Portland Fire could actually shut down any notion of a rivalry with our Seattle Storm this Friday night, and honestly, that stings just thinking about it.
The Fire’s Wild Plan (or Lack Thereof)
Edwin Garcia, he’s been tracking all the WNBA teams revving up the tank for the prospective 2027 WNBA Draft class. We’re talking some absolute studs headlining that group, like USC’s JuJu Watkins, Madison Booker from Texas, and Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo. There are seven teams outside the playoff picture right now, and five of ’em even own their own draft picks , sorry, Phoenix Mercury and Chicago Sky fans, that’s gotta hurt! Naturally, those teams are seriously incentivized to prioritize draft positioning. Even if they’re not intentionally losing, they certainly aren’t going all out to win ’em, you know? It’s a calculated gamble.
But then there’s the Portland Fire, currently sitting at No. 9 in the WNBA standings. These guys are just tough to figure out! Unlike the Mercury, Sky, Los Angeles Sparks, or Toronto Tempo, Portland wasn’t all “playoffs or bust” with their ambitions before the season kicked off. And yet, what do we see? All those other teams are looking *up* at the Fire in the standings right now. Portland said they’d invest in strategic systems and player development over just chasing wins in their inaugural season. And guess what? They’ve been too competent to bottom out, grinding out more wins than anyone expected, even with injuries hitting them hard, just like other lottery-bound teams with playoff hopes. They’ve gotten better results than anticipated, simply by endorsing their process over quick results. Wild, right?
Stop the Sweep, Storm!
Now, this Friday night, 10 p.m. ET on ION, our Seattle Storm are set to clash with the Fire. This isn’t just another game. Get this: the Fire have a chance to effectively shut down any notions of a Pacific Northwest rivalry, outside of just geographic proximity, if they sweep the season series with a win against us. A sweep! Can you believe they could actually pull that off against our Storm? It makes you wonder, could their “process over results” approach actually be a *bad* thing for *them*? Would Portland secretly be better off with a record that looks more like our Storm’s, for future draft purposes?
Still, they’re sticking to their guns, man. They’re not getting tempted by early overachievement, and they absolutely won’t sacrifice development and data collection opportunities just to rack up losses for better draft odds. That’s probably smart, especially since the WNBA hasn’t even announced how the 2027 draft lottery odds are gonna be calculated yet. This Fire, they don’t blaze, they smolder. It’s a slow burn they think will eventually ignite into a winner.
So, the big question hanging over Portland is, which members of this current Fire squad will actually be part of that eventual “winner” team? Or, more importantly for their future, which players, important to this inaugural season, might *not* make the cut? But before we worry about Portland’s roster decisions, our Storm have a critical game on Friday. Sweeping the season series against us? Shutting down the rivalry? Nah, not on our watch, Emerald City fans! Our Storm need to go out there and show them what a *real* Pacific Northwest rivalry looks like. Let’s get that W and keep the Fire from dousing our spirit!
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Swish Appeal.
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