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Mystics feel there was ‘a lot left on the table’ in 2022 season

By Tyler Byrum

Mystics feel there was 'a lot left on the table' in 2022 originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

Losses to end one’s seasons always hurt. Every season, 11 WNBA teams feel that pain. Seven teams were reminded of that feeling this 2022 season, so far, with four more to join them in the next month.

The Washington Mystics became one of those seven teams when they saw their season come to a close on Sunday with their Game 2 loss. But for them, their pain hurts more than just the finality of it all coming to an end.

“I feel like we had more to give this season,” Natasha Cloud said at her end-of-season availability on Tuesday. “I feel like I had more to give this season, so I’m still in a very much (in a) frustrated competitor mode. I know what we had in our locker room. And I think that’s the frustrating part is we had it, we just didn’t know how to piece it together in time.”

If anybody should know what it takes to win a championship it would be the Mystics. The organization – which still had six players from the 2019 championship team – has two WNBA Finals appearances with the current core of players. They’ve known when they were good enough to win it all (2019) and they knew when they were not (2020 & 2021).

With Elena Delle Donne back for nearly 70% of the games, everyone believed they could contend for a championship. Prioritizing their defensive efforts put the Mystics in an elite category this year. Across multiple metrics, they were considered the No. 1 defense in the WNBA.

Juxtaposed to the high-powered offense of 2019, the defense was just as dangerous. Four players have been recognized for All-Defensive honors in their career, Delle Donne is a decent defender in her own right and they also drafted the top post defender in the entire draft class; combined, it put them with a super-team cast of players on one side of the ball.

“I feel like we had a lot left on the table and it sucks not being able to show that,” defensive specialist Alysha Clark said.

That defense, in their eyes, did not let them down in the elimination loss to the Seattle Storm. All season that is what they hung their hat on. It did not take long for their goal of creating the best defensive unit in the WNBA to become reality. 

The issues, surprisingly, came on the offense where they had been dominant for several seasons. That half of the game never quite could come fully together. That’s what many on the team pointed to, in not being able to keep up with the offensive prowess of the Storm, in what eventually put a sunset on their season.

“I felt like our defense had connected very much quicker than our offense had throughout the course season,” Shatori Walker-Kimbrough said. “We showed glimpses, but I feel like there was still some growth that we didn’t really necessarily tap on the offense. And as far as chemistry-wise, we had so many great players and there’s so many different lineups… So I feel like at times, especially with a shorter season, with not that many practices our offense took a little bit longer to grasp as far as chemistry than our defense.”

Each team builds as the season goes on. No one ever wants to peak in June or July. Progressing week-to-week, game-to-game is common in sports with, hopefully, the plateau being in the playoffs. Look at last season as an example with the No. 5 seeded Phoenix Mercury and the No. 6 seeded Chicago Sky meeting in the championship. 

Talent-wise both teams should have been considered title contenders from the start, it just took time. 

With Delle Donne in and out of the lineup – where a majority of the roster has barely played with her – there were obstacles. Ariel Atkins could be in line for another All-WNBA second-team honor this season; the fact remains that this is her first season in a scoring role when playing alongside the two-time MVP. Back in 2019, Atkins was in the lineup for her defense and to be a knock-down shooter.

Myisha Hines-Allen had barely played with Delle Donne, period. Clark, Shakira Austin and Elizabeth Williams had zero minutes of experience with Delle Donne. 

Finding that chemistry, in must-win, high-stakes games was a little hard to find with her missing 11 games.

“I don’t know,” Atkins answered when asked about what was missing from the offense. “It just didn’t feel like we could get it consistently. Like there will be games where it’s like dang, ‘that feels good.’ And the next game we’d be like ‘oh,’ so just trying to find that consistency within our team, I think, would have been nice.”

Fortunately for Washington, a majority of this group will be back in 2023. After all, it took the team losing in the 2018 Finals to Seattle and then taking nearly the same roster in 2019 to ‘run it back.’ Four of the five starters are under contract plus the top bench player: Delle Donne, Cloud, Atkins, Hines-Allen and Austin.

To put that in perspective, when not factoring in injuries there are only four players from last year’s active roster that played in this year’s. Perhaps 2023 is finally when the Mystics get to hit the ground running.

“Every year we’re building to get better, every year we’re building to get back to a championship-caliber team that we know we’re capable of being,” Hines-Allen said. “…that’s where we see ourselves and (we) see ourselves playing that last game of the season because we know we’re capable of doing it, the coaches know we’re capable of doing it.”

After impressive rookie year, Shakira Austin says she ‘did nothing crazy special’

By Tyler Byrum
After impressing, Shakira Austin says she 'did nothing crazy special' originally appeared on NBC Sports WashingtonBy all accounts, Shakira Austin had a stellar rookie season with the Washington Mystics. Expectations were not only met but surpassed within the first week of the season. After being named a starter in just her second game, Austin recorded a double-double against future Hall-of-Famer Sylvia Fowles.The rookie assumed the starting center job permanently not long after that and was the fifth-leading scorer on the team. That was fifth behind a two-time MVP, a two-time All-Star, the WNBA's leader in assists and a budding star in Myisha Hines-Allen.Yet, despite all of the success that has come her way following her No. 3 selection in the 2022 WNBA Draft, Austin believes that's nothing compared to what she's capable of on the basketball court."I think I started off at a pretty good base for a rookie year," Austin said at the end of the season. "Personally, I feel like I haven't done too much, nothing crazy special. But that alone just motivates me to come in and show that I have a lot more to offer and that I can do a lot more for a team."Her point guard Natasha Cloud and those at the top of the sport share those sentiments. For as good as Austin was in 2022, there's more to come in 2023 and beyond.Cloud said that she can already tell Austin is "going to be one of the best bigs to ever come through this league."Already, she's assuming a role among the elite. Following the conclusion of the season, there was no downtime for the 6-foot-5 center. Las Vegas was her destination to join Team USA's training camp for the FIBA World Cup. A roster she would make, joining fellow bigs Breanna Stewart, A'ja Wilson, Alyssa Thomas and Brionna Jones for a Gold medal. Gaining that respect and being able to produce how Austin did is something she's proud of, considering the expectations placed on her before the season started."Just my ability to create for myself," Austin responded when asked what she was proud of this season. "I think coming in this year, there wasn't really an expectation for me to do much for the team and I came in and I established myself. Like I stayed within the role I was given, no plays were called for me, I was told to be a defender and a rebounder and I came in and still tried to make as much impact as I could within that."The Mystics frankly didn't need the 15 points and 4.3 3-point attempts per game she averaged in her final year at Ole Miss in the 2022 WNBA season. A core of Elena Delle Donne, Ariel Atkins, Cloud and Hines-Allen was supposed to supply the offense. Mix in Alysha Clark coming back from her Lisfranc injury and the addition of Elizabeth Williams, and there was already a lot of firepower and talent on the roster. Still, Austin's role of cleaning up the glass as a rebounder and providing post defense were areas she thrived. With Williams overseas for the better part of the first month of the season, along with Delle Donne and Clark missing games, Austin proved herself in the time she was given. It was clear, she should be in the starting group.After May 20, she started every game for Washington. The minutes were granted but the play design to fit her talent wasn't. Washington kept the focus, and rightfully so, around the trio of Delle Donne, Atkins and Cloud. Austin was there for offensive rebounds and to take advantage of an opponent using an ill-advised defensive switch. Schematically, the coaching staff said no plays were run for the talented 22-year-old. In her first season, she finished with 8.7 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, along with four double-doubles. Her 54.7% field goal percentage led the team. She was the runner-up to the Dream's Rhyne Howard in Rookie of the Year voting."I think the rookie season is definitely a great opportunity to just go out there and shock people," Austin said. "I think this year, I wasn't really able to shock them as much as I wanted, but I was just able to be as efficient as possible. So they can't really scout a great IQ player, a high IQ player who just knows how to cut and is aggressive and plays with high energy. I just think that's what I came in and did and, like I said, you can't really scout too much about that."There's no lack of confidence from Austin. Nothing really surprised her in her transition to the highest women's professional basketball league in the world. She knew the quality of basketball and pace would improve from the NCAA. She also expected- er rather welcomed - the physicality in the WNBA.Next year, Washington - with its revised organizational structure - will have a full season to prepare how they want Austin integrated into the offense. As with most players, her role should expand in Year 2. Mike Thibault, who is now in a general-manager-only role, agrees that Austin has a lot more to contribute. But, he wants to see what she worked on with Team USA and also while playing overseas in Israel. "It's not all gonna come at once. She would like to be more involved in the offense, which I think she will be, but part of that is the individual work she's been doing on her game, on her shooting routine. Part of it for her is just being a better student of the game and not that she's not, she has great basketball instincts, but it's a whole new world going from college to the pros," he said after the season."The hardest thing for her is that she's going to now go overseas for four months and we don't get to see her every day. And, how do you have the discipline to maintain the workouts that you want to do? She's got to check in with our coaches. We may send a coach over there to spend some time with her. But we'll have videos of her and we'll have FaceTime chats with her to kind of stay on plan," Thibault continued.It's clear that the future is bright for both Austin and the Mystics. That was the goal when they won the rights to the No. 1 pick before the 2022 WNBA Draft and traded back to third for Austin. Now, Washington has a dynamic post player who could develop into a star for the organization's new chapter. Now it's a matter of figuring out how to maximize Austin's current potential and the Mystics' current franchise player into another run at a championship."She has she's barely scratched the surface in my opinion," Thibault said.
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