Why the Washington Mystics made the ‘difficult’ choice to trade Ariel Atkins

ESPN’s Alexa Philippou and Kendra Andrews were the first to report the trade. In return, Washington gets the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, the right to swap first-round picks in the 2027 draft and Chicago’s second-round pick in 2027.

“We are building a program to sustain a period of contention during the next era of Mystics Basketball,” first-year Mystics general manager Jamila Wideman said in the team’s press release. “Our ambitious return to prolonged excellence requires time, intention, and difficult decisions.

“Trading Ariel, a champion and celebrated Mystic, is one of those difficult decisions. In exchange, we are afforded another opportunity to select a young impact player at the top of the draft who can be part of our aspirational future.”

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Atkins was by far the longest-tenured Mystic on the 2025 roster, signing extensions in 2021 and 2023 to remain with the franchise. The 28-year-old played the first seven seasons of her career in Washington after Mike Thibault drafted her seventh overall in 2018. She became a starter almost immediately and helped the Mystics make the WNBA Finals in 2018 and win their first championship in 2019.

Atkins departs as the franchise’s all-time leader in games started (235, including the regular season and playoffs) and 3-pointers made. She made 430 3-pointers in a Mystics jersey, nearly 100 more than any other player. She also ranks second in franchise history in points (3,188), assists (583), steals (337) and plus-minus (693).

In addition, Atkins made two All-Star teams and five All-Defensive teams during her time in Washington, and she won an Olympic gold medal with Team USA in 2021.

“Knowing what you do well and doing it to the best of your ability and putting two feet in and committing yourself to it every single day, that’s exactly what A does,” then-Mystics point guard Natasha Cloud told reporters in July 2023, after Atkins set the franchise record for 3-pointers made. “So that’s what makes her great. That’s what’s going to continue to make her great.”

Over her career in Washington, Atkins continually improved and adapted to fit the team’s needs. In 2020, with stars Elena Delle Donne and Tina Charles sitting out, Atkins became more of a go-to scorer after being more of a complementary piece in her first two seasons. She also started to take on more leadership responsibilities on and off the court that season.

In 2021, Atkins started to mix in more drives alongside her 3-point shooting. Over the years, she also sped up her release on her 3-point shot and developed chemistry with dozens of new teammates.

Last season, Atkins had to adjust to opposing defenses focusing even more on her as the Mystics weathered injuries. Still, she scored a career-high 36 points against the Las Vegas Aces in July — the first time she’d reset her career high since June 2021. She also averaged a career-high 3.1 assists per game, becoming more comfortable as a facilitator even though she wasn’t the Mystics’ point guard.

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The Mystics were willing to trade Atkins, whose contract is set to expire after 2025, because it got them more draft picks. They can use those picks to add young players who will be under team control for multiple seasons or package those picks in future trades. The Mystics now have the Nos. 3, 4 and 6 picks in 2025 — and, as the roster currently stands, they could easily keep all three players if they use those picks themselves.

The Mystics also got an additional second-round pick in 2027, and the first-round pick swap that season could have high upside if the Sky miss the playoffs in 2026. It’s difficult to project where any team will finish in 2026 because nearly all WNBA veterans are set to be free agents next winter, when a new collective bargaining agreement is expected to be in effect.

At her introductory press conference on Feb. 12, Wideman was asked how she’s preparing for the 2025 draft, given that she has no prior experience as a general manager and started with the Mystics midway through the college season.

“Any time you step in the gym, you’re looking at multiple classes at once,” she told reporters. “And so I would say, one, our approach is right now to make sure … we’re in the spaces that we want to be, targeting the players we want to target [in 2025], but also being in the spaces where we’re looking at that next class [and] at that ’27 class as well.

“I would say the approach is also multi-dimensional. We’re looking at how players are showing up on the court, we’re also looking at how they have performed historically. We’re also looking at who they are, we’re looking for fit, in terms of the values that we’ve got; what we want our locker room to look like; and all the time imagining how all those pieces, of course, are going to be moving together.”

New Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson spent last season as an assistant coach on a Chicago team that leaned on two first-round draft picks in Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso. He will help Wideman with scouting — and then lead the way in developing whoever the Mystics draft.

“There’s so many good players playing in college right now and internationally,” Johnson said in the same press conference. “So our eye will be on growing emerging talent. … We’ll certainly have an eye on the younger players, draft-eligible players, because we realize they’re making an increasing impact.”

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The Mystics will likely take the best players available if they use their first-round picks, but drafting at least one young guard would be a major plus. The team has now lost three guards this offseason in Atkins, Julie Vanloo (went to the Golden State Valkyries in the expansion draft) and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough (signed with the Atlanta Dream). Just four remain on the roster: Brittney Sykes, Jade Melbourne, Sug Sutton and Karlie Samuelson. All except for Samuelson often played point guard last season, though Sykes played on the wing earlier in her career and could conceivably move off the ball under Johnson.

Notably, the 22-year-old Melbourne has been playing exceptionally well in Australia this offseason and could be in line for a larger role, especially if Sykes moves off the ball. But the Mystics still need more backcourt depth, particularly at shooting guard.

In contrast, the Mystics are deeper in the post with six players under team control, led by Shakira Austin, Aaliyah Edwards and Stefanie Dolson. Austin, entering her fourth season with the Mystics, has now played the most consecutive seasons in Washington.

For much of this offseason, the Mystics were behind several other teams. They changed leadership after other teams, potentially putting them at a disadvantage in their search. They hired Johnson and Wideman on Dec. 23, but Wideman was still finishing up as the NBA’s senior vice president of player development. By the time Wideman and Johnson were formally introduced, eight of the 13 WNBA teams had been involved in at least one trade during free agency.

There wasn’t a ton of urgency in that introductory press conference, with Wideman answering a question about how quickly the Mystics can contend by saying, “Right now we’re building our wings, and what that looks like and how we’re trying to do that is going to have multiple timelines.”

Yet Wideman’s first move since that press conference was a major one, seemingly making up for some lost time.

 The Mystics lost a franchise cornerstone on Sunday, making it a tough day for many fans to stomach. But the new leadership hopes that the trade opens the door wider and faster for a new era of Mystics basketball — one that wins more championships, to add to the title Atkins helped deliver.