September 1, 2024
Ariel Atkins isn’t the Mystics’ point guard, but she’s facilitating more than ever
Atkins is averaging a career-high 3.4 assists per game while leading Washington in scoring
WASHINGTON — A transition attack had fizzled out for the Washington Mystics on Wednesday, and veteran guard Ariel Atkins got the ball near the top of the key. She squared her feet and briefly considered taking the open 3-pointer.
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But then she spotted something in the paint: 6’5 center Stefanie Dolson had 5’8 Chicago Sky guard Lindsay Allen pinned. Atkins quickly threw the ball to Dolson’s outside hand, and Dolson converted the easy layup.
That was one of Atkins’ 108 assists this season, which is easily a career high for the seventh-year pro and ranks 16th in the WNBA. And 31 of those assists have gone to Dolson, making them the most prolific passer-scorer pairing on the roster.
Atkins is not one of the Mystics’ point guards, generally playing shooting guard or on the wing, but she has taken on more facilitating this season. Her 3.4 assists per game easily surpass her previous career high of 2.6 in 2021. And she’s assisting on 19.9% of her teammates’ field goals while she’s on the court, which is nearly four percentage points higher than her previous best.
“It’s what you want to see from somebody at this point in their career, that the game has maybe slowed down a little, that they’re seeing the picture in front of them more clearly,” Mystics head coach Eric Thibault told reporters before Saturday’s loss to the Connecticut Sun. “You can tell when Ariel’s playing at her own tempo, when she’s in a rhythm. … She’s shown a comfort with having the ball in her hands to make plays, and it’s nice.”
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In college at Texas, Atkins didn’t run the offense much with point guards like Celina Rodrigo, Brooke McCarty-Williams and Sug Sutton around. But at 5’10, she was a bigger guard who could rebound, and she was comfortable pushing the ball in transition — especially if it meant someone like McCarty-Williams, a career 39.8% 3-point shooter, could get free off the ball.
As a college senior, Atkins’ assist numbers made a similar leap to the one she’s seeing now. After averaging 1.6 assists per game as a junior, she doubled that to 3.2 as a senior.
When Atkins was drafted into the WNBA in 2018, she joined a stacked Mystics roster that included Elena Delle Donne, Kristi Toliver, Natasha Cloud, LaToya Sanders and eventually Emma Meesseman. That left her to be the beneficiary of many kickout passes rather than the deliverer, and she made 35.7% of her 3-pointers in each of her first two seasons.
Over the years, Atkins has spent a lot of time honing her ball-handling and passing, Thibault said on Saturday. She has learned from Mystics point guards past and present to consider things like whether a key player has touched the ball lately or whether the team needs more paint touches. And in 2022, Atkins took over point guard duties for Team USA in a training camp ahead of the World Cup because Team USA’s usual point guards were all still competing in the WNBA playoffs.
“It was just a challenge,” Atkins told The Next on Saturday. “It really helped me, I think, mentally kind of lock into not putting myself in a box as a player — not that I ever have. I think I’m one of the most versatile players out there. But I think this gave me the opportunity to kind of think about, What if I did need to run this spot? What if I do need to help our team [this way]? …
“To do it on … [the] World Cup stage, it’s a little different. It’s a little more nerve-wracking, especially doing it for somebody you’ve never really played for before, just trying to figure out what they want, what they’re looking for, what our team is about. …
“[But] if you can grow, why not?”
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Team USA head coach Cheryl Reeve predicted at the time that Atkins playing point guard would be a short-term sacrifice but beneficial for her future. That appears to have come true this season.
Atkins isn’t running the point for the Mystics like she did for Team USA. She has played just 72 minutes this season without Brittney Sykes, Julie Vanloo, Jade Melbourne or Sutton on the floor. That compares with 820 minutes played alongside one point guard and 108 minutes alongside two point guards. But Atkins is having the best passing season of her career, and the Mystics have needed it as Sykes, the starting point guard at the beginning of the season, has missed 22 games with injuries.
The jump in assists hasn’t been intentional, Atkins said: “I just think it kind of happened.”
Atkins is also the team’s leading scorer for the first time in her career with 15.3 points per game, and her assists have often come from being unselfish as opponents focus more intently on her. She’s also been able to push the ball in transition and allow Vanloo to hunt 3-pointers or Sykes to sprint ahead without the ball.
“Honestly, I’m just trying to play,” Atkins said. “I haven’t really been like, Oh, I need to make more passes. … If I’m looking at the basket and there’s three people in front of me, it probably means somebody else is open.”
Atkins has handed out double-digit assists to four players: Dolson (31), Vanloo (17), recently traded forward Myisha Hines-Allen (16) and rookie forward Aaliyah Edwards (12). Last season, the most assists she gave a single player was 14, and that player — center/forward Shakira Austin — has been injured for much of this season, so Atkins has had to adjust to different targets.
She’s more than taken that challenge: 78 of her 108 assists this season have gone to players who weren’t on the team in 2023. And she’s had 11 games with at least five assists this season after never having more than four such games in any previous season.
One of those five-assist games was against Chicago on Wednesday, and all five went to players who weren’t with the Mystics last season. “Steady Eddie, as usual,” Thibault said after seeing Atkins’ assists in the box score, praising her for staying composed during a physical game.
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Edwards was the recipient of one of Atkins’ assists on Wednesday, converting a midrange jump shot after Atkins had drawn two defenders in the paint. “She’s the type of leader, type of teammate that pours a lot of heart into everything she does, whether it’s a drill, whether it’s a game, or whether it’s practice,” Edwards told The Next on Saturday. “So just seeing that and being a part of that on the court with her, you want to get that same energy back to her.
“So even though we all know she’s a bucket — she can drop 30 any night — she does love to facilitate, too. So … [I’m] just staying ready, being ready for the quick pass, layup or the shot.”
As Atkins has handled the ball more, her turnovers have risen as well, to 2.7 per game. But she still has a positive assist-to-turnover ratio, which is significant for a Mystics team that turns the ball over more than any other WNBA team.
“She’s the veteran; she’s the leader on [that] team now,” Sun head coach and former WNBA guard/forward Stephanie White told reporters before Saturday’s game. “And I think for her, it’s taking ownership of that, continuing to do what she does best on the offensive end of the floor, but now finding ways to get other people involved. … Often, great scorers have to figure that out at some point. I think she’s doing a great job just overall, being a leader.”
Atkins’ improved passing has been part of a standout season for her more broadly, even as the Mystics have struggled to a 9-23 record. Her scoring average is the second-highest of her career, less than a point behind her 2021 mark. On July 14, she had a career-high 36 points, and she’s scored at least 25 four other times. Her 3.7 rebounds per game are also a career high. And despite a slow start offensively and the added load placed on her, she’s shooting about as efficiently as she has throughout her career.
Atkins is now just the fourth player in Mystics history to have at least 490 points and 100 assists in the same season. She’s on track to crack 600 points, which would make her only the second player in franchise history — Sykes last season is the other — to have 600 points and 100 assists.
“I think teams feel like they have to respect her shooting,” Thibault said. “… So teams have to go over screens on her, and she can deliver a pass. … That unlocks a lot of things offensively.”
Teams game plan differently against the Mystics from night to night, sometimes focusing the most on Atkins and other times focusing more on Sykes or Dolson, who is shooting a WNBA-best 48.9% from 3-point range. So on some nights, Atkins gets to be more of a scorer, and other nights, she gets to be more of a facilitator.
This year, she’s able to take more advantage of the latter than ever before.
All statistics reflect games through Aug. 31, 2024.
Written by Jenn Hatfield
Jenn Hatfield has been a contributor to The Next since December 2018 and is currently the site's managing editor, Washington Mystics beat reporter and Ivy League beat reporter. Her work has also appeared at FiveThirtyEight, Her Hoop Stats, FanSided, Power Plays and Princeton Alumni Weekly.
