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Milton-Jones Will Help Retooled Mystics Open
DeLisha Milton-Jones, who's averaged 11.2 ppg in a 6-year career, came to Washington from Los Angeles in a trade for Chamique Holdsclaw.
(Adrees Latif - Reuters)
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"The first day I came in it felt like I'd been on this team for five years already," said Milton-Jones, who has a career scoring average of 11.2 points per game. "I don't know if it was because I already know some of the people on the team or what, but everyone's been so welcoming and warm and that really helps."
The Mystics will also welcome free agent signee Charlotte Smith-Taylor, a veteran forward who averaged 8.2 points per game last season with Charlotte, and rookie first round pick Temeka Johnson, a quick point guard who ended her LSU career as the Southeastern Conference's all-time assist leader.
Adubato's early-season plan is to play Beard at point guard and bring Johnson off the bench. As Johnson develops, her role will grow.
"The most important thing I like about her is she has a good assist-to-turnover ratio," Adubato said. "She's under complete control, and she also possesses an outside shot. A lot of times when you have a player with her quickness, people will give her two or three steps. You can't do that with her, she makes the outside shot."
The Mystics also have a solid group of returning players in Chasity Melvin, Murriel Page, Tamicha Jackson, Nakia Sanford, Kiesha Brown and Coco Miller. Still, many experts have picked the Mystics to finish at or near the bottom of the Eastern Conference.
"The people who are writing us down at the bottom can leave us at the bottom, I don't care," Beard said. "If they were always right, they would be millionaires right now. . . . This is a competitive league and it's hard to predict anything, but I like our team."
The Mystics traditionally have received some of the strongest fan support in the WNBA -- Milton-Jones said she enjoyed playing at MCI Center more than at any other road venue -- but maintaining their current fan base and adding new fans could be tougher now that Holdsclaw is gone and the Nationals are playing Major League Baseball at nearby RFK Stadium.
Adubato and veterans such as Milton-Jones have emphasized the importance of getting off to a good start and protecting the home court in order to establish a team identity.
"We'll just have to win enough games, because winning is what brings the fans out," Adubato said. "We have a strong fan base and hopefully, we'll give them an exciting brand of basketball, one where we do a lot of pressing, we shoot a lot of threes and we create a lot of up-tempo basketball that fans like to see."
