The Seattle Storm knew this season was going to be difficult. With the loss of Breanna Stewart to the New York Liberty and Sue Bird to retirement as well as the majority of the roster hitting free agency, this team was going to look very different from the past couple of seasons. The only players left from the Storm 2020 championship team were Jewell Loyd, Mercedes Russell and Ezi Magbegor. Sami Whitcomb was on that team but she had left and played with the Liberty for the past two seasons. The Storm have sputtered to a 4-19 start to the season, but that's not to say there hasn't been a silver lining. Ezi Magbegor has taken a tremendous leap forward in her progression as a player and she was named a first time WNBA All-Star.

Ezi Magbegor was the second WNBA All-Star the Storm had this season alongside Jewell Loyd, signaling that the league recognized the career seasons both players have been putting up despite the team's struggles. For Magbegor, being named to her first WNBA All-Star team was an experience she still couldn't quite believe as the midseason showcase festivities got underway.

“It feels incredible. I still can't believe I'm really here,” Magbegor told ClutchPoints. “I'm just trying to take it all in, enjoy every moment and just enjoy the experience.”

Often times when players are selected to the All-Star team, it's in recognition of their offensive exploits. Most All-Stars are among the top scorers on their respective teams and in the league overall. Magbegor has certainly come into her own as an offensive talent. She's averaging a career-high 13.8 points per game this season, the first time she's reached double figures in her career.

She's shooting 49.6 percent from the field and 32.6 percent from three-point range. She holds a career average of 35.6 percent shooting from the three-point line as a center. But it's the opposite end of the court where Ezi Magbegor has shined for the Storm and it's a big reason why she was named to the WNBA All-Star team.

Magbegor has emerged as the defensive anchor in the middle for the Storm, something she was able to make an immediate impact with as a rookie back in 2020. This season her defensive ability has been magnified even more. She is currently second in the league in blocked shots per game at 1.9 behind only A'ja Wilson. Last season she was named to the All-Defensive Second Team and this year she should be a shoe-in for the First Team.

While Magbegor is one of the best rim protectors in the WNBA, there are still aspects of her defensive game that she's looking to improve upon.

“It's just being a rim protector and wanting to help my teammates as well. Depending on if I'm down low, it's just being there if they need help. I think that's my mindset going in,” Magbegor said. “Obviously I think defensively there's still areas where I can get better. One-on-one defense, post defense, being a little more proactive rather than reactive in some cases.”

Magbegor was drafted by the Storm with the No. 12 overall pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft and despite this being only her fourth season in the league, she's one of the longest tenured players on the team. Only Jewell Loyd and Mercedes Russell have been with the Storm for a longer period of time. With four rookies on the team, the Storm have one of the youngest rosters in the league.

This season was always going to have some growing pains and the Storm certainly have had their share. They had lost ten games in a row before beating the Chicago Sky on Friday. With several new faces on the roster this season, Magbegor identified chemistry building as the one major thing the Storm have to continue work on as the second half of the season gets underway.

“I think just sticking together, trying to build that chemistry in such a short amount of time. Obviously we had training camp to do that, but then it's just been go, go, go, in the season you don't have much time to build that chemistry,” Magbegor said. “I think just sticking together and getting better everyday. I think there's been instances where we have had that. Our last stretch of games has been kind of rough, so I think just take a break and hopefully turn the season around the second half.”

Mathematically, the Storm are not out of the playoff race. Although they are eight games back of the current eighth place Sky whom they just beat, it's theoretically possible for them to mount a late season surge and make a push for the postseason. That's going to be a daunting task though. The Storm haven't exactly shown they're capable of pulling off such a feat this far into the season.

But according to Magbegor, the team morale and mindset has not changed. They still believe they can turn things around. For them, the second half of the season is like a clean slate, an opportunity to start fresh. They've been in a lot of close games so far and if they could just find the key to being able to close games out, they could be on to something.

“I feel like we can turn it around. Hopefully it's a tale of two halves and we can get a few more wins,” Magbegor said. “I think in a lot of the games that we have lost, we're in them or we've come back and put ourselves in really good situations to win. So if we can just capitalize on that, we can turn it around.”