January 9, 2022
Seattle Storm season in review: Cierra Burdick
By Em Adler
The Storm player reviews kick off with the team's 12th woman
Position: Power forward (75%), center (25%)
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Age: 27
Base stats: 7 GP (0 GS), 5.0 min, 0.4 pts, 1-for-4 fg, 1.7 reb
Key advanced stats: 19.8% reb%, 29.1% tov%, 4.7% blk%
Key quote:
I played with Noey (head coach Noelle Quinn) my first year overseas in Italy. And it was her 10th year playing professionally, and I was a spring chicken, I was straight out of college. And we were playing in Napoli — so Naples, Italy. And it was like the hood of Italy, y’all. Noey and I have stories for days; we could write a book about this season alone, I’m telling y’all. In the Wubble last year, that’s all we talked about when we saw each other. We would just catch up and tell stories and have people rolling about the things we had to deal with.
Cierra Burdick joined the Storm midway through the season on three separate occasions, after being on Phoenix and Minnesota’s rosters. She first filled second-round pick Kiana Williams’ vacated roster spot, then the fourth big spot after Candice Dupree was bought out, and then taking Williams’ spot again after the combo guard filled Burdick’s vacated spot — at which point the deadline passed and Burdick’s contract converted to a rest-of-season. The fifth-year big played almost exclusively in garbage-time minutes, cleaning up the final minutes of Seattle’s Aug. 20 win in New York and checking in at the end of the Sept. 12 blowout loss to Los Angeles.
Burdick was about all you could ask for out of a mid-season 12th woman: Depth at a thinner position, veteran presence and good vibes.
Current contract: Unrestricted free agent
Offseason outlook: Unlikely to return
Breanna Stewart and Ezi Magbegor are near-locks to return to the frontcourt, and the team will likely do everything it can to retain restricted free agent Mercedes Russell. Should Russell leave, because Seattle can’t match another team’s offer, then Seattle would be in a position to need a couple cheaper players to recreate her, meaning Burdick’s fourth big spot would require an upgrade. If the Storm re-sign Russell, there ought to be about five frontcourt minutes left over — an amount best used on a development project.
Written by Em Adler
Em Adler (she/they) covers the WNBA at large and college basketball for The Next, with a focus on player development and the game behind the game.
