How WNBA players are preparing to handle the extended Olympic break

If you’re looking to get in touch with Mercury guard Sophie Cunningham next week, don’t. She’ll be tanning, sipping a cold beverage and relaxing on a boat back home in Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri.

Snagging a summer tan is also a priority for Rachel Banham, a veteran Connecticut Sun guard who rarely enjoys the team’s namesake amid a crush of games and airplanes. Minnesota Lynx guard Courtney Williams still has travel on the calendar, but it’s for a weeklong trip to Costa Rica to celebrate her girlfriend’s birthday.

The WNBA regular season will go on a month-long hiatus beginning Thursday so select players can participate in the 2024 Paris Olympics, which begin July 24. Team USA is attempting to win a record eighth consecutive gold medal and the 3x3 team is seeking a repeat after its inaugural appearance. Active WNBA players are represented on rosters for Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, China, Japan, Belgium and Azerbaijan. That group will play through most, if not all, of the break from opening games July 27 to the gold medal matchup on Aug. 11. WNBA contests resume Aug. 15

Those not on national teams are looking forward to a break from the grind of a compressed schedule. Cunningham has WNBA All-Star duties to complete since her Mercury are hosting the weekend’s events, but afterward she’s prepared to “just get the heck away from basketball for a little bit” while spending time with friends and family.

“I’m a player who definitely needs a balance and when we have a break like this in the middle of the season, it’s nice to kind of step away,” Cunningham told Yahoo Sports. “When you can step away, you're able to miss it. You’re able to come back fresh, and the second half of the season is going to be huge not only for myself but for our team.”

Banham, whose eight 3s on Sunday set the record for a reserve, said she’s looking forward to the Sun starters receiving some much-needed physical rest that could help various ailments of a long season. It gives players an opportunity to get healthy amid the second year of a 40-game season stuffed into an Olympic footprint. Most are looking forward to the mental break and brief normalcy before the final 15-game push toward the playoffs.

“It’s a refresher for everybody,” Williams, a nine-year veteran, told Yahoo Sports. “Because [it’s] an Olympic season, everything is so crunched into such a tight schedule that we don’t get many days to genuinely have an off day or be able to just kind of do regular things. I think that’s good for not only myself, but other people as well.”

It is no month-long vacation. The WNBA All-Stars will spend their weekend in Phoenix, where they’ll play a serious game for bragging rights against Team USA. The 2021 WNBA All-Stars, led by Arike Ogunbowale, upset Team USA in Las Vegas. Coaches will start practice back up near the end of July for players not competing in the Olympics, providing a break of up to 13 days for some players.

The return is an opportunity for individuals to fine-tune the little skill work that may have gotten away from them in-season “because there’s so many games and you’re tired,” Banham said.

“I haven’t been able to get in the gym and do a bunch of one-on-one stuff because I have been kind of exhausted a bit,” Sun wing DiJonai Carrington, a leading candidate for Most Improved Player, said after the team’s penultimate game Sunday.

It’s also a chance to put in more team reps for those not missing many pieces. The Fever struggled in their first 11 games played over 20 days largely because of their youth going up against veteran-led playoff favorites. They’ve settled in over the past couple of weeks behind rookie point guard Caitlin Clark, who is averaging 11 assists over the last eight games (4-4).

“We have three weeks to work on us,” Clark told reporters in late June after upsetting the Mercury for their first of four wins over a .500 team within the last six games. “It’s almost like training camp again. Practice. We have a young team so that time to really get in the gym and improve will be super valuable for us.”

But the downside, she said, is not having real game situations and experiences. A break might disrupt their recent flow and success. The differences in who teams have available and how they capitalize on their time could upend the playoff picture, which includes the top eight teams.

“The break is great for rest, but it’s not a time to act like [the] season is over,” Banham said Sunday. “This is going to be really critical for a lot of teams. After the break, you’re going to see teams who took their break seriously and who didn’t. And we don’t want to be that team that comes in, that’s out of shape, that’s not sharp.”

The Fever (11-14), who have not been in the playoffs since 2016, are in seventh place. Their only Olympian is Kristy Wallace, an Australian averaging 10 points who moved to the bench in recent games. Chicago (9-14), currently holding onto the eighth spot two games ahead of Atlanta, does not have an Olympian.

The lottery teams of Atlanta (7-16), Los Angeles (6-17), Washington (6-18) and Dallas (5-19) will all be without at least one starter. Sparks head coach Curt Miller (scout), Atlanta head coach Tanisha Wright (scout) and Washington general manager Mike Thibault (assistant coach) will all be with Team USA, and assistant coaches will run WNBA practices in place of head coaches at the Olympics.

Olympians are concentrated at the top of the WNBA table. New York (20-4) superstars and leading scorers Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu will report to Team USA during All-Star weekend. They will carry on to London, where the team will play a showcase on July 23 against Germany and Liberty teammate Nyara Sabally (who joins her sister, Wings forward Satou Sabally).

The Aces (16-7), charging into third after early struggles, are sending their core four of A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young to Team USA duty. Reserve Megan Gustafson will play for Spain. Phoenix (12-12, sixth place) will also be without four starters: Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner and Kahleah Copper for Team USA and Rebecca Allen for Australia.

Minnesota (16-8) and Seattle (16-8) are each sending three players to Lille, France, as well as Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve, who will switch her hat over to Team USA duties.

The major outlier at the top is the second-place Sun (18-5). Alyssa Thomas, who nearly won her first MVP award last season in her 10th year, will play on her first Olympic team after rehabbing an Achilles injury in the 2021 cycle. DeWanna Bonner, her teammate and fiancé, said she plans to attend all of Team USA’s games in Paris. Otherwise, everyone will be in Uncasville, Connecticut, after their vacations.

“We rely on [Thomas and Bonner] heavily offensively and defensively, so being able to all of us having to step up and work on our stuff and practice without them is going to definitely help when they come back,” Carrington said.

Banham said the team is looking forward to implementing improvements it’s only had time to discuss.

“We can really sharpen some stuff up that we haven’t had a chance to do. Because we really haven’t,” Banham said. “We’ve had like two practices in the last two months or something. It’s going to be so important.”

Cunningham credits the 2021 Tokyo Olympic break for the Mercury’s surprising ascension to the WNBA Finals. Phoenix entered the hiatus 9-10 and in seventh place. While Taurasi (USA), Griner (USA), Skylar Diggins-Smith (USA), Alanna Smith (Australia) and Kia Nurse (Canada) went to their national teams, Cunningham went home to soak up the rays and enjoy life as a new aunt.

The group that returned to Phoenix from vacation dubbed themselves “the others” and created a solid bond, eating daily meals together, hanging by the pool and watching their teammates over those weeks. When the Olympians returned, they saw the relationships “the others” worked on and wanted to integrate themselves.

“It’s one of the most fun teams I’ve ever been a part of the second half of the season,” Cunningham said.

Phoenix won 10 consecutive games, but lost the last three, securing the No. 5 seed in the playoffs. The Mercury knocked out the Liberty by one point and the Storm in overtime by five in the previous single-elimination format of the first and second rounds. A Game 5 semifinal thriller over the Aces on the road sent the Mercury to an unlikely Finals pairing, where they lost in four games to No. 6 Chicago.

“That's my goal again this year, is to create a culture and relationships with my teammates that are inseparable because we're gonna go on a huge push in the second half of the season,” Cunningham said. “I know everyone's saying that, but we have the potential to. We have four Olympians that are going to go do their thing. I hope they all come back with medals. And then all of us back here are also going to do our thing. It's a big time to really work on our chemistry and relationship outside of the court as well.”

As long as it’s done with a nice tan and lake time in the books.