The WNBA trade deadline came and went without much of a fuss in Minnesota. Multi-time MVP runner-up Napheesa Collier making her triumphant return to the lineup got all the attention for deadline season shakeups for the Lynx, and deservedly so.
Head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve did make one roster move, by offering a standard contract to Chicago Sky development player Chloe Bibby. In an adjacent move, the Lynx were granted a Season Ending Injury Exception for Emma Čechová and used it to retain Eliška Joklová (née Hamzová) coming off her third 7-day contract.
Bibby made her debut with the Lynx on August 21 with five scoreless minutes in a 94-84 win against the Washington Mystics. She then played seven minutes and scored five points on 2-of-3 shooting from the field in Minnesota’s 80-66 loss to the Valkyries on August 24.
“I wanted her to play,” Reeve said after the loss. “We’re at that point where we need to see what a player like her can do. Especially, Chloe really has a shot-making ability from the perimeter and I think getting her in quality minutes and have her work through whatever feelings of, you know, trying to figure it out. Having her on the roster, there’s a purpose to it. This was one of those games that potentially, if we’re not getting shot-making, that she could come in and have some opportunities.”
There weren’t enough opportunities for Bibby to make up the difference on a night when the Valkyries just put the clamps down on anything Minnesota’s offense tried to accomplish. But as she continues to get more comfortable in the Lynx’s system, she’ll have the opportunity to be Reeve’s go-to sniper off the bench for a second unit that’s struggled to find scoring all year long.
“It’s obviously been a bit of a whirlwind, but everyone’s been super nice and really helpful,” Bibby said during her first availability with local media after her first practice in Minnesota. “[I’m] getting to know what we do in warmups, the plays and stuff, everyone’s been super great and it’s been awesome so far.”
Bibby averaged 5.5 points in four games with Chicago this season. She averaged 4.8 points across 14 games with Indiana and Golden State last season and is a career 38.9% shooter from 3-point range per Basketball Reference.
“She can shoot the darn thing and her release is quick,” Reeve said of Bibby after her first practice with the team. “There is not a thought about whether it’s going up. It’s going up. She’s very confident.”
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Bibby, who will be part of the Australian national team competing at the FIBA Women’s World Cup in Berlin in September, participated in Lynx training camp in 2022. She made it to one of the final rounds of cuts just a few days before the season started.
“We brought her here for a reason in 2022,” Reeve said after the Lynx extended the offer sheet. “We liked her ability to space the floor and we like her toughness. Aussies are tough. Since then, I’ve enjoyed seeing her improvement as a professional and her confidence, so it’s be a very different player than what we had in 2022.”
Since her first WNBA camp, Bibby has played across Europe and was named Most Valuable Player of the top flight league in Poland in 2024 while playing for Gorzów, the same club where Alanna Smith earned MVP honors in 2022 before playing for the Lynx by way of the Chicago Sky.
“Yeah, that was a long time ago. I feel like I was a baby then out of college,” Bibby said when asked about her training camp experience in 2022. “I think I’ve grown in a lot of areas and in all of my game. I’ve been overseas and I’ve been able to play and become a different player than I was in college. Obviously, still shoot the 3-ball a little bit, but I think my decision making and overall game has improved tremendously.”
The addition of Bibby means Reeve now has a full roster to choose from for rotations. Minnesota’s full compliment of riches on the perimeter means minutes are in short supply for Bibby and anyone else coming off the bench. But her shooting ability and energy will make her an intriguing piece of the championship puzzle Minnesota hopes to put together over the next several weeks.
“Obviously, this is a great organization,” Bibby said. “… You contend for championships every year. Just excited Cheryl wanted me to come back, to be honest. I was like, ‘Shit, really? Okay!’ I was just super excited. The standards are super high. It’s championship standards and I’m excited to be part of that.”
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