Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles had a stellar rookie season that left WNBA fans and prognosticators in a frenzy. Miles' three-level scoring ability and adept ball-handling skills earned her Rookie of the Year honors and votes for WNBA MVP.
In a recent appearance on Old Man & The Three, Miles laid out the NBA players that influenced her game.
“I really watched the NBA and I watched, you know, the Jason Williams, the Jason Kidds, Steve Nash, Stephen Curry, all those guys.”
She then went on to further elaborate on why she chose those players as an inspiration and also named Kyrie Irving as someone she studied as a basketball fan.
“Number one, I watched the game 'cause I love the game, and I forgot to mention Kyrie. Kyrie was a big influence, obviously. Jersey kid… atching what they do, wanting to do crazy layups like that, and handles and obviously Steve Nash's passing. You know, as a student of the game, you just love to learn things and, like you said, pick up different things, and I feel like I have a little bit of everything in my game from people that I've watched. And then kinda put your own unique turn on it.”
In 40 games played in the regular season, Miles averaged 19.8 points, 6 assists, 4.7 rebounds, and 1 steal while shooting 49.2% from the field and 38.8% from 3. She led the Lynx to a postseason berth without Napheesa Collier in the lineup for a large part of the season, as Collier was nursing her ankles after she had offseason surgeries.