LOS ANGELES — Chiney Ogwumike wants to reclaim her WNBA career with the Sparks by remaining an efficient inside player while at the same time expanding her game to become a consistent 3-point shooting threat.
“Based on where the team is going, knowing Curt’s style, I know he loves production in the paint, but I think he also understands that the game is fast and we have to spread the floor too,” Ogwumike said of new Sparks head coach Curt Miller. “I think all of those hard growing pains for me personally and professionally have set me up to feel free and be able to be my best self now.”
“I plan to expand my game. I know you have to take shots to learn how to make them and I think I’ll be more comfortable taking more than 18 threes (in a season) because I know that’s what’s best for me. I’m cool with that and I’m confident with that.”
Although it was a small sample size, Ogwumike made 8 of 18 3-point attempts, averaging 44.4%. That’s something Miller, for whom she played for between 2016-2018 in Connecticut, wants her to do more of, especially since she never attempted or made a 3-point shot in a game until her third season in the league.
“Chiney is modest, but she really has developed that part of her game and she was happy to share that,” Miller shared. “Every time we saw each other (last season), I think it was the first conversation she had with me and it could be sometimes when she was checking into the game … she would whisper, ‘Coach, I’m shooting threes now. Curt, I’m shooting threes, how about my three-point game?’
“She’s worked really hard and that’s the one narrative that I want to make sure people understand is that Chiney works. That’s the narrative that needs to be out there. She’s a really hard worker and she has evolved her game.”
That’s why the 6-foot-3 forward, who was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 WNBA draft by the Connecticut Sun, wakes up every day at 5:30 a.m. in Los Angeles to…
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