Yesterday, on June 19th, the Washington Mystics took on the Indiana Fever and their rookie sensation, Caitlin Clark. While the Fever have had some struggles to start their WNBA season, going 6-10, the Mystics are in a far worse spot, with their record at an abysmal 3-12. I’ll let you guess who won this matchup between the two teams (hint: not the Mystics). Still, the matchup showed that the very thing that killed the Mystics (Clark) is exactly what they’re biding their time for. Here’s an intro to Paige Bueckers, and a bit of a diabolical plan if you stick around long enough.
After Mystics-Fever Matchup, the Tank for Paige Bueckers Couldn’t Be More Obvious
The 6’0″ guard from UConn, Paige Bueckers, has let it be known that next season will be her last with the UConn Huskies before she enters the WNBA Draft. She’ll likely be picked first overall, as she’s an incredible talent that certain teams (like the Mystics) have been waiting for.
College coaches coveted Bueckers since she played on Hopkins High School varsity as an 8th grader. Aside from playing on varsity as an 8th grader, she won Minnesota’s Gatorade Player of the Year three times! Impressively she also won the National Player of the Year award as a senior. The reason why? She averaged 21.0 points, 9.2 assists, 5.2 steals, and 5.1 rebounds per game in high school and led her team to a 30-0 record as a senior. They probably would’ve won the Class 4A State Championship, but COVID happened, so we can only speculate.
Regardless, after being named an All-American and winning several other awards, Bueckers committed to play college basketball at UConn. Only, things would be a lot different than she or anyone else imagined, because of COVID. While it sucked, at least she got another year of eligibility.
UConn Adversity and Glory
Despite being the number one recruit in her class, Bueckers still stunned everyone with her dominance. She averaged 20.0 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists per game on 52% shooting from the field and 46% from three. Most impressively, however, she won the Wooden Award and AP Player of the Year Award for 2021. For context, the Wooden Award is for the best player in college basketball, and in 2023 and 2024, it went to Caitlin Clark. Bueckers won that award as a freshman, the first and only player in college basketball history to ever do so. Unfortunately, Bueckers experienced some bumps in the road after the best freshman season ever.
She opened up her sophomore season with 34 points against Arkansas, a career-high that appeared repeatable. However, due to a knee injury, Bueckers would miss 19 games, and her production would drop. Unfortunately, once she recovered from the knee injury, she tore her Achilles, an injury so severe that she would miss her entire junior season. It was around this time that the Bueckers hype began to die down, and was replaced by an emerging star at Iowa. Caitlin Clark was setting college basketball on fire, and all of a sudden, all anyone could talk about was her and Angel Reese. If you were following women’s college basketball before Clark, however, then you most definitely heard about Bueckers.
Gaining Back the National Spotlight
During Buecker’s redshirt junior year (2023-24), she began playing like her old self again, averaging over 20 points per game and shooting efficiently. Her defense also improved notably, as she totaled 53 blocks throughout the season. Bueckers and Clark faced off during March Madness, which was a media spectacle. While Iowa would escape with the win, it was only a two-point victory.
Bueckers is about to take a huge leap for her final season of college basketball. She’s no longer injured and can build more of a base to improve upon during the offseason. Additionally, help is coming her way, and help’s name is Sarah Strong. Strong, standing 6’2″ and hailing from Sanford, North Carolina, is the number one recruit in the country, and committed to UConn for college ball. She’s a strong center (pun intended) who will make an amazing pick-and-roll partner for Bueckers. UConn already made it to the Final Four last year. With Bueckers at full strength and Strong, they can easily win a national championship.
The Tank Job for Bueckers
Bueckers may have fallen out of the public’s eye, but she never fell out of the minds of WNBA executives. Her potential is unlimited, and because many of her shots are long threes as well, she possesses high marketability.
The Mystics used to be one of the WNBA’s best teams. From 2013-15, they made it to the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals every year before losing. In 2018, they made it to the Finals before losing, and the next year, they went 26-8 and won the whole thing! While they didn’t repeat as champions, the Mystics still made it to the first round of the playoffs in 2022 and 2023. However, they weren’t making runs, and that may be the reason for the tanking.
A Diabolical Plan?!?!
Here’s something that’s not gaining enough attention: 2-time WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne is taking a year off from basketball, saying she needed to think about her future. She could very well be retiring soon…but what if she’s not? The Mystics tunnel themselves to the bottom of the WNBA, land Bueckers with the No.1 overall pick, and then she gets to team up with a seven-time All-Star? That would be such an unfair combination! And for those who aren’t aware, Delle-Donne is 6’5″, meaning she could be an amazing pick-and-roll (or pick-and-pop; she can shoot too) partner for Bueckers. Place a few more good shooters around the two of them and suddenly, you’re facing one of the best teams in the league.
If this happened in the NBA, there’s no way it wouldn’t have been caught already. But this is the WNBA, which gets less media attention. That’s starting to change with Clark, but there’s so much that’s yet to be discovered or noticed. If the Mystics are plotting what I think they are, the entire WNBA is in trouble.
