The Mystics originally had the 20th overall pick in the second round of the 2015 WNBA Draft, but they used that and Quanitra Hollingsworth to get the No. 15 pick from the Seattle Storm. The Storm also received that pick in a previous trade.
This week, it’s our self-proclaimed Natasha Cloud Week! Over the next few days, we will reminisce about the former Washington Mystics guard’s time in the nation’s capital.
In today’s post, we will go back to 2015, Cloud’s rookie year. The Mystics used the No. 15 overall pick to select her. The Mystics, however, were a playoff team in 2014. So how did they end up with that pick? Today, we go over the trades that made this possible.
Before going straight into the trades that brought the No. 15 pick in the 2015 WNBA Draft, here’s a quick refresher on how the Mystics’ 2014 season went.
Washington finished the 2014 season with a 16-18 record. It was worse than their 2013 record, but the team made some major moves before the season began.
The most notable move was when Washington traded Crystal Langhorne to the Seattle Storm in exchange for UConn guard Bria Hartley, the No. 8 pick in the draft, and Tianna Hawkins on draft day. Hartley would make the All-Rookie team that season and be reunited with center Stefanie Dolson, the No. 6 pick in that draft who also played college basketball at UConn. Emma Meesseman, who was a sophomore then, replaced Langhorne in the starting lineup and began to show promise as a future All-Star.
This young roster, veteran guards Ivory Latta and Kara Lawson, and center Kia Vaughn were still strong enough to get the Mystics a playoff berth. That said, Washington lost in the first round.
At the beginning of the 2014-15 WNBA offseason, Washington only had their default picks for the 2015 Draft based on their regular season standing: No. 8, No. 20 and No. 32. The Connecticut Sun (13-21 in 2014) had the No. 15 pick initially. So did the Mystics make a deal with the Sun, General Manager and then-Head Coach Mike Thibault’s previous team? Nope.
Trade No. 1: The Sun sent the No. 15 pick to the Storm in January 2015 in a trade for two forwards
The Sun were still in the middle of a rebuild in 2014 and were looking to be more competitive in the 2015 season. On Jan. 28, 2015, the Sun traded the No. 15 pick in that year’s draft, their 2013 first round pick (No. 3 overall) and guard Renee Montgomery to the Seattle Storm for forwards Camille Little and Shekinna Stricklen.
The trade was meant to help the Sun get closer to playoff contention. It also helped the Storm, who began rebuilding around guard Sue Bird after their center, Lauren Jackson, left and the core of their 2010 championship team aged out. General Manager and Head Coach Brian Agler resigned to become the Los Angeles Sparks’ head coach.
The Storm then hired Alisha Valavanis to replace him as General Manager. When Valavanis came to Seattle, she inherited a team that needed a rebuild, in part because Agler built the Storm with veterans to a fault. In 2015, winning the first overall pick (whom they ultimately used to pick Jewell Loyd) allowed the Storm to get that fresh start they needed. Adding the No. 3 overall pick also gave Seattle more opportunities to showcase their youth. The Storm used the No. 3 pick to select Kaleena Mosqueda Lewis.
Valavanis hired Jenny Boucek, a Storm assistant coach, for the 2015 season. While Boucek’s run with the Storm wasn’t successful, they did get the No. 1 overall pick in 2016 which they used to select Breanna Stewart. With Bird, Loyd and Stewart as the Storm’s new “Big Three,” they won two WNBA championships in 2018 and 2020.
Valavanis would later be promoted to the role of Storm President and CEO. She named Talisa Rhea as the team’s general manager in 2021.
Trade No. 2: The Storm sent the No. 15 pick to the Mystics for the No. 20 pick and Quanitra Hollingsworth in February 2015
The Storm gave up two of their frontcourt players in Little and Stricklen but needed more depth, even if they were a rebuilding team. To help them in that regard, in Feb. 2015, they sent the No. 15 pick in the aforementioned Storm-Sun deal to the Mystics in exchange for center Quanitra Hollingsworth and Washington’s No. 20 pick.
With this trade, the Mystics received another pick in the first half of the WNBA Draft by giving up a player who didn’t play any games for them in 2014. Though Hollingsworth had dual citizenship with Turkey and played for their national team in the past, she did not play for them in the FIBA World Championship for Women (now the FIBA Women’s World Cup) that year. Another American with dual citizenship, LaToya Sanders, did for the Turks, who hosted the competition and finished fourth overall.
Coincidentally, Sanders would play for the Mystics the next season in 2015. Today, she’s one of their assistant coaches.
And for the Storm, they received a player to beef up their post rotation and another second round pick. Basically, this was a low-risk, high-reward trade for both sides.
Who won the 2015 Mystics-Storm trade?
From hindsight, the Mystics got the better end of this deal. Washington used the pick by selecting a player who would go on to be one of the best guards to ever play for the franchise! We will share more of the highlights of Cloud’s career as this week goes on.
I also wanted to point out that even though Cloud was a second round pick out of St. Joseph’s, Thibault considered drafting Cloud in the first round with the No. 8 pick in the 2015 Draft, according to Gene Wang of The Washington Post. Instead of picking Cloud with the No. 8 pick, Washington selected Ally Malott, a forward from Dayton, with that pick.
So how did the Storm’s acquired players in this deal do? Not as well. Hollingsworth played one more WNBA season, averaging 3.2 points and 3.6 rebounds per game for Seattle in 2015.
As for the 20th pick that the Mystics traded to Seattle, the Storm selected Vicky McIntyre, a post who played for Oral Roberts, Florida and Oklahoma State in her college career. However, McIntyre was cut before playing a regular season game, though she did participate in WNBA training camps for other WNBA teams. McIntyre played professionally for teams in several countries, including Belgium, Luxembourg, China and Jordan, until 2020, according to her LinkedIn profile.
The Storm may have been “fleeced” in this one particular deal, but they did fine in the years ahead. Seattle still won two more championships in future years. After all, one of those championships came at the Mystics’ expense in the 2018 WNBA Finals. So I don’t think Seattle is that disappointed with this 2025 trade, nor is Washington.
Tomorrow, we will take a look at where Cloud ranks in Mystics franchise history.