How Tina Charles can bolster the Seattle Storm’s WNBA title hopes

The Seattle Storm officially announced Tuesday what everyone anticipated since center Tina Charles’ “divorce” from the Phoenix Mercury was announced three days earlier: She is headed to the Pacific Northwest.

Charles has signed a rest of the season contract with the Storm, who are currently 11-7 and in fourth place in the WNBA standings.

Guard Sue Bird, part of all four Storm championship teams, will retire after this season. Charles now will be part of the quest to send Bird out with another WNBA title — while also trying to win the first in her own career.

Charles averaged 17.3 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists playing 16 games for the Mercury, with whom she signed as a free agent in February. Charles reportedly was unhappy with her role in Phoenix (8-12), which has won two games in a row since she left.

Charles, 33, has had a Hall of Fame-worthy career dating to her two NCAA championships at UConn, but a WNBA title has eluded her. Seattle will be her fifth stop in the WNBA, following time with the Connecticut Sun, New York Liberty, Washington Mystics and Phoenix.

How will Charles, the 2012 WNBA MVP, fit with the Storm? Does her addition greatly strengthen Seattle’s championship hopes? ESPN’s Kevin Pelton, Alexa Philippou and Mechelle Voepel look at Seattle’s big mid-season move.

Having played half of its 36-game regular-season schedule, and with two 2022 All-Stars already in the starting lineup, why do the Storm want to add Charles?

Things haven’t gone to plan in Seattle this summer as center Mercedes Russell — who signed a three-year deal with the Storm this past offseason — has been limited to five games and is currently being treated for a recurrent, atypical headache syndrome.

Ezi Magbegor has emerged as a budding star in the league, helping Russell’s absence feel less acute, but the Storm have problems elsewhere: In particular, they’ve massively struggled to get their reserves going, or really to get much consistent offense from anyone outside of