The Washington Mystics are making a move in the WNBA Draft.
The Mystics agreed to send two-time All-Star Ariel Atkins to the Chicago Sky on Sunday afternoon, the teams confirmed. In exchange, the Mystics will receive the No. 3 overall pick in the draft later this spring.
The Mystics will also receive the Sky’s 2027 second-round pick and a first-round pick swap with the Sky in 2027 as part of the deal.
Atkins has spent her entire career with the Mystics, who selected her with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2018 draft out of Texas. She averaged 14.9 points and 3.4 rebounds per game last season.
The Sky went 13-27 last season and missed the playoffs under first-year head coach Teresa Weatherspoon, who was fired in October. It marked the first time the Sky have missed the playoffs since 2018. The Sky replaced Weatherspoon with former Las Vegas Aces assistant Tyler Marsh.
The Mystics will now have the Nos. 3, No. 4 and No. 6 overall picks in the draft in April. This move is part of a massive reboot for the franchise, which parted ways with general manager Mike Thibault and head coach Eric Thibault earlier this offseason. The team hired former Sky assistant Sydney Johnson as their next head coach in December, and hired former NBA executive Jamila Wideman as their general manager.
Washington, which won a title in 2019, went just 14-26 last season. The Mystics started the season 0-12, and finished ninth in the league. The Mystics will open the season on May 16 against the Atlanta Dream.
“We thought that the assets that we got in the trade served our long-term interests,” Wideman said in a statement, via The Washington Post’s Kareem Copeland. “Our team is entering a period of discovery and exploration and our lens is certainly one to focus on growth and development and nurturing and competition. We recognize that any time you’re going to focus on development, that means your lens has got to be longer than just a single season or even two seasons. Our ability to plan for both this year and future years was certainly part of the value we saw.”
Atkins will get to join a Sky roster that added Courtney Vandersloot, Kia Nurse and Rebecca Allen this offseason. Former LSU star Angel Reese is gearing up for her second season in the league this summer, too, after averaging a double-double as a rookie. The Sky hold the No. 10 overall pick in the WNBA Draft.
The WNBA Draft is set for April 14. UConn star Paige Bueckers is widely considered to be the projected No. 1 overall pick in the draft, which would send her to the Dallas Wings. The Seattle Storm then hold the No. 2 pick.
