Rookie Ariel Atkins is filling up the stat sheet for 20-win Mystics
During the 2017–18 college basketball season, one of the best guards in the country was University of Texas senior Ariel Atkins. She averaged 14.9 points per game and shot 42% on her 3-pointers for the Big 12 runners-up to earn Honorable Mention All-America by the AP. However, when Washington Mystics coach and general manager Mike Thibault drafted her at #7 this spring, some observers wondered if he’d made a mistake in betting on Atkins over peers such as Mississippi State’s Victoria Vivians (19.8 ppg, 40.4% on 3-pointers) to help the Mystics build on their 2017 run to the WNBA semifinals.
A few months later, no one is second-guessing Thibault’s pick anymore. That’s no knock on Vivians, who has also had a strong rookie season for the Indiana Fever. Rather, it’s a statement of just how important Atkins has been to the Mystics, who sit in third place in the league with two games left — and just 1.5 games back of second place and a coveted double-bye in the playoffs. Most recently, Atkins poured in 26 points (on 5–5 shooting from 3-point range) before sustaining a reported hip injury late in a crucial win over the Dallas Wings on Sunday.
For the season, Atkins is the Mystics’ third-leading scorer, averaging 11.4 ppg to complement All-Stars Elena Delle Donne and Kristi Toliver. Basketball Reference credits her with 1.9 win shares on the season, which means that her individual contributions have been responsible for 1.9 of the team’s 20 wins. (That’s fourth on the team behind Delle Donne, Toliver, and Latoya Sanders.) Atkins is also leading her team, and is ninth in the league, with 1.4 steals per game.
What these numbers potentially add up to is an All-Rookie Team selection for Atkins and a favorable playoff seed for the Mystics. According to Basketball Reference, Atkins ranks in the top five among WNBA rookies this year in no fewer than ten statistical categories, including win shares, steals, points, and assists. She has more win shares this season than the Mystics’ previous three first-round picks combined had in their respective rookie seasons (1.2). And her team has more wins this year already than it has had since going 22–12 in 2010.
Beyond Atkins’s statistical contributions, her teammates and coaches clearly appreciate her attitude, intelligence, and work ethic. After a win over the Las Vegas Aces in which Atkins scored 15 points (in only her second professional game), Delle Donne remarked that Atkins “played like she’s been in the league for 15 years.” Before the draft, Texas assistant coach Tina Thompson told Thibault that Atkins “has the same mentality that Tamika Catchings did[,] … that kind of personality where you just aren’t going to get outworked, ever.” Thibault himself raved about her after the draft: “her basketball IQ and energy level are off the charts.” As the Mystics close their winningest season in nearly a decade and chase a WNBA title, they hope that their third-leading scorer’s hip injury isn’t serious and she can soon get back to stuffing the stats sheet.
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