In Dispersal Draft, Mystics Add Ajavon to Guard-Heavy Roster

The Washington Mystics' recently retooled front office made its first move of the offseason yesterday when General Manager Angela Taylor selected second-year guard Matee Ajavon with the second pick in the Houston Comets' dispersal draft.

Considered one of the top players available in the draft, Ajavon spent her rookie season as a reserve for Houston. She's a shooting guard, a well-stocked position for the Mystics, who already have Alana Beard, Coco Miller, Laurie Koehn and Shay Murphy on the depth chart. But the 5-foot-8, 160-pound Ajavon also played point guard during her college career at Rutgers, a position at which Washington struggled to find any consistency during its 10-24 season in 2008.

Although she likes the flexibility Ajavon brings to the Mystics, Taylor declined to say which position she sees the team's newest guard fitting into in Washington.

"Matee does have some versatility," Taylor said. "I think primarily she is a point guard, but we want to put the best players on the floor that complement each other. . . . We're going to look for a roster that allows us to play different combinations of players together to do different things and to force mismatches. Having players like Matee and Alana Beard who both have experienced time playing the point will give us more things to work with."

Ajavon averaged 8.0 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 17.8 minutes per game for Houston last season and was expected to be one of the early selections in the dispersal draft along with 6-4, 175-pound forward Sancho Lyttle, whom Atlanta chose with the first pick. Five former Comets -- including starters Tina Thompson, Michelle Snow and Hamchetou Maiga-Ba -- are unrestricted free agents and therefore ineligible for selection.

Originally from Monrovia, Liberia, Ajavon moved to Newark when she was 6 years old. She played an integral role on Rutgers's 2007 Final Four team and was a highly touted prospect when Houston selected her fifth overall in this year's draft. She ranks eighth in career points (1,622) and fourth in career assists (556) for the Scarlet Knights.

After news broke that Houston, one of the WNBA's original franchises, would be shut down, Taylor spoke with Ajavon's former coaches, teammates and opponents -- including the Mystics' Crystal Langhorne and Tasha Humphrey -- about the young guard. Taylor decided that Ajavon is precisely the type of hard-working player Washington hopes to use to build its new foundation.

"She's a gym rat. She loves to study the game, works hard on both ends of the floor and works to build chemistry within her teams," said Taylor, who added that Ajavon fits into her plan to build a defensive identity for the Mystics.

"We're looking for players both on the perimeter and in the post who can shut players down to create opportunities on the offensive end and easy opportunities in transition," Taylor said. "I think that's the blue-collar work ethic that we have to target, and something Matee has."