With Julie Vanloo going to the Golden State Valkyries in the 2025 WNBA Expansion Draft last Friday, the Washington Mystics now have a better sense on what their salary cap situation is heading into the 2025 free agency period next February and the Draft in April.
**The bad news about the Mystics’ situation: they have little cap room**
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The Mystics currently have eight players who are not on training camp contracts for a total salary of about $983,760, the third highest amount in committed salaries in the WNBA heading into 2025. They have $523,340 in cap room to sign four more players. As it stands, two players will likely be the No. 4 and No. 6 picks in the 2025 WNBA Draft. And in the event Elena Delle Donne re-signs with the Mystics, she will take up about half of the remaining cap room. The latter situation doesn’t seem likely.
So, Washington is likely going to be quiet in free agency. The only way Monumental Basketball President Michael Winger or the next Mystics General Manager could deconstruct this roster is through sign-and-trade type situations where the Mystics trade away players like Brittney Sykes and Ariel Atkins for players who sign large one-year contracts (and ideally, future draft picks) with other teams.
**The good news about the Mystics’ situation: the Mystics COULD still field a competitive roster as constructed ... IF they get another true point guard**
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While there has been speculation (admittedly, mostly here) that the Mystics are likely blowing up the team that Mike Thibault built, I’m not convinced that the next GM will be able to do so before 2025. The roster Washington has isn’t bad. They just need at least one of two roles to get them back on track toward a WNBA semifinals appearance: a true starting point guard and a superstar offensive player. Sometimes, they can be in the same player, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Vanloo was the Mystics’ starting point guard last year, and they need to find someone who could fill the role. Perhaps Sykes staying one more year and being more of a facilitator in 2025 could help fill the void. That was the original plan before she missed part of 2024 due to injury which elevated Vanloo.
Or ... perhaps .... [Paige Bueckers’ camp could force things](https://www.bulletsforever.com/mystics/2024/11/27/24307789/paige-bueckers-dallas-wings-wnba-draft-unsatisfaction-rumors) if she truly doesn’t want to play for the Dallas Wings as their No. 1 overall pick. If that situation and a “Bueckers to D.C.” scenario is in the realm of possibility, I doubt that the Mystics will move into “blow-it-up” move.