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We made it through one week of WNBA free agency signings. The Washington Mystics have made many moves in this time so let’s recap their journey below.
The Mystics re-signed some of their key players like Tina Charles and LaToya Sanders. They also signed Alysha Clark who was a key part of last season’s Seattle Storm’s championship team and acquired Erica McCall in a sign-and-trade deal with the Minnesota Lynx.
However, some of Washington’s unrestricted free agents have also signed elsewhere, largely due to cap space restrictions. Aerial Powers has agreed to sign with the Lynx though the team hasn’t announced it as of Tuesday, Feb. 9. Tianna Hawkins signed a two-year contract with the Atlanta Dream. Ultimately, who is left for Washington to sign, what are the next steps and how good could this Mystics team be?
Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images
On Monday, the Washington Mystics had a press conference with General Manager and Head Coach Mike Thibault and forward Alysha Clark. We’ll first go over Clark’s reactions to signing with the Mystics, which was positive. Then we’ll go over the timeline on how they came to signing Clark and how they also had a falling out with Aerial Powers during free agency negotiations.
Clark is signing with the Mystics to win a championship. Washington also allows her to pursue some of her other interests.
In the press conference, two things stuck out about why Clark signed with the Mystics besides money, which we’ll get to later. First, she signed here because of the on-court fit and the team’s family culture.
Photo by Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images
Today, the WNBA enters its free agency negotiation period. Teams can negotiate with any unrestricted free agents they would like, but they can’t sign contracts until Feb. 1. Earlier this month, teams could give qualifying offers and core players who would otherwise be unrestricted free agents. The Washington Mystics re-signed Sug Sutton, Jacki Gemelos and Stella Johnson this past week. But given the timing, they were all probably given those offers, a non-guaranteed training camp contract, as Gabe Ibrahim noted.
The Mystics of course are looking to save their powder for free agency and bring back most, if not all of their key players from their 2019 championship team. How do things look?
Albert
As you likely know by now, Giannis Antetokounmpo signed a supermax extension worth $227.36 million over the next five years with the Milwaukee Bucks earlier this week. The extension ends the nearly constant speculation about Giannis’s future and dashed several teams’ hopes of landing him next summer. While the Wizards were not in pursuit of the Greek Freak, the extension will affect Washington in several ways.
Now that Giannis is staying, expect more Beal rumors
With Giannis seemingly happy and locked in with the Bucks, the NBA community will turn its attention to other top players that may change teams. For now, the main focal point is James Harden and the circus he is creating to leave the Houston Rockets. Once Harden gets his way (and make no mistake, he will), Bradley Beal will likely be the apple of every team’s and media member’s eye.