Storm teammates make All-Star case for Gabby Williams

Williams is averaging a career-high 14 points, 5.4 field goals made, 1.9 3-pointers made, 4.7 assists, 2.5 steals and 0.5 blocks per game while shooting 38.9% from behind the arc.

“I don’t feel like we got to pitch her. I really don’t. I mean, the numbers don’t lie,” Storm forward and former WNBA MVP Nneka Ogwumike said in response to why Williams should be an All-Star. “I think that anyone who is watching the game can understand why. Gabby is who she is and we understand that thoroughly.”

“If you’re voting out there pay attention,” Storm guard and multi-time All-Star Skylar Diggins added.

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The French national has always been a fantastic defender first and foremost, and that has continued. Her 2.5 steals per game are the most in the league and, if the figure holds throughout the season, would be the highest single-season steals average in the WNBA since 2013, and highest all-time by a Storm player. Williams has recorded multiple steals in 11 games so far, the most in the league this season. She also set a new franchise record for steals in a game with eight against Los Angeles on June 17.

The biggest difference this year for Williams is how her offense has flourished, continuing the fantastic form she was playing in last season after returning from the Paris Olympics with a silver medal. On June 7, Williams hit a career-high five threes and shot 83.3% from beyond the arc, tying the franchise record for 3-point percentage in a game with a minimum of five attempts. In that same game Williams became just the second player in WNBA history to shoot better than 80% from three (min. five attempts) and record at least seven assists and no turnovers in a single game.

“It’s hard to take her off the floor, I say all the time, because of what she does on both sides of the basketball,” Diggins remarked after a victory in Las Vegas on June 20. “I mean, she leads the league in steals. She’s [one of the] best finishers as a guard in the paint. She can guard one through four. So can’t say enough about what [Williams and Erica Wheeler] have done for our team … but also who they are in the locker room and their impact there that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet.”

After her career-high 3-point shooting night in Phoenix, Williams gave a lot of credit to her teammates for getting her shots off of good movement and ball reversals.

“I think my teammates are just doing a great job of finding me … and I think it’s just helping a lot for my confidence,” Williams said. “Working with our coaches too, and watching film and working on my release and watching every detail of my shot is helping a lot too.”

Storm head coach Noelle Quinn however consistently gives all the credit to Williams for her hard work.

“Confidence that is unwavering,” Quinn said is the biggest difference in Williams’ offense this season. “I think that’s the biggest thing that needs to sustain for her through her W career. She is asked to do a lot for her national team and I’m asking her to do a lot for this team, and just trying to keep her in the pocket of confidence. She’s worked tremendously on her craft. … What she does on the defensive end, that’s going to be her mainstay but developing other things — her pull-up, her outside game — just makes her a complete player. I think we’re seeing the evolution of that.

“But I will, we will continue to infuse confidence in her and her game because we need her to stay in this pocket. Sometimes in previous seasons she may miss a couple and wouldn’t take any. I’m encouraging her to continue to shoot the ball and be aggressive.”

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Williams feels that the team’s confidence in her — from the staff to trainers and media people — has made a difference.

“I can feel how much they believe in me and it makes me want to give back to them,” Williams said on media day. “And I think that helps my confidence level because it makes me think like I don’t have a choice but to do great for these people because they’ve been so great to me. And I think when I’m in those kinds of roles and positions that’s where I’m at my best.”

Williams expressed particular appreciation for how Quinn has supported her throughout her career and helped her flourish.

“She’s just believed in me since day one, even through the harder times. I haven’t felt like she ever lost confidence in me or belief in me and that’s allowed me to kind of get through some harder times or some slumps,” Williams said on media day. “And I also think just the way her brain works is kind of how my brain works. So it’s just very, very easy for me to work with her and to understand her. And it’s very clear whatever she asks of me, there’s never any like miscommunication. And I think that’s why I always want to come back and play for her. She’s very upfront. She’s going to tell you exactly what she thinks. So there’s no like mind games or guessing, and I just really appreciate that kind of clear communication.”

Williams recorded her first career double-double with 18 points and a career-high 12 rebounds on June 20 in Las Vegas against the Aces. The next game, she recorded the second double-double of her career with a career-high 10 assists and 12 points, plus four steals, in a June 22 win over the New York Liberty in Seattle. This made Williams the first player in WNBA history to record her first career points/rebounds double-double and first career points/assists double-double in consecutive games.

Even when Williams has had off shooting nights, like against the Liberty when she shot just 25% from the field, she has found ways to impact her team with her playmaking.

“There are a lot of things that she does so well on the court, and it allows all of our players to be exactly who they are,” Quinn said after a June 7 victory in Phoenix.

Williams’ biggest asset continues to be this kind of versatility, the ability and willingness to do whatever it is the team needs of her. Whether she is leading the team in scoring, rebounding and running, playing lockdown defense or getting teammates open, Williams is showing just how talented she is.

“For Gabby in this league, she hasn’t had an opportunity to showcase her stardom,” Quinn said. “I think she has to understand this is her time. I have the utmost confidence in her, and that’s not going to ever waver, because I know she’s dedicated to the craft, but also she’s an amazing teammate, an amazing person. So I just feel like she’s been in this pocket of really good basketball for like the past year and I want it to to come to fruition in this particular league, in the W. Because she is a star, and I think she deserves to feel that way here, and we need to honor that. And we need to make sure us as a staff and me as a coach, I’m always going to continue to pour that into her and make her understand that she is that.”