Laney-Hamilton also fills a crucial role for Washington: a veteran voice who was part of a championship team. In Laney-Hamilton\u2019s case, that was in 2024 when the Liberty won their first WNBA championship. With the Mystics in sixth place in the WNBA standings, they made no moves at the trade deadline. However, when Laney-Hamilton became available, Mystics front office boss Michael Winger found her too good to pass up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were patient at the deadline because we believe in our group and wanted to protect our team chemistry,\u201d Mystics president Michael Winger told ESPN. \u201cBut the opportunity to add an established veteran with a wealth of experience is important for our continued development and competitiveness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe think she will add valuable leadership, knowledge and competence to our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
I feel encouraged by Winger\u2019s remarks. The Mystics have indeed played above perceived expectations. But now that the young core of Sonia Citron, Kiki Iriafen and Shakira Austin are on the verge of getting the Mystics back to the playoffs for the first time in three years, it makes sense to add a true veteran voice in the locker room.<\/p>\n
For Laney-Hamilton, she may not be able to have as large of a role as she\u2019d like with playing time. But instead of being on a Liberty team that isn\u2019t meeting expectations, she\u2019s on a Mystics team that is hitting its stride. And Winger believes she could be that piece to help the Mystics take the next step.<\/p>\n
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laney-Hamilton also fills a crucial role for Washington: a veteran voice who was part of a championship team.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,6,682,4518,468,3892,683,29933],"class_list":["post-807900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-wizards","tag-basketball","tag-nba","tag-washington","tag-washington-mystics","tag-washington-wizards","tag-washingtonwizards","tag-wizards","tag-wnba-free-agency"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117068381775080941","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807900","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=807900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}