The Lynx knew all along that replacing Lindsay Whalen would be a difficult task for any one player.

So this year, they're trying two.

Whalen retired after the 2018 season. She has since been inducted into every possible Hall of Fame for which she was eligible.

During the Lynx's glory years, she was coach Cheryl Reeve's conduit to the team while on the court. The two shared a relationship that allowed the Lynx to win four titles in seven years, as Reeve's coaching and Whalen's guidance helped turn a collection of stars into a cohesive team.

Reeve's efforts to find a point guard who could offer some semblance of Whalen's leadership have led Reeve to try new starters or combinations virtually every year since 2018.

Reeve hasn't failed to bring in good players. She has struggled to find the right player at the right time in her career who could stay healthy and run the team the way Reeve demands.

Danielle Robinson backed up Whalen in 2018 and became the starter in 2019. She played fast ... which Reeve didn't necessarily like. She also struggled to shoot from the outside. Robinson was a pretty good player being asked to replace a legend. That didn't work.

In 2020, the Lynx drafted Crystal Dangerfield with the 16th pick, and she became the WNBA rookie of the year. She excelled in clutch situations and helped the Lynx advance to the league semifinals in the COVID-19 bubble.

This was a stunning success story ... that didn't last. She's already with her fourth team and has never replicated her rookie-season excellence.

In 2021, Reeve signed Layshia Clarendon to pair with Dangerfield. Clarendon looked like an ideal point guard for Reeve — smart and tough with defensive awareness and leadership skills. Clarendon couldn't stay healthy and Dangerfield declined, and the Lynx were again looking for a starting point guard.

In 2022, Rachel Banham, Yvonne Turner, Moriah Jefferson and Lindsay Allen played point guard, with Jefferson starting 30 games. The Lynx finished 14-22 for their first losing season since 2010, Whalen's first year after being traded from Connecticut to Minnesota. Banham, a favorite of Reeve's because of her shooting ability and personality, just signed with Connecticut last week.

In 2023, Tiffany Mitchell, a combo guard, played the point, with Allen taking over and playing well down the stretch, but the Lynx had a second consecutive losing season.

In addition to this long list of point guards, the Lynx sometimes allowed Odyssey Sims to act as their primary ball-handler.

The list of potential Whalen replacements is so long it's almost impossible to remember them all. You would need a cheat sheet, like NFL quarterbacks wear on their wrists when the playbook is too complicated to memorize.

So what now?

Now Reeve is once again looking for a lasting solution at the position where she demands so much. The Lynx have signed free-agent point guard Courtney Williams to a multiyear deal, and they traded Mitchell and a second-round draft pick to Connecticut for point guard Natisha Hiedeman.

Williams will be the starter. She's coming off the best season of her career. Hiedeman should be a strong backup.

A dramatic upgrade at point guard, combined with the ascension of Napheesa Collier, the expected improvement of Diamond Miller (once she recovers from a knee injury) and the potential of getting another rotation player with the seventh pick in the draft, should give the Lynx a chance to become a winning team again.

That's assuming that the Lynx point guard position isn't the Bermuda Triangle of the WNBA, a place where all who venture are lost.