top setup so far. even as franchise player Napheesa Collier waits to return from an ankle injury. The Lynx are 11-3 while they wait. They drafted Miles with the second overall pick in April. and the match has looked increasingly like something the league can’t afford to ignore.
Coach Cheryl Reeve’s early message has been blunt: Miles has earned her trust. Reeve has praised the rookie repeatedly. and in a rare moment of getting out of secondhand talk she told Miles that “The team needs us. ” adding “We’re the brains behind it.” Reeve also laid out the long view when reporters asked about Miles on draft night. comparing her to “This is the first real point guard we’ve had since Lindsay Whalen.”.
Whalen—now in her second year as an assistant on Reeve’s staff—has her own take on what people mean when they say “pure” point guard. Whalen. a retired four-time WNBA champion who played 15 seasons in the league (nine with Reeve in Minnesota). argued the label may belong to a more forgiving past. She said. “I wasn’t a great three-point shooter. ” and described what the job asks for today: players must be able to score at the rim. pass. shoot. and have a midrange game.
Whalen wasn’t speaking in theory. The league is full of names that suggest the position is changing again. She mentioned Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers by name. and also pointed to Toronto Tempo rookie Kiki Rice and the Connecticut Sun’s Leïla Lacan as players who have made the transition look easy. But there’s history behind the debate.
When the WNBA convened a panel in 2011 to pick the league’s 15 best-ever players. five of the 15 were “true” point guards: Teresa Weatherspoon. Dawn Staley. Ticha Penicheiro. Becky Hammon. and Sue Bird. When the WNBA ran the exercise again in 2021 for its 25th anniversary—naming its “W25”—the list of “true” point guards shrank: Staley and Weatherspoon fell off. Bird. Hammon. and Penicheiro stayed on. and Whalen joined them. In the years since, dynamic two-way forwards have taken over the game’s center of gravity. The WNBA announced it would move to positionless All-WNBA teams in 2022. and the following year. the first team didn’t feature a single guard.
Against that backdrop, Miles’ job description has sounded both old-school and new-school at the same time. In the simplest terms, she understands every option before choosing the right one. Her game has been described as a kind of “film room” skill—watching the chessboard before it moves.
On the court, her decisions often start downhill. She tries to get into the paint when she can. and when she can’t. she still makes the defense pay for hesitating. Miles has an active, scanning approach that gives defenders only half a breath to match up. She leaves opponents disoriented just long enough to drive and finish. including a Statue of Liberty-esque layup described as part of her repertoire.
The officiating rules have also helped players like her live where she wants to live. The defensive three-second rule keeps the lane open, and league emphasis on freedom of movement has flatter downhill drives. Miles has been averaging close to five free-throw attempts per game. In Chicago in May, she told reporters, “I love to live in the paint.”.
She’s also been willing to seek the game’s hardest tests. In Las Vegas on Saturday. the Lynx found themselves in a rare close game with the Aces. one they lost 100-97. In the final two minutes, Miles looked for ways to get A’ja Wilson switched onto her twice. Both times, Miles drove past the three-time Defensive Player of the Year and scored.
The same willingness to keep attacking showed up in Minnesota’s second game against the Sky on May 23. Miles was so effective attacking the rim and finding teammates that her occasional hesitation on jumper opportunities was easier to forgive. There were moments where you could see her thinking through options in real time—an image that. for point guards. usually suggests the opposite of decisiveness. Reeve even stepped in at a press conference after the 85-75 win when the question shifted toward whether Miles was “a little jumper-shy.”.
Reeve cut in to redirect it: “Yeah, would you tell her that? Go ahead and share that with her,” she said, cracking a smile. Reeve then defended what she was seeing, saying Miles “really, really enjoys sharing the basketball” and “really enjoys creating easy shots for her teammates.”
Those teammates have made the benefit visible. Courtney Williams. who spent the last two seasons moonlighting at point guard before returning to her natural position at the two. is averaging about 17 points a game and is having her best scoring season yet. Natasha Howard, a forward who has been a go-to pick-and-roll partner for Miles, has been in a mini-renaissance season. In the first half of the May 23 game against the Sky, Howard had scored 22 points.
Stat lines back up the chemistry. Per PBP Stats. Miles-to-Howard is the fourth-most prolific assist combination on two-pointers this season. after Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray’s connections with Wilson and Caitlin Clark’s with Aliyah Boston. Only Clark can claim more assists to teammates at the rim.
Reeve said Miles’ next evolution would be recognizing when she had opportunities to shoot and “making decisions quicker.”
That growth wasn’t theoretical, either. When the Lynx returned to Chicago on May 29 for their third meeting with the Sky. Miles struggled with what she described on a podcast with Sue Bird as “the longer arms and quicker rotations” of professional basketball. That night. Chicago’s defense had limited the Lynx offense in the halfcourt for two quarters. and Howard appeared choked off. At halftime, Minnesota led by only three, 3 points instead of something more comfortable.
Then the third quarter arrived with a clear shift. Miles ran double ball screens that gave her multiple options. One screener—Howard—rolled to the basket. The second screener, Nia Coffey, popped out to the perimeter. Depending on how the defense chose, Miles could find a teammate or attack the rim herself.
After the game. Miles sat beside Coffey and said. “I love playing with stretch fours.” She added that Minnesota “literally ran the same play like three. four times over. because they couldn’t stop her.” Reeve later echoed the problem from the coaching side. calling Miles “just such a good counter player. ” and describing how she always seemed to know “something she knows to do.”.
Size and development—both kinds—are part of the explanation for why Miles could adjust so quickly. Tyler Marsh. head coach of the Sky. said he brought up size in preparing to face Leïla Lacan earlier this month. after facing Rice and Miles. Marsh argued that youth basketball often sends speedy but undersized players to the point because of how reps and offers work. while the most talented non-bigs are funneled to shooting guard earlier. He suggested the pro pathway often changes later.
Whalen tied it to a wider shift in what kind of point guard now gets trained: Rice and Miles. and the 6-foot Clark and Bueckers. belong to a generation “more free to develop as bigger point guards. ” and better positioned to handle physical pro play. Marsh said the trend is global as well—more players entering the league with experience in pick-and-roll-heavy systems taught to play with pace and space.
Miles’ own path tracks that idea. She spent her early college years at Notre Dame. then surprised the basketball world after her senior season by delaying entering the WNBA draft. Instead, she transferred to TCU to play for Mark Campbell, a head coach known for recruiting. When she appeared on Bird’s podcast earlier this season. Miles said she was drawn to Campbell’s system because it resembles WNBA basketball.
She told Bird, “The offense that he runs down there, it’s very pro-like,” and said she expected to get reps before going pro. In particular, she pointed to ball screen reads, turning the corner, and reading downhill options quickly, saying, “I feel like I got all of that at TCU.”
When she spoke to Bird, Miles had just put up 21 points and eight assists in her WNBA debut, a one-point loss to the Atlanta Dream. Later in the conversation, she told Bird, “I think I’m bringing back the retro point guard vibes.” Bird, 45, replied with amusement: “Yeah, 21 and 8?” and “Real retro.”
Reeve’s excitement about Miles has also been shaped by a looming personnel question: what happens when Napheesa Collier finally returns. Collier’s return is expected with a one-year, $1.4 million deal this offseason, and her free agency later would become one of the league’s biggest stories.
But for now. the Lynx are showing that the rookie can run the offense in a way that doesn’t feel like a placeholder. Miles’ three-point percentage has also become part of the story—she was 2-for-18 from beyond the arc going into the June 4 game against the Golden State Valkyries. Her jump has had its mysteries. too. with a background that includes an ACL tear toward the end of her sophomore season at Notre Dame and a drop to under 23 percent from three that year. She returned as a 40 percent three-point shooter on over five attempts per game. keeping a volume around that level at TCU. and shot 35 percent from three.
After the Valkyries played Minneapolis on June 4. they reportedly tried to keep her from getting a free lane—packing the paint and dialing down pressure. The change became the punchline of the moment: Miles punished them with 8-for-11 shooting from behind the arc. setting the new rookie record for made threes in a game. Reeve said afterward, “That was not on our bingo cards, to be honest with you. But we’ll take it.”.
That’s the paradox the Lynx seem to be leaning into—Miles knows exactly what shot isn’t on the other team’s “bingo card,” and she can still make modern offense add up.
When Collier rejoins the team later this season, Miles will likely keep doing what she does best. Asked how Minnesota managed to be so successful in a league social media video recently, Collier put the message in simple terms: “Every possession, we’re working hard,” and “And we have Olivia Miles.”
For Minnesota, the future already looks like something you can see in real time. Not because it’s guaranteed. Because for now, the Lynx have proof that a so-called throwback point guard can run a modern offense—and make the choices before the defense learns what hit it.
Olivia Miles Minnesota Lynx Napheesa Collier Cheryl Reeve WNBA point guard Caitlin Clark Sue Bird Sue Whalen A'ja Wilson