At the end of a season of development and growth, when the impossibly youthful and joyful Washington Mystics learned to crawl, then walk, then run together, there was one more new experience to navigate, one last lesson to learn: how to say goodbye to something you never imagined ending.
After the final buzzer sounded Wednesday night at CareFirst Arena and their 93-75 loss to the Atlanta Dream was in the books, ending the Mystics’ season in the first round of the WNBA playoffs, Washington’s players staggered toward midcourt for a brief huddle, then repaired to their locker room to bid farewell to a season their coach would later call “magical” — and to each other.
In those raw moments, there was no consoling Shakira Austin, after she had gone hip to hip and elbow to sharp elbow with Atlanta’s Angel Reese for the previous two-plus hours and gotten the worse of it, with talk of how the Mystics had been playing with house money anyway. There was no solace for Kiki Iriafen in the fact the Mystics had arrived at an elite level ahead of schedule, altering the franchise’s trajectory. There was no silver lining for Sonia Citron in being reminded that the Mystics’ young core, of which she is an essential piece, is the envy of the league.
All there was, was emptiness.
Trending
“I get emotional,” Citron said, pausing to collect herself. “We have something special here. We love each other. We have fun. We never lose our joy. That’s super special. I don’t think that’s everywhere. And I’m just grateful.”
But even as they scatter to their home bases, many of them with domestic or overseas playing opportunities come this winter, these Mystics may at some point allow themselves the grace to step back and ponder both what they accomplished in 2026 and how they set up this franchise for even bigger things in future seasons.
“We can’t take this year for granted,” coach Sydney Johnson said. “We have to understand how we got here, and we have to recreate it and add to it. There’s only going to be one team that holds up the trophy, and we want to be that team — next year, the year after. That’s what we’re working for.”
The Mystics were not only the youngest team in the WNBA this season, but (at least until a late-season roster shuffle) the second-youngest in the history of the league, and later the youngest team ever to make the playoffs. At times Wednesday night, they deployed a lineup made up entirely of first- and second-year players.
“I don’t even recognize this team,” Johnson said. “Every single player has gotten better. They’re a different player than they were four or five months ago. And the youth of this team — to understand how we’re trying to win, it came so quickly.”
Even as the rest of the league took note of the Mystics’ talent — which included six first-round picks from the past two drafts — few expected them to make much noise in 2026. The WNBA’s own preseason power rankings had them ranked 12th in the 15-team league; ESPN’s had them 11th.
But after reaching mid-July with a .500 record, the Mystics went 16-4 the rest of the way to seize the fifth seed in the WNBA playoffs. Other teams marveled at the way they played on a nightly basis — with both extraordinary physicality in the paint (they led the league in rebounding by a healthy margin) and extraordinary chemistry on the bench and in the locker room.
“They’re really well-coached,” Dream coach Karl Smesko said. “They’re obviously very physical. And… they look like they have fun playing together. They got better in each part of the season that went by.”
This was supposed to be the year the Mystics’ rebuild reached and possibly turned the corner. Instead, it took that corner like a stock-car racer and accelerated down the straightaway — a sooner-than-expected arrival that now brings them to the familiar crossroads that confronts franchises when they reach the other side: Now what?
By accomplishing what they did this season, the Mystics have thrown open their championship window, and the organization has both the justification and the wherewithal to go big this offseason. At the least, there will almost certainly be one major addition, courtesy of the Chicago Sky.
In February 2025, the Mystics traded veteran guard Ariel Atkins to the Sky for a 2025 first-round draft pick (which became Citron), as well as a swap of first-round picks in 2026. That means the Mystics, instead of picking at the back of the pack based on their 2026 seeding, will get the Sky’s lottery pick, which, owing to the Sky’s 16-28 record (tied for 10th in the standings), could be anywhere from first to fifth in a draft deep with high-level talent — putting them in position to take someone like USC’s JuJu Watkins, Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo or Madison Booker of Texas.
Free agency provides another, more expensive pathway, though the Mystics’ plethora of players on their rookie contracts affords them the luxury to spend big. What do the Mystics need from a roster-construction standpoint to take the next step in 2027 and beyond?
They will almost certainly aim to get better at point guard, whether that means trusting they can get more out of Georgia Amoore — a first-round pick in 2025 who missed all of that season with an ACL tear and thus played this season as a rookie — or looking outside. They could also use a guard or wing with a deadly three-point shot (having taken the fewest three-point attempts in the league this season).
Among the big names on the list of unrestricted free agents who could fit either or both criteria: Indiana’s Kelsey Mitchell, Phoenix’s Kelsey Plum or Jackie Young of the Las Vegas Aces, who, combined, own 15 All-Star nods and five WNBA titles. Meantime, the Mystics have just one unrestricted free agent: veteran wing Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, whom they picked up on a waiver claim in August.
Chemistry and culture are core philosophies of Monumental Basketball, the parent company for both the Mystics and Washington Wizards, and any potential acquisitions, especially one that might alter the molecular makeup of the locker room culture, will almost certainly be viewed through that lens.
The 2026 Mystics were as close-knit a team as you are likely to see — equal parts joy, love and toughness — and keeping that feeling intact while adding game-changing talent will be a challenge for the team’s brain trust, which, in the absence of a general manager, includes Monumental Senior Vice President John Thompson III, Monumental President Michael Winger and Johnson.
“For me to see them love and care for each other on and off the court is everything I could ask for,” Johnson said of his 2026 Mystics. “And we won games. This wasn’t some ‘Kumbaya’ thing going on. … We won games and played for each other. And were selfless and joyful. And I want the world to know, that’s how we roll in D.C. And you can win. So next year, we’re going to come back stronger and want more, but we’re also going to hold to our culture, which is toughness, togetherness and a little bit of love sprinkled in there.”
Author
