The Seattle Storm may have landed another one.
For a franchise that has consistently turned first-round picks into real pieces, Flau’jae Johnson is already looking like the latest success story. Seattle has gotten strong returns from Ezi Magbegor and Dominique Malonga, and now the rookie guard is forcing her way into that conversation too.
Johnson’s path to Seattle started with a surprise on draft night. The Golden State Valkyries took her eighth overall in the 2026 WNBA Draft, then traded her to the Storm just minutes later.
It was a jolt for fans in the moment, but the move has lined up perfectly with where Seattle wanted to go next. After an offseason that saw Skylar Diggins-Smith, Nneka Ogwumike, Gabby Williams, Brittney Sykes and Erica Wheeler leave in free agency, the Storm chose to reset around younger talent, with Johnson joining Malonga, the 2025 second overall pick, as part of that new core.
The fit has been immediate. Johnson has started all 22 of Seattle’s games and is averaging 12.7 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists.
That scoring mark is tied for third among all rookies, while her rebounding leads the rookie class. Her start has also earned outside recognition, with ESPN placing her 49th on its Top 50 WNBA Players list.
Seattle has given Johnson room to breathe, and that matters. The Valkyries, after making the playoffs in their first season and adding Gabby Williams, were clearly built to chase wins right away.
With Veronica Burton at point guard and Kia Stokes at the two, Johnson would have had a much tougher time finding consistent minutes there. In Seattle, she’s logging 28.2 minutes per game and getting the chance to develop alongside veteran Natisha Heideman.
“She’s just finding her game, everyone knows she’s an elite level scorer so she’s obviously going to have big crowds in front of her and she’s just stacking her game … making the right plays, making the right reads and it’s just fun to watch,” said Heideman, following Seattle’s 88-83 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks on June 10. “It’s really fun just to see her growth from training camp until now,” she added.
That growth has shown up in the box score. Two weeks after that loss, Johnson exploded for a career-high 28 points in Seattle’s 99-88 win over the Liberty on June 25.
She backed it up two days later with 24 efficient points in a second straight win over the Atlanta Dream. Those victories over New York and Atlanta are Seattle’s only wins this season against teams above .500, and they account for two of Johnson’s three 20-point outings.
The third came Monday against the Sparks, when she scored 23 points and opened the game with Seattle’s first 13 points in an 82-64 win, the Storm’s sixth victory of the season.
The scoring has been loud, but Johnson’s impact isn’t limited to offense. First-year head coach Sonia Raman pointed to her defense after Seattle’s 112-110 overtime loss to the Dallas Wings.
“I want to shout out Flau (‘jae), I thought she guarded her (Paige Bueckers) really well, she connected and understood the personnel, scout and the game plan - I thought she did a really good job,” she said in a recent press conference.
There has also been a mental adjustment. Johnson came from LSU, where she lost just 20 games across four seasons and won the 2023 National Championship. Seattle’s 6-17 start and last-place spot in the Western Conference have demanded a very different kind of resilience.
Veteran teammate Jade Melbourne described the swing in emotions this way: “She got really high with the wins and really low with the losses,” veteran teammate Jade Melbourne told The IX Sports.
Johnson says she’s learning how to handle it better.
“I’m just learning more about the process … I feel like as long as we’re growing and growing, it’s (wins are) going to happen,” Johnson said in a recent press conference.
She later used the phrase “no rain, no flowers” to describe Seattle’s struggles and pointed to Paige Bueckers’ rookie season with the Wings, when Dallas won only 10 games. Nearly a year later, Dallas is now in the playoff race.
Johnson’s team-first approach has stood out too. After Seattle beat Atlanta, she made it clear she wanted Awa Fam involved once the center got rolling.
“Awa (Fam) hit three three’s in a row and I’m like ‘Hey, get her the ball, don’t give it to me,’ ” Johnson said.
Fam finished with a career-high 21 points against Atlanta. And Johnson’s willingness to feed her teammates has shown up in the numbers as well.
During the six games when Fam’s contract was suspended and she later finished the season with Valencia, Johnson averaged 1.6 assists per game. Since Fam returned on May 24, that number has jumped to 3.1 assists per game.
For Seattle, that’s the bigger picture. Johnson is producing, defending and learning on the fly, all while helping lift the players around her. On a young roster that is the fourth youngest in the league, she already looks like someone the Storm can build around.
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