The WNBA is experiencing a lot of fan excitement. But the Mystics appear to be more focused on building a future winner with players who can develop into better rounded individuals over time, instead of going for simple short term gains.
Less than a couple weeks ago, the Washington Mystics hired Jamila Wideman as General Manager and Sydney Johnson and head coach. After looking at our fan survey to grade their hires, it’s clear that there’s a disconnect between the fan base and Monumental Basketball. Wideman’s and Johnson’s hiring are underwhelming to fans who were hoping for a bigger name GM or a Head Coach like Lindsey Harding who will remain an assistant coach on the Los Angeles Lakers.
Monumental Basketball will not hold a press conference to introduce Wideman and Johnson until sometime later this month. That’s understandable because the last couple weeks were focused on the traditional winter holidays: Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s Day.
But in the meantime, what do I think of these hires now that the news has sunk in? Monumental Basketball President Michael Winger is focused on the long term winning strategy of the Mystics, and not the short term excitement that the WNBA is experiencing at the moment. Whether the Mystics become a long term winner or not is up for debate.
Winger is looking at the long term winning strategy — and he said so.
Winger may have been the man who had the last call on any Mystics basketball-related decision, but he generally allowed then-GM Mike Thibault to make those moves. With Thibault now out, he appeared to be looking at building the Mystics in a similar way to the way the Washington Wizards are since he came in 2023.
Winger also isn’t asking questions like “What will the WNBA look like in 2025?” Or “Which top rated free agent will we bring in 2026?” He is looking well beyond that. Here is a quote Winger gave to Kareem Copeland of The Washington Post:
“Where we are as a league and what we also forecast the next 10 to 15 years of the ‘W’ will look like played a humongous role in the selection of Jamila and Sydney. If we thought the league was going to be status quo for the next 10 years, we wouldn’t have pursued the visionaries that Jamila and Sydney are.”
Monumental Basketball is focused on building the complete athlete. Wideman and Johnson are bought in on, or already work with that vision in mind.
Copeland’s article also gave insight into how Winger wants to run Monumental Basketball, that the organization must be focused on player development, not just on basketball skills, but to make sure players leave the organization as better people (basketball and professionally) than when they came in. Winger was particularly impressed with Wideman in this respect. Here is the quote:
Player development, that will sort of be a forever principle within Monumental Basketball — Wizards and Mystics alike. Did our commitment to on-court player development have any connection to our interest in Jamila? Yes. Same with Sydney. But our broader commitment to making every individual that steps into our building a better athlete or a better staff member or a better person, that’s what Jamila has done.
This is further supported by Wideman’s statement in Monumental Basketball’s press release. I posted this quote in an our article when she was hired, but here it is one more time.
I have strong roots in the WNBA and have had the privilege of playing with, working alongside, and witnessing the incredible people who are the athletes at the center of the game. The very best I have seen share some core qualities – curiosity, humility, and imagination. I look forward to building a Mystics team in partnership with the players, coaches, and staff that reflects this core. I hope to create a space where player voices and aspirations are centered in all we do on and off the court. We will build with intention, humanity, and joy.
The front office organization will be rather flat when this rebuild begins.
Winger will have both Wideman and Johnson report to him, as opposed to a more “old school” arrangement where Johnson reports to Wideman. Given that they are Winger’s first executioners of his strategy for the Mystics, I can see why. Also, it could allow the Mystics to make decisions in a more collaborative fashion when the tough calls have to be made.
What the Mystics’ front office hires mean for in the short and medium term?
Here is what the moves mean for the teams in the short (1 to 2 years) and medium term (5 years).
For the short term, here’s what I’m seeing.
- The Mystics are likely deconstructing like the Wizards. So don’t expect them to be a super team in 2025 or 2026. Even if their record isn’t terrible in 2025, the 2026 record will likely be worse because they are intentionally focused on the long term rebuild.
- If you are hoping for Paige Bueckers to save the Mystics because she wants to play in Washington, that’s also unlikely. For now, if you’re in Winger’s or Wideman’s shoes, you would want to collect as many draft picks as possible so a future franchise star falls into your lap instead of trading away multiple picks for that star. If nothing else, perhaps that player could be developed (even though that’s difficult to see happen)
- If you’re worried about the Mystics growing as a business, don’t. The Mystics will still grow business and there will be demand for most games. Because the Entertainment and Sports Arena is the second smallest arena in the WNBA, it will get packed nearly every night. It will be because basketball fans want to see WNBA basketball and the superstars on other teams. Bueckers and Caitlin Clark will be at Capital One Arena and fill the crowds on their own. So in the short run, the increase of WNBA interest will increase interest in the Mystics as well, even if the Mystics have done very little to help the WNBA in that respect last year.
For the medium term, my takeaways are less clear.
- The Mystics really need to make a playoff appearance by 2030. As the number of teams in the WNBA grows to at least 15 in 2026, Washington can’t be perennially bad during this high growth period in the WNBA. If they are, they will be viewed as a “joke franchise” like they were for much, if not most of their years before Mike Thibault became their General Manager (2013-24) and Head Coach (2013-21).
- Ideally, the Mystics should have at least two or three players who would represent their long term core as a contending team by 2030. After two or three drafts, the Mystics should have two or three high first round picks, at least one of whom should be an All-Star if they are a middle of the pack playoff team by 2030.
- Winger will need to evaluate if Wideman and/or Johnson’s performance are putting the Mystics in position to be a destination in 2030 (if they aren’t already). He also needs to evaluate if the WNBA landscape is becoming like what he envisioned before hiring them. This is a long winded way of saying that Winger needs to see if the WNBA is becoming the way like he anticipates it to be. And whether it is or not, he needs to see if Wideman especially is the right person to remain in that job given the WNBA’s landscape. If things are turning out the way Winger imagined and Wideman is making the right moves more often than not, then Mystics fans will celebrate his decision. However, if the WNBA winning strategy remains more-or-less the way it is now but with just an expanded league, then Washington will likely be facing a new rebuild when 2030 rolls around.