When the Washington Mystics decided to waive 32 year-old Australian Ally Wilson and convert 22-year-old Spanish point guard Alicia Florez from a developmental contract to a standard contract, the team’s oldest player became 26-year-old Michaela Onyenwere, who was born in 1999.
This group of youngins has adopted the cheeky nickname “The Young Hos,” a term coined by the team’s 2026 No. 5 overall draft pick and UCLA alumna Lauren Betts. She revealed this to WNBA all-time great Sue Bird on her podcast Bird’s Eye View last month.
Betts discussed how she and her teammates do TikTok dances in the Mystics locker room and explained the story behind a viral video of Cotie McMahon singing out of tune while Onyenwere repeatedly yelled at her to “shut up.”
“It is genuinely great vibes,” Betts told Bird about her teammates amid that awkward moment. “We do have really great chemistry and it’s always a good time with the girls as you can kinda tell, but I love them all, they’re great.”
With every player born after 1998, the Mystics are the second-youngest team in WNBA history, behind only the New York Liberty’s 2020 bubble roster.
The most interesting thing about the Mystics isn’t just their age, but instead how they’ve chosen to rebuild.
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Most WNBA teams that have rebuilt in the better part of a decade either shied away from the term or, instead, did what’s called a hybrid or speedy rebuild where a team drafts a No.1 overall pick and then surrounds them with pieces in free agency and trades. The Atlanta Dream, led by general manager Dan Padover and the New York Liberty, led by GM Jonathan Kolb, took this approach.
Other teams have taken advantage of the draft but only at the top of it with the Indiana Fever and the Dallas Wings drafting the last four No.1 overall picks. The Fever and the Wings have surrounded Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, with a mix of homegrown talent and veteran signees.
The Mystics, however, have drafted 11 players over the last two draft cycles with 10 of them currently on the 2026 roster in some capacity. This includes their developmental player Darianna Littlepage-Buggs who was taken 30th overall in the 2026 draft.
To put themselves in this type of position where talent acquisition has mostly come from the prospect drafts, Washington has used a mix of their own picks and have been very aggressive trading for them. Some of the picks the Mystics acquired were from complicated multi-team trades that were executed in 2023 and 2024 under the previous front office that was run by former WNBA head coach Mike Thibualt.
But under the Mystics’ new front office leadership, led by President Michael Winger and, for one season, general manager Jamila Wideman––whose departure remains mysterious–– Washington has aggressively embraced a youth movement as a way to get back to the upper echelon of the WNBA.
The process began with a 2025 trade that sent previously franchise mainstay Ariel Atkins to the Chicago Sky, helping the Mystics acquire the draft capital that became No. 3 overall pick and now franchise cornerstone Sonia Citron. Later that season, Washington traded veteran Brittney Sykes to the Seattle Storm at the deadline, and in return received the pick that became No. 9 overall selection Angela Dugalić, Betts’ former UCLA teammate.
Those moves have helped fuel a rebuild unlike many the WNBA has seen before, with the Mystics entering consecutive drafts armed with multiple first-round picks that Washington kept for themselves rather than opting to trade them to acquire more veteran level talent, a tactic that’s been used by teams like the Liberty and the Dream in the past.
So what exactly is the Mystics’ road to contention? As of now it looks like Gen Z’s WNBA team is going to roll with the players they have drafted. Kiki Iriafen, the other franchise cornerstone that was drafted in the same class as Citron, told reporters that she hopes the Mystics will make those steps toward contention in “a year or two.”
What is the goal for this year? According to Betts, the team is actually trying to make the playoffs this year, which wasn’t even in the cards last season. “We call it 44 and more,” she said to Bird about her team.
In order to get to “44 and more,” referring obviously to the 44 regular season games plus at least two games in the first round of the postseason since the first series is a best-of-three, the Mystics will need to address some clear weaknesses that they possess.
As of now, the Mystics own a 4-5 record and are tenth in the standings. If the season ended today, they would be a half a game from a playoff spot. As of this writing, the Mystics are 12th overall in net rating, 11th overall in defensive rating and are 12th overall in offensive rating.
Also, Washington’s rankings surrounding three-point shooting leave much to be desired. They take the fewest threes per game in the league, make the second lowest number of threes in the league and have the third worst three-point percentage across the WNBA.
If there was a clear question about Washington’s roster entering the season, it was shooting. In today’s WNBA, spacing the floor is essential to offensive success. The reasons are fairly straightforward.
The Mystics have built a roster with a lot of talent in their frontcourt, led by Iriafen, Shakira Austin, Betts and Dugalić. They also feature some slashing wings, including McMahon and Cassandre Prosper, who aren’t known as shooters. Meanwhile, point guards Florez, Georgia Amoore and Rori Harmon all have shot under 25 percent from three to start the season. Outside of Citron and Onyenwere, and Lucy Olsen in a more limited role, the Mystics have few options to space the floor.
To address this, Washington has leaned heavily into player development for the second year in a row. For UCLA bigs Betts and Dugalić, there’s been a lot they’ve had to get used to. The type of basketball that UCLA head coach Cori Close taught them isn’t the one that second-year head coach Sydney Johnson wants them to play or that is typically played across the W.
Betts recalled multiple moments during training camp and practices when Johnson would say “what are you guys doing” to her and Dugalić when they were trying to play high-low sets instead of the offense revolving around pick-and-roll actions.
“[Johnson] makes fun of [Dugalić] and I all the time,” Betts said. “They’re like, oh, was that UCLA? Did Cori tell you to do that? Every time I get picked out in film, it’s always because I’m doing something that we did.”
But besides learning what a pro style offense looks like, other Mystics front court players are working on developing their outside shots, especially amid the roster’s current flaws.
During the Mystics June 2 game against the Chicago Sky when they won 90-72 at home, both Iriafen and Austin hit three-pointers. This has been a focus of Johnson’s and his staff since the end of the 2025 season. While both of their sample sizes are low, shooting 5-for-14 (Iriafen) and 4-for-9 (Austin) from three, Johnson described the buy-in he’s seen from both front court players.
“[Iriafen] will probably be mad at me, but one of the first things I did after the LA game is grab her and say that three was the right shot,” Johnson said after the win against the Sky.
“There were two on [Citron], you were wide open, line it up and trust it, knock it down. So for her to have that moment, and then to come back tonight, and without question, have three good looks from three, and then obviously [Austin] doing what she’s doing. For both of them, the future’s really bright. They’re really taken to the growth that we’re challenging them to take on.”
Johnson himself is also looking to grow. On Saturday night while on the road against the Dream, he had a moment.
After a drive from Angel Reese and corresponding foul call on his young point guard Florez, Johnson had a public outburst while arguing with one of the officials following the stoppage in the final four minutes of the third quarter. His assistant coaches had to hold him back and the incident led to Johnson’s ejection out of the game.
He lost his cool trying to protect and advocate for his young players. “There’s a little bit of you got to kind of earn your way in the W,” he said about how he wants to make sure his players get the calls he believes they deserve.
How will Shakira Austin determine the future of the franchise?
Through the transition from Mike Thibault and his son Eric to Winger and second-year head coach Sydney Johnson, one constant has remained: Shakira Austin.
Austin has had a career year so far this season. She is averaging 16 points, 6.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. The 25-year-old spent part of her most recent offseason not only refining her perimeter shot, but learning how to facilitate better and read the game. According to Jenn Hatfield of The IX Sports, Austin worked with assistant coach Emre Vatansever specifically on simulating moments when she is doubled with the ball in her hands and having Austin figure out in real time how to play out of those actions and which pass to make.
While Austin signed a three-year max contract this past April, the Toronto Tempo tried to sign her as a restricted free agent during free agency. But the Mystics were able to counter and they did. That’s a deal that a franchise would give to a franchise player, which begs the question: are the Mystics building around Citron, Iriafen and Austin?
If the Mystics do want Austin as part of their long-term plan, how much do they want players like Betts, who is also a center like Austin, to be a part of the Mystics future? What about Dugalić? How does this coaching staff create enough opportunities for these players to continue developing? Why were they drafted in the first place?
Or did the Mystics sign Austin to a long-term deal because she could eventually return much-needed shooting or additional draft capital? Do they move her at the deadline or do they hold off until 2027?
That’s what conventional wisdom would suggest, however Washington’s front office has been anything but conventional relative to how other WNBA teams have gone about rebuilding in recent memory. For now, the Mystics will continue to be Gen Z’s team.
