Erica Wheeler’s personality and defense shine in new role with Seattle Storm

“This group has just been really great, and the sense of culture — because that’s what we’ve been stressing, the culture needs to be good,” Wheeler told The Next. “Genuinely, [we’re] just gravitating to each other. That’s the part that I love about being able to wake up and I’m like, ‘I’m ready to go see my teammates,’ because, naturally, we just want to be around each other.”

After several years spent in Indiana playing for the Fever, Wheeler has since moved around the WNBA a lot. Since 2021, Wheeler has played for a different team each season. The veteran guard playing in her 10^th WNBA season came to Seattle searching for honesty from the coaching staff.

“Be upfront. Tell me what it is. I don’t want anything unclear,” Wheeler said. “I rather you tell me directly and head on, so I know how to do it, versus like sugar coating and I’m in this gray area. I’m not a person that likes to be gray.”

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That honesty from Seattle’s coaching staff and team members has helped Wheeler be sure of herself and her role with the Storm.

“That’s the part that allowed me to be confident,” Wheeler said. “Because I know that [head coach Noelle Quinn] is going to keep me accountable, and I also know that my older vets are going to keep my accountable as well.”

Those older vets are also thrilled to have Wheeler around. Part of what Wheeler has brought to Seattle is her vibrant personality.

“She is very much like a ball of confetti, and we love that,” Storm forward Nneka Ogwumike said after a preseason victory on May 4. “I think that she brings an energy. She brings a lot. She brings a beating heart to the team.”

Seattle center Ezi Magbegor, the Storm’s longest-tenured player this season, and part of the 2020 WNBA Championship winning team as a rookie, has also appreciated what Wheeler brings to Seattle.

“We obviously love having E here in Seattle,” Magbegor said of Wheeler after a May 25 victory over Las Vegas in which the guard scored 21 points. “She brings the energy off the court, but I think you were able to see tonight that, kind of, she leads, we follow. Offensively, she obviously had a great day, but that’s her every practice. She definitely stays aggressive. … So, I think just being able to have her come off the bench, be that spark.

“Especially with the starters too, she’s in our ear all the time. So just for her to be able to sustain that throughout all four quarters was great. She’s a great teammate.”

Storm fans have had some opportunities to see Wheeler’s personality shine off the court; the team gave her a camcorder on media day and told her to just be herself, resulting in a very fun and real look behind the scenes. There is also more coming as Wheeler was once again given the camcorder when the team went to watch rookie Dominique Malonga throw out the first pitch for Seattle’s Major League Baseball team, the Mariners. Wheeler has thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity.

“As you know, my personality is big,” Wheeler said. “I love my teammates. I think everybody can see that. And I just always want people to see who we are as people and not just basketball players. Because I think sometimes that’s all they can focus on, is that we’re just basketball players when in reality we’re good human beings as well. So when I’m doing the videos I want to highlight who they are off the court that I get to see in the locker room every day. … I want the world to see what I see through this little camcorder.”

Wheeler has also felt very welcomed to Seattle by the Storm fans, who she remarked have long been in conversations about the best fans in the league.

“To be on the good side of it is pretty nice,” Wheeler said. “How welcoming they are of me, and they just accept me for who I am because I know I’m crazy in moments — talk to the refs and doing stuff — and they engage with it. So, they’ve just been great.”

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Spark off the bench

Through seven games, Wheeler has come off the bench six times and started just once, at home against Atlanta when a usual starter was unavailable. Wheeler is happy and productive coming in as a substitute.

The guard is averaging the most efficient shooting percentages of her career, converting 49% of her shots from the floor 46.7% from 3. In 21.4 minutes per game off the bench, Wheeler is averaging 9.7 points per game.

Quinn has been very honest from the beginning with Wheeler about what she expects from her — she expects her to come off the bench and keep the spark, not allow dips in energy, defend, lead and run the team as a point guard but also look for her own scoring opportunities.

Sometimes Wheeler’s minutes allow starting point guard Skylar Diggins to get a rest but other times she joins Diggins to make up a smaller lineup. When deploying the smaller lineup, Wheeler’s ball handling abilities allow Diggins and Gabby Williams (a forward who at times takes on point guard duties for Seattle) to move off the ball and be the elite scorers they are. Quinn says it is great being able to have another playmaker in different areas of the floor when initiating the offense and getting into secondary actions, it just gives her team another offensive look.

After a home win over the Phoenix Mercury on May 23, when Wheeler had the highest plus-minus of any Storm player (14), six points, three rebounds and three assists, Quinn and Diggins were full of praise for one of the team’s newest members.

“She’s a vet. She’s heady. She’s poised. She gives us some emotional leadership as well,” Diggins said. “So very capable of leading us and having the ball in her hands, and we trust her with that.”

“She’s a vet in this league, so she knows how to defend, how to play ball, and her communication is always, really A1,” Quinn added later. “Her connectivity is needed. And her ability to defend multiple positions, but also offensively.”

In the one game she started against Atlanta, Wheeler admittedly struggled. She told The Next the day after that the approach to starting versus coming off the bench is 1000% different. 

“When you start the game, it’s almost like you got to figure it out on the fly, because [you’re] the one that’s setting the tone,” Wheeler said. “Versus when you’re coming off the bench, you can see things differently. I know how to guard things. I know where I need to bring my spark from. I know where I need to be defensively. … You’re not going to make the same mistakes as your teammates.”

Wheeler also felt that the energy piece she usually brings to the team off the bench was missing when she started.

“I felt it in moments where I’m like, ‘Damn I need to get more energy, but goddamn it I’m tired,’” Wheeler exclaimed only half-joking. “I didn’t feel my energy. Normally I’m getting the crowd involved, normally I’m getting hyped. Like I didn’t have moments where we got a stop and I was hyped, because we got great stops, but I was just kind of locked in on other shit. Normally I’m giving my team juice.”

Normal starter Alysha Clark returned Sunday and Wheeler resumed her bench role. However, if she does start again this season she intends to approach it differently.

“I’m adjustable as you can see like, wherever they need me at that’s what I’m kind of rolling with,” Wheeler said. “The main thing is I just need to make sure I keep my energy up no matter if I’m starting or not. And that was one of my main takeaways, that I can’t ever dip in that area because that’s where I’m my best. … If I do start tomorrow, that’s going to be one of my main focuses, to make sure I’m continuously giving juice to my teammates, because I know they feed off of it, and I know it can definitely, like, shift the momentum of the game with just getting my teammates hype.”

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Defense

The 5’7 guard said that she feels that for the past three years or so people haven’t really seen or acknowledged her ability to defend. In Indiana, Wheeler played limited minutes and rarely, if ever, guarded the opposition’s best player. In Atlanta, Wheeler described a chaotic free for all. While she feels her defense was probably better in LA, 2019 is when she feels her offensive and defensive skills aligned. 

Wheeler said she is not sitting in that misunderstanding, however. She is confident in her ability to defend and changing that prevailing perception with the Storm. Wheeler’s defensive prowess has also helped quickly endear her to the defense-loving Storm fanbase.

“I think people underestimate, because I’m small, but I’m very pesty and that’s what you’ve been seeing,” Wheeler said. “I get into people. I guard them 94 feet. I know people’s tendencies … like that’s what the scout is for. I know tendencies so like I use my quickness and my pestiness to my advantage.”

Wheeler is further spurred on by the defense of her teammates.

“With Sky[lar] being able to guard 94 feet, I want to be able to still keep that same type of pressure, but just a different person,” Wheeler said. “Sky’s going to ignite it, you know. And I don’t want to let her down in those way, because that’s the tempo that she’s raising for the game. I want to be able to keep it or make it go even higher.”

Wheeler expanded further two weeks later.

“Skylar has this energy about her on defense that … makes me want to be even better too as well because I’m like, ‘Shit, Skylar got two kids and she is picking up 94 feet, why can I not?,’” Wheeler said. “She’s empowering me to be more pesky as well. And, when we’re on the court together, if she’s in somebody ass I’m gonna be in somebody ass. I’m not gonna just let my man get the ball. So just being able to feed off that. And when Nneka is jumping out on people just being aggressive, like, it ignites something in me, like let me do the same thing as a teammate.”

Reunions in Seattle

Not everyone within the Storm franchise is new to Wheeler which has helped her adjust to her new team. Wheeler and Ogwumike played together for the Los Angeles Sparks in 2021. Her relationship with Storm assistant coach and associate general manager Pokey Chatman goes even further back to 2016 when Chatman was the head coach of the Indiana Fever.

When Wheeler first graduated from Rutgers University in 2015, no WNBA team drafted her. She ended up joining the Atlanta Dream and New York Liberty for short stints that first year. In 2016 she joined the Fever where she stayed until 2019. That final year in Indiana was arguably the best of Wheeler’s career, as it was the first and only time she was named an All Star. Wheeler made the best of her All Star nod and earned herself All Star Game MVP, the first undrafted player in WNBA history to be awarded that honor.

“She’s always been in my corner,” Wheeler said of Chatman. “She’s the one that kind of put the W on notice about who I am, helping me become an All Star. So, our relationship always was built from that. And as I’m going through my career, my journey, she’s always been someone that always checked in on me, even still to this day.”

In 2021, playing alongside Wheeler, Ogwumike struggled with injuries and was only able to appear in 18 games for the Sparks. Ogwumike technically led the team in scoring with 14.5 points per game that season. But with the future Hall-of-Famer only available half the season, Wheeler functionally led the team in scoring with 13.6 points per game.

These pre-existing relationships with people who not only know Wheeler but what she is capable of has helped Wheeler more quickly acclimate in Seattle. 

“I think by me having a relationship with them they give me just a lot of reassurance of like, ‘Bruh, I don’t play with you. I know what you can do,’” Wheeler said. “Just giving me that reassurance to allow me to be me has been great, because I haven’t had that in three years. 

“It’s always been me the leader, and always giving, giving, giving. And I’m a person that I have a battery in my back already naturally, and then also being able to have other people put more power in my back just makes me even more confident and even more that I can give to my team.”

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Group of veteran leaders relieve pressure

Another thing that has helped Wheeler find comfort in Seattle is not having to be the only veteran leader on a team. Last season Wheeler had a lot of pressure on her as one of the most experienced players on a young Indiana Fever team, even making some headlines as the vet helping Caitlin Clark through her rookie season.

In Seattle, Wheeler is just one of several incredibly experienced and accomplished veterans. Former WNBA MVP Ogwumike is playing in her 14^th season in the WNBA, all-star guard Diggins is playing her 11^th season (13 years but two missed on maternity leave) and three-time WNBA champion Clark is playing her 13^th season (missed 2021 due to injury).

“We kind of can divide and conquer between me, Sky, E and AC, we are kind of this four-headed leader or this four-headed veteran,” Ogwumike said after a preseason victory over the Connecticut Sun. “We want everyone to lead in their own way. But it is really refreshing to be on a team with vets that work really hard, with vets that bring something different each one of them, but then also with vets that you can defer to.”

The dispersed leadership responsibilities have helped Wheeler feel like she can fully be herself. It is a feeling Ogwumike has also experienced since coming to Seattle last season.

“For me coming here, and I feel like maybe what E is experiencing is, they want us to be who we want to be,” Ogwumike said. “If that’s a natural leader, that’s cool, and they already know that. As opposed to being on a team where that’s what they need from you. Because that burden can be heavy when it’s a necessity and you’re the only one that can provide it.”

A few days later, Wheeler expanded on the phenomenon Ogwumike described.

“I’m a leader in my own way. And no, it doesn’t take it away from me being a leader. But like, I don’t have the weight on my shoulder to handle everything,” Wheeler explained. “Also, we have a group that you don’t have to tell them what to do. Like, we getting here, getting our shit in, we doing our recovery. In the past, I got to make sure they do this, and they do that, and then, you almost empty your cup, you don’t even have much for yourself. Here it’s not like that. … I would not trade it. I don’t want what I had before. I like what I have now.”