Behind the scenes of the Washington Mystics’ player development

Partway through the game, Edwards approached Sanders on the bench. “She was like, ‘All I could think of [was], Toya said she’s gonna do this,’” Sanders told The Next. “… She was like, ‘I got it!’”

Sanders continued, “She was just proud of herself in that moment. And so you gotta take the little wins. She’s a rookie playing a lot of minutes against very good players.”

A few games later, 24-year-old forward Emily Engstler had her own moment where things clicked. She has been working with head video coordinator and player development assistant Andrew Wade on finishing through contact and over size. Just before halftime against the Dallas Wings on Sept. 3, she did both in one play, making a contested driving layup over 6’2 forward Natasha Howard.

That shot, plus her baseball-pass assist to guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough to end the third quarter, gave the Mystics just enough separation in a four-point win.

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The Mystics have been committed to player development all season long, but especially since the trade deadline. With a 6-21 record at the time, they made two deals, giving up veteran forward Myisha Hines-Allen and getting back draft picks and young talent.

They are now the second-youngest team in the WNBA, with an average age of 26.9 years old. They have the three youngest players in the league, all of whom are 22 years old, and three more who could still be on their parents’ health insurance.

“Where we are in the season … and part of what this year was about was making sure that we develop … players who we think are going to be important for us going forward,” head coach Eric Thibault told reporters on Aug. 20, just after the trades. “… So that’s been a focus and will continue to be a focus.”

For Sanders, it feels a lot like 2015, when she was a veteran on a Mystics team that had eight players ages 24 and under. The Mystics went 18-16 that season, but after a few years of development and some marquee free-agent signings, they won the franchise’s first championship in 2019.

The Mystics hope their current group will follow a similar path, and it starts with player development during the season, even as the WNBA’s condensed schedule leaves little time to practice. Thibault estimated on Aug. 28 that the Mystics had had “20-something real practices” since the regular season began. That’s even with the Olympic break providing about 2.5 extra weeks of practice midseason and the Mystics practicing more often than they typically would late in the season to help develop chemistry and teach concepts.

The Mystics staff works with players to set short- and long-term development goals. Director of player development Sefu Bernard likes to divide the season into “training sprints,” which typically last a few weeks, and set a few goals for each sprint.

“We’re not trying to do 10 things,” Bernard told The Next about the sprints. “We try and keep the list small. … So you’re just always just trying to keep those main things … at the forefront, whether you’re doing it on court, in film or even in game.”

Having those short-term goals can help younger players get minutes initially, Thibault said in May, and that “buys [them] time to work on some of these other things.” For point guard Jade Melbourne, the WNBA’s youngest player, one of her short-term goals was pressuring the opposing ball-handler full-court. Doing that earned her minutes and gave her a measure of success that wasn’t tied to whether her shots were falling.

Mystics coaches are assigned specific players to work with individually, including Sanders with Edwards and Wade with Engstler. But they’ll always offer other players feedback if they see something, too.

“We all get our touches with everybody,” Sanders said. That includes Thibault, who still works with players and jumps into practices at times, like he did regularly as a Mystics assistant coach from 2013 to 2022.

For the Mystics staff, one key to developing young players is maximizing the teaching moments that are available outside of team practices. Those can come in individual warmups before games, shootarounds, optional practice days and film sessions.

“There’s a lot of opportunities if players approach it the right way, focused on the things that we have agreed to focus on,” Thibault said. “You can get a lot better in a short period of time if you’re willing to work each day.”

If players come in on an optional day, their workouts can vary widely depending on what they need. They might do extra conditioning or go lighter with form shooting and film study. Or they might focus on a certain shot or concept that the team can’t spend as much time on in practice.

“We try to use that day as teaching in the short term, but also teaching with also the long game in mind,” Sanders said.

Engstler has particularly benefited from optional sessions. She played in only two of the Mystics’ first eight games this season, so she and Wade decided to make optional days “like a game day” for her. “Every single time that we had an optional or an off day, it was almost a lock that she was coming in,” Wade told The Next. “And that’s kind of a testament to who she is as a worker and a professional.”

In those optional sessions, Wade puts Engstler through games of 1-on-1, 2-on-2 and 3-on-3, getting her reps in live, game-like action and building her confidence. They’ve worked on her screening angles, shooting, defensive positioning and understanding of various schemes. Wade sometimes shows Engstler clips of veteran Mystics center Stefanie Dolson and how she excels in those areas.

Meanwhile, Melbourne has been working with assistant video coordinator Caleb West on several aspects of her game, including her 3-point shot. “We’re trying to get that to [where] I can be a 40% shooter, which would be really handy,” Melbourne told The Next. She’s also trying to improve at finishing layups and and-ones — and at having “a landing plan” so she doesn’t hit the floor as often on her drives.

“She’s got the turbo, and the temptation is to press it all the time,” Thibault added on Sept. 3, referencing Melbourne’s speed. “And so she’s figuring out when she can toggle it down, slow it down, hesitate and go again.”

Film sessions also vary by player. Early in the season, Wade tries to gauge how much information each player wants and can absorb. Former Mystic Alysha Clark was an extreme example, peppering Wade and West with requests for specific kinds of clips before games. Other players take a “less is more” approach and stick to the scouting reports the coaches provide. 

Some players, like 31-year-old rookie point guard Julie Vanloo, even want to see film of previous plays during timeouts, to better identify coverages and adjust in near real time.

For younger players, there’s often a paradox in this: Coaches try to simplify things for them as they make the jump from college to the pros and have more schemes to learn on both ends. But younger players also need to learn much more than veterans do about opponents’ tendencies, which can feel daunting.

For Edwards, having a former player on the staff in Sanders has helped her internalize what to expect from various opponents.

“When we’re going through different plays and stuff, she’s like, ‘Oh yeah, see, when I played against this person or against this team, this is what happened. This is what helped me be successful,’” Edwards told The Next. “So that kind of player mentality, I like that stuff. I can relate.”

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During each sprint, Bernard is listening to make sure most of the feedback players receive from the coaching staff is about the short-term goals they’ve identified. He watches to see how those lessons are translating into games and makes note of additional feedback that’s coming up repeatedly for future sprints. At the end of each sprint, it’s time to decide with each player whether to keep the same goals or change them.

Engstler has gotten more minutes since Hines-Allen was traded, and she has made the most of them. Before the trade, Engstler was averaging 4.4 points, 3.2 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.5 steals and 0.3 blocks in 10.9 minutes per game. Since then, she’s averaging 9.4 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.1 blocks in 17.0 minutes per game. Her field goal percentage has risen from 45% before the trade to 59% since.

“She’s just walking with a different swag, a different confidence,” Walker-Kimbrough told reporters after the Dallas game. “And … it’s contagious through the whole bench mob. Once she starts going, we all just start going.”

“She’s just aggressive … so it’s easier to find her,” Vanloo said after a win over the Phoenix Mercury on Thursday. “I feel like players that play with confidence want that ball, so they’re open. They make efforts. … She’s confident, and it’s beautiful.”

Engstler has also been more active defensively after, as Thibault put it, “playing way too safe” earlier in the season. For example, against the Seattle Storm on Aug. 26, she poked the ball away from former WNBA MVP Nneka Ogwumike in the final seconds of a two-point win. (Engstler also stuffed the stat sheet that night with 12 points, nine rebounds, three assists and three steals in under 18 minutes.)

“I just try to stay ready,” Engstler told reporters postgame. “… I think from the first day of training camp to now, it has been a very big difference. Specifically … my goal this second half [of the season] is to play better defense, and I think this was a game that really showed what I’ve been trying to do better. So I’m just proud to grow, and I want to keep growing.”

For Edwards, the improvements haven’t been as stark on the stat sheet, but they’re helping her establish herself as a rookie in the league. She’s getting more comfortable with the Mystics’ offensive and defensive schemes and starting to learn opponents’ tendencies. She has also shored up some weaknesses from early in the season, including her fouling and her first-quarter finishing.

“My attention to detail I think has grown throughout the season,” Edwards said on Aug. 31. “As a rookie, you come in and just take everything that’s thrown at you and try to apply it. But I think that I’ve really retained that information. … I’m becoming more aware of what are my strengths, what are my weaknesses, what can I improve on, what my opponents are doing, how can I capitalize off their weaknesses.”

Edwards and Melbourne have both had to adjust to opponents changing their game plans against the Mystics late in the season, Thibault told The Next on Saturday. For example, as teams began to switch more aggressively on Dolson — who is making 48.9% of her 3-pointers on over four attempts per game — that changed where Edwards needed to go on the court.

“Trying to do that and make those decisions for 30 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever it is, that’s a mental workload for a young player,” Thibault said.

It’s not just the Mystics’ younger players, though, who have taken significant steps in their development this season. Dolson has taken on the role of the Mystics’ top shooting big in her 11th WNBA season. Guard Ariel Atkins, a seven-year WNBA veteran, is having the best passing season of her career, even as she’s carried a heavy scoring load. And Walker-Kimbrough, an eight-year veteran, leads the WNBA and ranks third in Mystics history with a career-best 245 points off the bench.

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The results of the Mystics’ player development won’t show up all at once, or even all this season. It could be years before some concepts or skills become key components of players’ games.

“They have to get confidence in it, and then once they get confidence in it in practice, being able to try it in a game. And sometimes in a game, it’s not going to work out perfectly the first time,” Sanders said. “… But the fact that they can recognize it and attempt it, I think it’s the first step. … So I think there’s steps that we look at as far as to see if something is sinking in.”

Since the Hines-Allen trade, Thibault has committed to rotating players heavily and giving them chances to play in different combinations. He has played 40 five-player lineups for at least three minutes each in those games, and 25 of those lineups had gotten no minutes together before the trade. Collectively, those new lineups have played 66% of the total minutes since the trade, according to an analysis of WNBA Stats data.

Bernard, Sanders and Wade all agreed that these minutes late in the season are crucial for younger players like Melbourne, Engstler and 22-year-old Sika Koné, who was acquired from the Minnesota Lynx in the Hines-Allen trade. Koné has played 59 minutes in five games with Washington, already surpassing the 57 she played in 17 games with the Lynx before the trade. She’s a player the Mystics are just starting to work with, but one they see a lot of potential in at both ends.

“You can only get experience by being in the experience,” Sanders said. “You have to be out there. You have to get reps at finishing games. You have to get reps at playing against certain opponents.”

“You can talk about it, but you can’t replicate the storm entirely, the weight of the moments when you have a lead and a team is making a run,” Bernard added. “… So it’s just tremendously valuable. Now it’s our job to be able to help them transfer those learnings forward. And I don’t think it’ll be a straight line, but they are getting reps.”

As players get those minutes, Thibault and his staff aren’t only looking at the results. Instead, they’re evaluating intangibles like energy and body language, especially when things aren’t going well. They’re also looking at little things that lead to success, like having good screening angles, catching the ball on balance and throwing accurate passes.

The film from these minutes is also important for young players, both Thibault and Bernard said.

“It’s partly why I have to play them so that they have film of themselves to go back and study and sit with their coach and go through situations,” Thibault said. “It’s one thing to … watch somebody else, and you have to be able to do that, but you also got to have some evidence [of], OK, here’s how you’re being defended. Here’s where you are defensively.

“It’s easy for players to say, ‘Yeah, yeah, I got it. I understand,’ until they’re in it and they’re not where they’re supposed to be. … In the mode we’re in, you gotta give them a chance to make some mistakes and make some plays and go back and self-evaluate.”

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When the season ends, players will scatter between Washington, offseason homes and overseas teams, but the Mystics staff will aim to keep up the momentum and help players improve year-round. For some players, getting rest and doing individual workouts is more helpful for their development than playing overseas, Sanders said — and for other players, it’s the opposite.

For players who go overseas, the Mystics staff will work with them to create a loose plan for their development. It will generally have a few items to work on, like passing out of pick-and-rolls or defensive positioning. The staff will then watch their games and check in with them every few weeks or every month, similar to how the sprints work during the season.

For players who stay in Washington, that plan will factor into all their workouts with the Mystics staff. The staff films every workout, so players can review them and see their progress.

Atkins has gone overseas some years, but last winter she opted to coach at Michigan in the offseason. Whichever she chooses, her strategy for offseason development comes down to “identifying it, writing [it] down and then attacking it and playing,” she told The Next. “… And then when you have an opportunity to do it in a game, not being afraid of actually doing it. I think that’s when you get better. … Then it becomes an unconscious thing that you just do.”

The goal is that the Mystics will reap the benefits of this 11-24 season in the years to come, especially in 2026 and beyond. There have been short-term wins, and players and staff know there will be long-term ones, too. That’s how they’ve stayed optimistic and kept battling through an 0-12 start and their ongoing struggles.

“The more you lose, the more you feel like you can improve and learn,” Melbourne said. “So just trying to find the little wins within everything has been my kind of mindset.”