Despite the Sparks being at the bottom of the WNBA last year, coach Lynne Roberts is aiming for a postseason appearance this season.
The 2020s haven’t been kind to the Los Angeles Sparks.
Over the past five years, they’ve only made the playoffs once and are now on their fourth different coach during this timeframe.
Lynne Roberts is the Sparks’ current head coach. She got the job after the franchise parted ways with Curt Miller. While this is Roberts’ first time as a WNBA coach, she has plenty of experience in college, turning around programs.
She was the coach at Utah since 2016 and helped the Utes reach the NCAA Tournament in three consecutive seasons starting in 2022.
Now, she’ll take on a new challenge as she looks to improve on the eight-win season the Sparks had in 2024 under Miller.
The road from worst to first is long and winding, but not only is Roberts ready for the challenge, she is taking the word rebuild out of the Sparks’ vocabulary. It’s all about improving in 2025 and seeing how far L.A. can go.
“I’m here because I wanted the challenge and I want to win,” Roberts said at Media Day. “And that’s it. It’s that simple. Who you have in the locker room obviously matters, but, who they are matters as well when you’re building. I don’t like the term rebuild. I just don’t. I don’t think we’re rebuilding. I think we’re where we want to be to start really competing.”
The Sparks were not only competitive but victorious in their one and only preseason game against the Valkyries. That win and the addition of Kelsey Plum have raised Sparks fans’ expectations slightly, as they hope for a return to glory for this legacy franchise.
Los Angeles has missed the playoffs four years in a row, making it the longest postseason drought in Sparks history. Despite being in last place last year, returning to the playoffs is still the goal Roberts has set for her team.
“I haven’t been shy on saying, I want to make the playoffs,” Roberts said. “I want to, and I think with the roster we have, we can. Is it going to be hard? Yeah. Climbing is hard. Changing things is hard.
“But that’s where that process comes in, and being consistent, how I show up every day, showing up the same whether we win by 20 or lose by 20, that stuff all adds up and my expectation is for the players to learn how to do that, too. And, it’s the chop a tree down analogy. You don’t do it in one swing. You just keep chopping and then it falls. And so my end goal is that we make the playoffs.”
Going from last place to the playoffs in the WNBA isn’t an impossibility. The league has 13 teams and the first eight make it into the postseason. Last year, the Atlanta Dream were the final playoff team and they made it by winning just 15 games.
For the Sparks, a seven-win improvement seems doable under a new coaching staff and the addition of a star guard in Plum, even if it’s easier said than done.
They’ll begin that journey back to the playoffs on Friday, May 16, when they take on the expansion team, the Golden State Valkyries, in their season opener.
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