Wideman spoke with reporters on Thursday for the first time since the Mystics\u2019 preseason media day on April 28. She discussed the trades the Mystics made before the Aug. 7 deadline, how the 15-18 Mystics have performed this season, and the next steps of their rebuild.<\/p>\n
The IX Basketball, a 24\/7\/365 women\u2019s basketball newsroom powered by The Next Why Wideman traded Brittney Sykes and Aaliyah Edwards<\/p>\n In Wideman\u2019s first move before the trade deadline<\/a>, she sent leading scorer and assister<\/a> Brittney Sykes<\/a> to the Seattle Storm on Aug. 5. In exchange, the Mystics got veteran forward Alysha Clark<\/a> and the Storm\u2019s first-round pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft. Forward Sika Kon\u00e9<\/a> was also waived to complete the trade.<\/p>\n Two days later, Wideman sent forward<\/a> Aaliyah Edwards<\/a> to the Connecticut Sun for guard Jacy Sheldon<\/a> and the right to swap certain first-round draft picks in 2026. Edwards was the sixth overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft<\/a>, and Sheldon was the fifth pick.<\/p>\n The moves were difficult for a young Mystics team that has emphasized togetherness and sisterhood as pillars of its culture. Head coach Sydney Johnson told reporters on Aug. 8 that the \u201cdust hasn\u2019t quite settled\u201d as the players processed their emotions and some of them experienced a midseason trade for the first time.<\/p>\n Wideman expected that to be challenging, but she believed the trades were necessary to advance the franchise\u2019s long-term goals.<\/p>\n \u201cMy message to the team,\u201d Wideman said on Thursday, \u201cis \u2026 yes, it is a business, but if you feel something about it; if it hurt you to watch your teammates walk out of the door; if it\u2019s hard for you to figure out how to welcome two new faces, as lovely as they are, in the middle of the season; if it\u2019s hard to think about how do we recalibrate \u2026 then we\u2019re doing something right.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means that we\u2019ve left space for feeling. And in my view, that has to be at the core of anything that you do, even if that feeling is hurt. \u2026 And so you manage that by being together. You manage that by being in live conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n The trades reflect the plan the front office created in the offseason for a measured, deliberate rebuild. It stuck to that plan even as the Mystics outperformed expectations this season by going 11-11 before the All-Star break<\/a>. For the front office, that wasn\u2019t a reason to change course, but it could speed up the timeline for the rebuild.<\/p>\n \u201c[We have] a goal of using our opportunity this season to develop some amazing talent that we\u2019ve got,\u201d Wideman said. \u201cAnd we\u2019re doing that not in service of a single season. We\u2019re doing that in service of a goal of building something here in Washington that\u2019s sustainable, that\u2019s going to allow us to compete with the best teams at the highest level [and] be one of those best teams, not by luck or by chance, but by plan.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so I think our moves at the trade deadline represent an investment \u2014 a continuing investment \u2014 in that plan.\u201d<\/p>\n Want even more women\u2019s sports in your inbox?<\/p>\n Subscribe now to The IX Sports<\/a> and receive our daily women\u2019s sports newsletter covering soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, hockey and gymnastics from our incredible team of writers. That includes Basketball Wednesday from founder and editor Howard Megdal.<\/p>\n Readers of The IX Basketball now save 50% on their subscription to The IX.<\/p>\n Clark\u2019s on-court production this season hasn\u2019t matched that of Sykes, who earned her first WNBA All-Star selection this season. But Clark is a three-time WNBA champion and fills a similar leadership role.<\/p>\n \u201c[Clark] just always finds the right things to say, I think, in moments where our team may be down or [we] just need someone to bring us together,\u201d rookie guard Sonia Citron<\/a> told reporters after a comeback win over the Indiana Fever on Friday.<\/p>\n And while many fans panned the Edwards trade<\/a>, Wideman raved about how Sheldon\u2019s work ethic, ability to make reads and \u201cunderrated\u201d athleticism fit the Mystics now and in the future.<\/p>\n On Thursday, the Mystics temporarily filled their final open roster spot<\/a> by signing rookie forward Madison Scott<\/a> to a seven-day contract. They can sign her to up to three seven-day contracts<\/a> before deciding whether to give her a rest-of-season contract. Scott made her WNBA debut on Friday and was in the game for the final 22.6 seconds of the 4-point win.<\/p>\n Wideman\u2019s assessment of the 2025 Mystics<\/p>\n One way the Mystics are trying to develop their players is by asking them to try new things in games, not just rely on their strengths. Without Sykes, Citron and rookie forward Kiki Iriafen<\/a> are getting the ball more in key moments and learning what does and doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n The Mystics can push Citron and Iriafen to that level because both rookies have dramatically exceeded expectations this season. Though they were both top-four draft picks<\/a>, the fact that they became All-Stars right away was a surprise. Iriafen wasn\u2019t even a surefire starter entering the season, but now she holds the Mystics\u2019 rookie record for rebounds<\/a>.<\/p>\n For Wideman, the fact that the players around the two rookies have also gotten better has been just as important. Many of those players have also exceeded expectations for how quickly or how much they\u2019ve improved.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could almost throw any player\u2019s name out there and I would have something incredibly positive to say,\u201d Wideman said, \u201cbecause that\u2019s just been true about how our team has showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n Wideman highlighted 26-year-old point guard Sug Sutton<\/a>, who is shooting a career-high 35.6%<\/a> from 3-point range and has by far the best plus-minus on the team<\/a>. She mentioned 22-year-old point guard Jade Melbourne<\/a>, who has become a starter for the first time in her career alongside Sutton. Wideman pointed to the development of rookie<\/a> reserve Lucy Olsen<\/a> and even rookie Georgia Amoore<\/a>, who has missed the entire season with an ACL injury but has become a leader on the team anyway<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing,\u201d Wideman said, \u201cis a collective and kind of integrated effort that\u2019s allowing us to compete, probably at a level that we don\u2019t have business competing in.\u201d<\/p>\n Wideman also praised the players\u2019 competitiveness, which has been visible in their comebacks all season. They\u2019ve trailed by at least 10 points in 24 of 33 games this season, but they have won nine of those games. And despite winning the first half only 10 times this season, they\u2019ve won the fourth quarter 19 times.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re talking about a group of some of the most competitive elite athletes in the world,\u201d Wideman said. \u201c\u2026 They\u2019re almost incapable of anything else. We saw that [against Golden State]. \u2026 A lot of teams fold after the second [comeback attempt] kind of fizzles and the lead creeps back up to 16 points. But not our team.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the comebacks are something of a double-edged sword for the Mystics. Melbourne and forward Emily Engstler<\/a> each told The Next after Wednesday\u2019s game that the team needs to start games better. And Wideman looks at Washington\u2019s nine wins by 6 points or fewer and sees a team that still has a lot to learn about imposing its will.<\/p>\n \u201cThose small margins of victory also [mean] that we\u2019re not controlling games,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are not necessarily controlling the pace. We\u2019re not necessarily controlling our destiny in the way that is the mark of a team that we are trying to be. \u2026 It\u2019s in those margins that we have been putting work in on the court, and it\u2019s those margins that we were trying to build into through our moves at the trade deadline.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking ahead to the offseason<\/p>\n The Mystics have six players, not counting Scott, who will enter some form of free agency in 2026.<\/p>\n Unrestricted free agentsRestricted free agentsReserved free agentsAlysha ClarkShakira Austin<\/a>Emily EngstlerStefanie Dolson<\/a>Sug Sutton\u00a0Jade Melbourne\u00a0\u00a0Source: Her Hoop Stats WNBA Salary Cap Database<\/a><\/p>\n Assuming the terms of free agency don\u2019t change in the revised collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that\u2019s expected to be in place for 2026, the Mystics will have some control over their restricted and reserved free agents. If they extend qualifying offers<\/a> to Sutton and center\/forward Shakira Austin, they will have the right to match any offer those players get from other teams. For Engstler, they will have exclusive negotiating rights.<\/p>\n Though Austin has dealt with injuries throughout her WNBA career, she has also shown moments of brilliance<\/a> when healthy. Wideman indicated that she sees Austin as a franchise cornerstone, saying, \u201cWe love Shakira. \u2026 She is part of that young core that we\u2019re very excited to build around.\u201d<\/p>\n The Mystics could\u2019ve delayed Melbourne\u2019s free agency by picking up the team option on her rookie-scale contract. That would\u2019ve kept her around for another year on a relatively cheap salary, but her contract would\u2019ve been fully protected for 2026. That decision had to be made by May 15, before the Mystics had played a game with Wideman as the general manager.<\/p>\n Your business can reach over 3 million women\u2019s sports fans every single month!<\/p>\n Here at The IX Basketball<\/a> and The IX Sports<\/a>, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women\u2019s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, reach out to our team at BAlarie@theixsports.com<\/a> to discuss ways to work together.<\/p>\n Wideman said on Thursday that though she likes how Melbourne has played this season, she hadn\u2019t wanted to give up flexibility in the form of a protected contract, especially with the uncertainty around the new CBA and upcoming expansion drafts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re entering into a period that is more uncertain than any period in WNBA history, except maybe the five minutes before the very first game was played,\u201d Wideman said. \u201c\u2026 One of the priorities is for us to have tremendous flexibility, and we\u2019ll enter that period with knowing a lot more about Jade and her game, but honestly about every player on our team, but also around the league.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou kind of can\u2019t build until you know the pieces, then the levers that you have to build with,\u201d she added, referring to the players first and then the league rules.<\/p>\n One certainty, though, is that the Mystics want to continue to build through the college draft. The draft capital was the main prize from the Sykes trade, giving the Mystics a third first-round pick in 2026.<\/p>\n Total draft picksFirst-round draft picks202663202741Source: Across the Timeline<\/a><\/p>\n Those 2026 first-round picks have all moved up the draft board in the past few weeks. The Mystics have fallen from seventh place at the All-Star break to 10th now, which would put them in the lottery for the second straight season. Seattle has fallen from sixth to eighth \u2014 one spot out of the lottery \u2014 since the Sykes trade. And the Edwards trade gave the Mystics the right to swap the pick they have from the first-place Minnesota Lynx<\/a> with the pick the Sun have from the New York Liberty, who have gone 4-6 in their past 10 games.<\/p>\n If the season ended after Friday\u2019s games, the Mystics would have a lottery pick, the No. 8 pick and the No. 14 pick, assuming the expansion teams will draft immediately after the lottery teams.<\/p>\n If the Mystics keep those picks and scout well, they could add them to the young group they already have of Citron, Iriafen, Amoore, Olsen and Sheldon. All five of those players are under team control for 2026 on inexpensive rookie-scale contracts.<\/p>\n However, Wideman will keep evaluating the team through the end of the season, and she\u2019ll stay flexible and open to any moves that push the Mystics\u2019 rebuild in the right direction.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll be looking at everyone and everything,\u201d she said. \u201c\u2026 We\u2019re still very much a work in progress, all of us, and so I expect that work in progress to continue right through to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n Monumental Sports and Entertainment, the group that owns the Washington Mystics, holds a minority stake in The Next. The Next\u2019s editorial operations are entirely independent of Monumental and all other business partners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Then the Mystics cut the lead to 9 points in the third quarter, saw it swell back to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":234816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[37476,36006,40302,38211,31535,7,15819,23179,40303,3227,18700,40304,40305,32230,4561,40306,27960,40307,40308,4518,458,33524,36919],"class_list":{"0":"post-234815","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-2025-wnba-trade-deadline","9":"tag-2026-wnba-draft","10":"tag-2026-wnba-free-agency","11":"tag-aaliyah-edwards","12":"tag-alysha-clark","13":"tag-basketball","14":"tag-brittney-sykes","15":"tag-comebacks","16":"tag-emily-engstler","17":"tag-general-manager","18":"tag-jacy-sheldon","19":"tag-jade-melbourne","20":"tag-jamila-wideman","21":"tag-kiki-iriafen","22":"tag-rebuild","23":"tag-shakira-austin","24":"tag-sonia-citron","25":"tag-sug-sutton","26":"tag-sydney-johnson","27":"tag-washington-mystics","28":"tag-wnba","29":"tag-wnba-collective-bargaining-agreement","30":"tag-wnba-trades"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115039984959713248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The IX Basketball<\/a>: A basketball newsroom brought to you by The IX Sports<\/a>. 24\/7\/365 women\u2019s basketball coverage, written, edited and photographed by our young, diverse staff and dedicated to breaking news, analysis, historical deep dives and projections about the game we love.<\/p>\n![\"Washington](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/54632096120_0a4dbce851_o.jpg\")
Then-Washington Mystics guard Brittney Sykes (20) looks to inbound the ball during a game against the Minnesota Lynx at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on July 3, 2025. (Photo credit: John McClellan | The Next)<\/p>\n![\"Washington](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/54709179230_38b7fd05d5_o.jpg\")
Washington Mystics forward Kiki Iriafen (44) high-fives guard Sug Sutton (1) during a game against the Minnesota Lynx at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on Aug. 8, 2025. (Photo credit: John McClellan | The Next)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Halftime-vs.-Fourth-Q-1.jpg\")
The Washington Mystics have tended to do better in fourth quarters than in first halves this season. (Graph by Jenn Hatfield using data from WNBA box scores)<\/p>\n![\"Washington](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/DAA2076.jpg\")
Washington Mystics center\/forward Shakira Austin (0) reacts during a game against the Phoenix Mercury at CareFirst Arena in Washington, D.C., on July 27, 2025. (Photo credit: Domenic Allegra | The Next)<\/p>\n