How Ezi Magbegor's offensive arsenal is catching up to her defensive greatness

Magbegor has long had the defensive game to compete with the best. Now, in what is a scary proposition for the rest of the WNBA, she's flourishing on offence too.

Ezi Magbegor is now in her fourth season with the Seattle Storm. Times have changed in 2023, and she’s taking her game to new heights as she shoulders an ever increasing responsibility on offence.

For the first time in her WNBA career, Magbegor isn’t on a team that will be challenging for a championship. Whilst that pressure may be off the team as a whole, the pressure on Magbegor individually has never been greater.

To say she’s answered the call so far would be an understatement. She’s taken her game to the next level, and has to be in the All-Star conversation.

Seattle is a drastically different team to last season. With superstars like Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird and Gabby Williams no longer on the roster, there’s plenty of slack left for Jewell Loyd and Magbegor to pick up.

While the duo haven’t been able to entirely cover those gaps, the development of Magbegor’s offensive game is a bright spot in the Storm’s 3-7 start to the season. The wins may not be coming regularly on the scoreboard yet, but Magbegor’s growth will ensure the Storm win plenty of games in future seasons.

As much as the focus will largely be on Magbegor’s offensive exploits in this piece, I feel I have to preface that with the fact that her defence is still absolutely among the very best in the world. She’s a force on that end of the floor and became just the seventh player in WNBA history to record 3+ blocks in six(!) consecutive games earlier this week (h/t @WBBTimeline on Twitter).

Magbegor is averaging career highs across the board with 14.4 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.6 blocks, 1.9 assists and 1.6 steals in 34 minutes per game. She already has four double-doubles in 10 games, after logging three in the first three seasons of her career.

Those numbers are coming off the back of increased aggressiveness and a licence to get out and run, creating a one-woman fast break as often as possible.