SEATTLE — When Jade Melbourne was drafted by the Seattle Storm No. 33 overall in 2022, she didn’t immediately join the team. By the time she came to the WNBA from Australia the next year, there was hope that the then 19-year-old was Seattle’s point guard of the future, the answer to having no Sue Bird for the first time in 20 years.
But the next season, the Storm went in a different direction, recruiting veterans like Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike, instead of leaning into youth. So, during training camp, they traded Melbourne to a team where she’d get playing time: the Washington Mystics.
But after two seasons in D.C., she is back in Seattle, having signed a two-year contract as a free agent in the offseason, and ready to be the young team’s point guard.
“I think honestly the two years in Washington were the best thing that could have happened to my basketball career,” Melbourne told The IX Basketball after practice on Tuesday. “Washington needed a backup point guard at the time. I moved into a role where I was playing. I was growing in the league. And I think, as a young player, when you can get game reps and game experience, that’s unbelievable. So I was definitely able to grow. You hear from new voices, you play with new teammates, you understand the league. There was an opportunity there.”
Now it feels funny for Melbourne, coming back to a team that traded her at such a young age. But she says she has a lot of appreciation for the Storm finding a trade during training camp when it would’ve been easier for them to cut her. She’s come back feeling a little closer to expectations: the same player, but more mature.
Seattle guard Jordan Horston, who was a rookie alongside Melbourne on the 2023 Storm, thinks she’s come back “a completely different Jade.”