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Championship teams don’t reach the top of the pinnacle without having members of the roster whose impact doesn’t always need to show on the stat sheet.
For the Las Vegas Aces, Kiah Stokes is one of those key pieces.
“We don’t win without our role players that are accepting that role,” teammate A’ja Wilson said. “We can go on any other team and have a completely different role and fall in love with it but people decide to stay here.”
Even with her tenacity on defense and assertiveness in the rebounding category, her teammates and coaches want more in a different department: Shooting. Regardless of whether it’s a make or a miss, her team wants her to put pressure on defenses by taking open shots when given the chance.
“It just releases pressure on the other four players out there,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “She is a very, very good shooter. If you watch her in practice, she doesn’t miss very often. I’m always on her to shoot and she’s like, ‘Why am I going to shoot when I can just pass it to A’ja or [guards Kelsey Plum or Jackie Young].’”
For any athlete, motivation from teammates and coaches alike adds another vote of confidence. Stokes is no different.
“It is definitely a confidence booster,” she said. “When you have so many offensive weapons and for them and the coaching staff to be like, ‘Yeah girl, shoot it.’
“It’s just trusting myself more than anything.”
In two-plus seasons with Hammon at the helm, Las Vegas has compiled a 71-22 overall record for a win percentage of .763. When Stokes attempts three or four field goals the percentage jumps to .800 and explodes to .875 when she attempts five or more.
“So now I have to shoot more,” Stokes said. “I do appreciate numbers. I’m very logical, I like things written down so maybe I need to do my own numbers.”
Stokes has been a vital part of both back-to-back championship runs for the Aces over the last two seasons. In doing so, the team became the league’s first to do it in more than 20 years.
As a result of nursing a right foot injury, Stokes missed the final two games of last year’s WNBA Finals.
“It’s an incredible feeling,” she said. “Winning – I don’t want to say it's a habit or it's a culture but it’s a different level of work. What Becky has instilled and A’ja being our leader and our workhorse it just kind of set the tone.”
Though the last two years have produced her first two WNBA titles, Stokes is not unfamiliar with winning.
She has earned three NCAA National Championships, four Turkish Super League championships and two Euroleague Championships.
“The one thing I think [all those title winning teams had in common] was selflessness,” Stokes said. “We want each other to succeed. Any given night [guard Chelsea Gray], Jackie, A’ja, Kelsey, whoever was on our roster could go off.”
That selflessness is something that flows fluidly throughout the team and often shows when it matters most. Last season while accepting her Defensive Player of the Year award, Wilson ushered Stokes out to halfcourt with her to claim the hardware.
“Without her, I am not DPOY,” Wilson said. “She really covers up a lot of my mistakes. My impulsive decisions on the defensive end might not be perfect but I trust the fact that Kiah is going to be right there and can clean up the mess I could’ve made.”
In doing so, she labeled Stokes the anchor of the defense citing her presence as a catalyst for her own success. She also did it again as recent as the team’s double-digit win over Indiana Tuesday from inside the T-Mobile Arena.
“I do really appreciate what A’ja says about me,” she said. “I mean she’s A’ja Wilson, I don’t know another way to describe that [...] It was definitely refreshing for her to share that moment with me because she did not have to. She is a great defender, she earned that award.”
Stokes’ presence in Las Vegas was all brought on by the team’s former leadership in General Manager Dave Padover and head coach Bill Laimbeer. That relationship actually predates the Aces’ time in Las Vegas and extends back to the 10-year veteran’s first stop in the league.
“Bill’s my guy,” she said. “For [New York] to trade up and get me in the first round [of the 2015 WNBA Draft], it was completely unexpected. Then Bill “retired” and then come to find out he’s the coach in Vegas.
“He called me one day and was like, ‘Listen, we want you here [in Las Vegas]. We had a triple overtime game against somebody and I looked down the bench and I didn’t have anybody I could really trust.’”
Having been around the league for a decade now, it’s not much Stokes hasn’t seen in her days. This includes much of the hoopla surrounding the Las Vegas franchise since winning the first of its two consecutive titles.
Ultimately, Stokes believes it’s the team’s chemistry that’s allowed it to survive thus far.
“Just the care factor for each other,” she said. “We love to joke and have fun and have a lighter energy. It makes us all play better and more comfortably and it kind of carries over. You try to keep the outside noise the outside noise.”
Stokes also keeps herself grounded by being one-third of the beloved “Nerd Herd” which also features former Aces teammate Theresa Plaisance and current Aces teammate Sydney Colson.
“I love Sydney and TP so much,” she said. “I think it’s hard to find true friendships especially on teams that change so often. So for those two to still be in my life and present, the connection that we have I think is amazing.”
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