The 2026 WNBA season is young, but the Washington Mystics just might be the team to watch this season.
The Mystics, who boast the youngest roster in the league for the second season in a row, have so far exceeded expectations. The thing to keep in mind is that those expectations were a little across the board — the roster is promising, but the Mystics didn't have the strongest 2025 season and a team made up of a lot of young players doesn't immediately spring to mind as a team that's also dominant.
But if those young players heard any hints of that messaging, it wasn't evident this weekend when they got thisclose to beating the New York Liberty, or when they bested Sandy Brondello's Toronto Tempo by three points. The team is being led by veteran Shakira Austin and the unparalled combined forces of Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen, but there's even more going on that will probably mean the Mystics will be having fun all season, whether or not they're winning.
But... there's plenty of reasons to expect them to win.
The Washington Mystics might have expectations of their own
Let's begin with those expectations. The Mystics haven't made the playoffs since 2023 and right now it's not super clear that it makes sense to think they will this season (but let's circle back in August after the team's nine rookies have got a lot more experience under their belts). But even if they don't make it all the way, the Mystics aren't going to go down this season with a fight.
As Sydney Johnson told reporters after the Liberty game, "We might get beat. We got beat today, but we didn’t get bullied." That's an important distinction — this year's Mystics aren't going to get knocked around the same way they might have in years past. Iriafen and Citron might have been squaring off against some of the league's strongest players — Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton — and racking up 20 points and 12 rebounds and 17 points, respectively.
What seems to be true — and, again, time will tell — is that the Mystics have their own ideas about how this season is going to go. As Iriafen told reporters after the Liberty loss, the Mystics "never" think they're out of the game. Instead, they just adjust, adapt, and keep the ball moving as they get closer to their goals. The sky might not actually be the limit (at least, not quite yet), but that doesn't mean they aren't getting there.
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