Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen each got their second straight WNBA All-Star selections Tuesday. That probably shouldn’t surprise anyone anymore. But the context around it matters more than the honors themselves.
The Washington Mystics are 10-10 through 20 games. That’s not a typo. A team that finished 16-28 last season and spent most of the year trading away veteran pieces is now sitting at .500 with a real shot at the playoffs. The rebuild isn’t just working. It might be moving faster than anyone expected.
Two cornerstones, one clear direction
Citron is averaging 18.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.3 steals while shooting 47.7 percent from the field. Iriafen is putting up 15.3 points and 9.2 rebounds on 52.4 percent shooting. They were drafted third and fourth overall in 2025. Now they’re the top two scorers on a team that actually has a pulse.
That’s the part worth paying attention to. Washington didn’t just find two good young players. It found two players who can carry a team on a nightly basis while the rest of the roster fills in around them. Iriafen ranks sixth in the league in rebounding. Citron ranks 10th in scoring. They’re both 23 years old.
Last year was different. The Mystics traded Brittney Sykes and Aaliyah Edwards in August and went 3-13 after that. They weren’t trying to win. They were collecting assets and letting the young core take its lumps. That approach landed them the No. 4 pick again, which they used on UCLA center Lauren Betts.
The Betts factor and a shifting timeline
Betts won NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player honors in 2026 and walked into a situation where she didn’t have to start right away. Shakira Austin signed a three-year max extension hours before the draft and is averaging a career-high 13.3 points. That gives Washington a luxury most rebuilding teams don’t have: a veteran anchor who can hold down the middle while the rookie develops.
But it also signals something bigger. The Mystics aren’t treating this like Year 2 of a long-term project anymore. They have six more wins than they did all of last season with 20 games still to play. Citron and Iriafen have each missed three games and the team is still hanging around the playoff picture.
Coach Sydney Johnson told reporters in April that he wanted to see “ascension” this year. He didn’t put a number on it. But the results are speaking for themselves. Washington is one game ahead of Los Angeles for the eighth and final playoff seed. The Chicago Sky are 7-14 and sliding.
The dream scenario involves JuJu Watkins
Here’s where it gets interesting. The Mystics own the right to swap first-round picks with the Sky thanks to the Ariel Atkins trade from 2025. If Chicago finishes with a worse record than Washington, the Mystics could end up with a lottery pick in a draft class that includes USC guard JuJu Watkins and Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo. Watkins played with Iriafen at USC. Hidalgo played with Citron at Notre Dame.
The ideal outcome is making the playoffs and still getting a high pick from Chicago. But even if that doesn’t happen, the foundation is solid. Austin is the only player left from the pre-Johnson era. Everyone else is either a draft pick or a young free agent signing.
This team isn’t a contender yet. But the gap between where they are and where they need to be is shrinking faster than anyone predicted. Two All-Star nods in back-to-back years will do that.
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