The Washington Mystics Will Be A Fun, Low-Expectation, Rebuilding Team » Winsidr

Get one thing out of your mind before you watch the Washington Mystics this season: these are not your Stics’ from last season. 

No, you will not find scoring machine Elena Delle Donne on the floor with Natasha Cloud. Nor will you find Cloud acting as the floor general and dogged defender mucking up possessions for the team’s opponents. You also will not see Queen Egbo build on a promising campaign last season after being traded to the club and you won’t be able to catch Kristi Toliver come back from injury to put a cap on her amazing WNBA career. 

This is an entirely different squad, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Washington is in full rebuild mode, just five years removed from their championship, and they look primed for a fun season with the caveat of some lowered expectations. 

The team has the pieces in place to not only empower players like Shakira Austin, Ariel Atkins and Brittney Sykes to build on their good play in Washington last season, but to look ahead to 2025 with confidence in their ability to make this year their only rebuilding year. 

Let’s take a look at the draft choices, free agency moves and players from last season that will help shape this rebuilding Mystics team. 

This is part two of a three-part series on the “Rebuilders” in the WNBA for the 2024 season—the moves they have made and how quickly they can hit the ground running.
Read part one on the Chicago Sky HERE.

Draft: Didn’t overthink it

Once Aaliyah Edwards from UConn fell to the Mystics in the draft, it was a no-brainer that they—or whoever else hadn’t taken her at that point—would snatch her up. Edwards, UConn’s graduating starting forward, averaged 17.6 points per game along with 9.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists in four years. A constant deterrent in the paint and a great compliment to UConn’s guards, Edwards was the perfect solution to Washington’s now big hole in their frontcourt with Delle Donne not returning to the team. 

In addition to Edwards, the team drafted a sharpshooter in Kaylynne Truong out of Gonzaga and drafted-and-stashed 19-year old forward Nastja Claessens from Belgium. Truong, unfortunately, suffered an ankle injury during training camp according to Washington Post reporter Kareem Copeland, and was out for at least one of the team’s preseason bouts against the Minnesota Lynx. After that injury, she was a part of the team’s cuts to get down to 11 spots on their roster.  

Overall, between Truong’s ability to score around the perimeter—shooting 41.2 percent from three with the Zags—and Edwards filling an EDD-sized gap in the roster, Washington went with the logical picks this year. It’s the only thing you can expect them to do as they look to shape themselves up for a high pick in 2025 and choose from yet another talented pool of draftees. 

Current Roster: Let The Vets Lead

It’s very strange to say considering she was just a rookie yesterday, but Austin—only in her third year in the league—will be one of the key vets on this Mystics team that will be looked to for leadership in this new era of Mystics basketball. She, along with other mainstays like Sykes, Atkins, Myisha Hines-Allen and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough will be expected to keep the Mystics within striking distance of a low seed in the standings, at minimum, and competitive even in losses at most. 

Atkins was recently asked about taking on that leadership role with the team in an interview with ABC 7, saying that her coaching experience from the offseason with the University of Michigan helped her learn how to put her ideas for on the floor action into words, something that she feels will lend itself to her taking on a leadership role with the team she won a chip with in 2019. 

“As you grow, the responsibility and the accountability always grows. So, I’m happy to be where I’m at and have the opportunity to be a leader,” Atkins said. 

Austin said she isn’t putting too much “unnecessary pressure” on herself as a leader of the team, and looks to just try and be healthy this season for the club. 

“I wanna make people around me better. That’s something I really want to tune into this year and, you know, get my assists up, and just show overall I can impact the game on every level and be dominant in that aspect,” Austin added. 

This team is clearly led by several veterans that are looking to push this team past the expectations set in the preseason by outsiders looking in – expectations that have seen them land towards the bottom of ESPN’s power rankings. That gusto from them can probably eek them past a few games against teams not ready for their physical style of defense and play, but it remains to be seen how they will compete with teams that have re-tooled this offseason to keep up with contenders like the Las Vegas Aces, Seattle Storm and New York Liberty. 

Free agency: Not Much Movement

The Mystics managed to sign Karlie Samuelson, a former Los Angeles Spark who has bounced around the league over her short five-year career despite being a great backup guard, averaging fairly high numbers from three point range and being a decent facilitator throughout her career. This was a great pickup, as she can become a pivotal floor general for the team while providing a scoring punch in the guard room. 

The team also signed Stef Dolson, most recently a key bench piece for the New York Liberty and a now-returning Mystics forward who can still defend well and, occasionally, let it fly from three. In addition to Dolson and Samuelson, the team also rostered Emily Engstler, who was electric in Athletes Unlimited basketball this offseason, and Didi Richards, who would be immediately adding to a versatile Mystics bench as a former Liberty guard that was unfortunately never given a shake at being a part of the team’s guard room. 

All of these moves, without thinking about the departure of Cloud in the offseason and the future of Delle Donne up in the air, are solid on paper. All of these players, especially Samuelson and Richards, add depth to a guard room in need of flexibility after Cloud signed with the Phoenix Mercury. The Mystics, however, did not make big swing signings like the Storm or Mercury did. It’s not like they didn’t have the cap room—with Her Hoops Stats showing they have cap space to the tune of $349,809 dollars. This lack of signings signals one thing—they are not looking to make a big swing, or swings, in the midst of a rebuild. 

Washington is a desirable location. With Austin as the face alone, the franchise is sure to attract talent beyond 2024 as they seek to reshape their roster and team. With potential draft classes continuing to look better, and with players like Paige Bueckers and Kiki Iriafen set to declare for the 2025 Draft, the Mystics have nothing but sunnier days to look forward to after what could be a tough 2024 campaign.