SBN Reacts: Mystics fans give front office good grade for free agency

Dallas Wings v Washington Mystics — Myisha Hines-Allen’s re-signing is the best move the Mystics made so far, according to our first-ever SB Nation Reacts Mystics survey. | Photo by Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images

Also, most fans want NaLyssa Smith to be drafted No. 1 this April.

Thank you for participating in our first-ever Washington Mystics fan survey on SB Nation Reacts. To this point, I don’t think any such WNBA fan-specific survey was used, minus a question in last year’s national NBA survey, so this is a first! We had about 75 or so respondents.

If you are a regular on our Washington Wizards surveys, you will find it to be significantly lower than the 400 or so responses we get on the NBA team. That’s fine, given the reality that there aren’t as many WNBA fans as NBA ones. Nevertheless, the 75 respondent metric is a good baseline considering the fact that this is the first time we have used the Reacts survey format for WNBA team fans.

So let’s get to the results!

Over 60 percent give the Mystics an A or B for their free agency decisions so far

Forty-one percent of respondents gave the Mystics a B for their free agency decision and 22 percent gave them an A. That said, 29 percent gave the Mystics a C. Four percent each gave a D or F.

Why would respondents give the Mystics a better grade? While there were no fill-in questions, here are some possible reasons:

The return of players from the 2019 WNBA Championship team — Myisha Hines-Allen and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough re-signed. And Tianna Hawkins is coming back after a one-year stint in Atlanta.
A clear view of which players are part of the core — Elena Delle Donne, Natasha Cloud, Ariel Atkins, Alysha Clark and Hines-Allen are the most high profile players on the roster and it’s difficult for me to see any of them get traded between now and WNBA Draft time.

Respondents may give a negative grade for the following reasons:

Not coring or signing-and-trading Emma Meesseman — It is Meesseman’s right to sign with any team she wants if she’s not cored. That’s why she is reportedly going to the Chicago Sky. Still, why couldn’t they time these signings and try to do a WNBA version of the sign-and-trade?
The roster is still dependent on a healthy EDD. — While the Mystics’ front office and Delle Donne herself state that her back is pain-free, fans will feel hesitant about her until she plays some number of games.

Myisha Hines-Allen’s return is fans’ favorite move

Fifty-eight percent of fans said that Hines-Allen’s return is their favorite move of the free agency period. Here are the other choices:

Signing Elizabeth Williams: 23%
Re-signing Tianna Hawkins: 19%

Mystics fans want the team to draft NaLyssa Smith No. 1 overall in the 2022 WNBA Draft

Diamond Holton wrote last December that she wanted Washington to draft the Baylor center instead of Howard, the Kentucky guard. Howard was also the consensus favorite when the draft lottery happened. It appears that some of you are coming along to her side!

Here are the full rankings:

Smith, Baylor: 40%
Howard, Kentucky: 33%
Other: 10%
Elissa Cunane, NC State: 6%
Ayoka Lee, Kansas State: 4%
Naz Hillmon, Michigan: 4%
Ashley Joens, Iowa State: 2%

We will take a closer look at the top prospects in this year’s draft in the coming weeks.

Duh, winning Finals MVP was your favorite moment of Emma Meesseman’s WNBA career!

No surprises! Here are the full rankings:

Most of you think Belgium will make the FIBA Women’s World Cup

Eighty-one percent of respondents believe Belgium will make the World Cup after the qualifiers. After last night’s win, that is to be expected.

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