LAS VEGAS – The atmosphere for Jewell Loyd and Liz Kitley’s introductory press conference may have been celebratory on its surface, but there was a palpable sense of hunger from both the organization’s brass and its new players alike.
After 2024’s trial-filled campaign ended with a loss to the Liberty in the semifinals, the obvious takeaway was that changes would be made to the Aces roster. The two-time champions lacked hunger and focus from the very first week of training camp and the resulting performance was indicative of that. The moves the Aces made this off-season signified the return of what Becky Hammon called a “starving man” mentality.
“There's a different mindset.,” Hammon said. “I think you saw that with New York last year, they had the best mindset all year. I think we'll have that mindset this year, and we didn't have it last year. You have to own when you’re great and own when you're not, and then when you're not how can we go back and get back to being that standard?”
The Aces shook the WNBA last month by trading star Kelsey Plum to Los Angeles in a three-way deal to acquire Loyd, ending Plum’s eight-season stint with the organization. Loyd’s decade-long tenure in Seattle simultaneously came to an end with the move, though her exit from the Storm was far more complicated than Plum’s from Las Vegas.
In Loyd, the Aces get a two-time champion in her own right as well as the player who held the WNBA’s single-season scoring mark before A’ja Wilson. They also get a player who is desperate to re-ignite her love for the sport and someone who will get to do so on a team with some of her closest friends in the sport.
“The biggest thing for me is just getting back to playing basketball,” Loyd said. “Having joy, having a smile on my face (while) playing. I have a lot left in me that people haven't seen yet. Becky’s full support means a lot, her belief in me means a lot. She wanted me here.
“Knowing that I'm coming to a place where I'm actually friends with a lot of the team already, we can talk beyond basketball, our families hang out. There's an actual connection there. It's a comfort. I feel like I could definitely help them. You know, iron sharpens iron, that's what I keep saying around here and I believe that.”
In addition to Loyd, the Aces signed Dana Evans, Tiffany Mitchell and Cheyanne Parker-Tyus this offseason.
“We’re always going to act try to for us,” coach Becky Hammon said. “A lot of introspection this offseason, not only for myself, but the players. There were a lot of upset faces after that last game, and it would be a shame to let that go to waste, right? So to take inventory, where can we get better? And then to go out and get these pieces that we've wanted, it’s great for us,”
Kitley from Virginia Tech, who missed all of her rookie season with a torn ACL, was a 3x ACC Player of the Year and would have been a surefire first-round pick in 2024 had she been healthy. Hammon even quipped that Kitley was the “closest thing the Aces could get to a top-five pick” given the team’s success.
While Kitley’s presence in the historic 2024 draft class may have fallen under the radar, the rookie is primarily focused on her own personal goals as opposed to the outside noise.
“I get it,” Kitley said. “It's been a long time since I've played and it’s a whole new level. I think people don't really know exactly what to expect for me, or like, even like, know anything about where I'm at right now, but that doesn't really change my goals or how I look at what I want to accomplish in the next few months.
“I want to succeed for multitude of reasons, but also just for myself. To remind myself, I guess, that I know how to play basketball. Even though it's been a while. Like, I know how to do it. I know what I'm doing. It’s going to be a continued process. But that doesn't mean there won't be value in that and that I won't provide something from day one.”
