"I’ve been waiting to just be healthy, and I just want to go out there and be the person and the player that I know I can be," Shakira Austin said recently, and through eight games she has made that declaration visible on the scoreboard and in the way Washington runs its offense. Austin is averaging career highs in points, rebounds and minutes while also adding a new dimension: playmaking.
Through eight games this season Austin is scoring 17.1 points and grabbing 8.6 rebounds in 28.6 minutes per game — all marks that top her previous bests. She has recorded at least 12 points in every contest, is shooting better than 50 percent from the field overall and has connected on three of seven 3-point attempts. Her May 29 outing against the Los Angeles Sparks — 25 points and eight rebounds — prompted coach Sydney Johnson to say, "She’s arriving, she’s blossoming and … she’s thriving." The metrics back that up: Austin ranks inside the WNBA’s top 20 in points, rebounds and blocks per game.
What has altered Washington’s offense most this spring is Austin’s passing. Her 2.6 assists per game are a career best (her previous high was 1.8 in 2025), and she has 21 assists distributed to eight different teammates. Those assists are doing precisely what the Mystics’ coaches asked for: 10 have led to layups, eight to 3-pointers and three to midrange shots, producing the cleaner shot profile the staff prefers. Austin is assisting on 18.1 percent of the shots her teammates make while she’s on the floor — roughly double her assist rate from 2024 — and that has opponents adjusting how they defend her low-post presence.
"Austin’s passing forces teams to think about pressuring her farther out than just in the low post," Tyler Marsh observed, and the result is more space for cutters and more open perimeter looks for Washington. The change is subtle in a box score but palpable on the floor: when Austin finds a teammate for a catch-and-finish or swings the ball to a shooter, the play often ends in a high-value shot rather than a contested midrange jumper.
The jump in production carries clear context. Austin missed significant time earlier in her WNBA career; she says injuries limited her to a total of 31 games across her second and third seasons. That history makes her current streak feel less like a sudden breakout and more like the follow-through of a player finally available to reach her potential. In April she signed a three-year contract worth $1.19 million annually, a deal she told the Bleav in the W podcast has motivated her to "go out there and be the person and the player that I know I can be." She added on and off the court that her daily mindset is "going in and taking what’s mine, that’s really my mentality every day."
Teammates and opponents have noticed the work behind the numbers. Chicago Sky guard Natasha Cloud praised Austin’s commitment, saying, "I think that she has done an extraordinary job, especially over the last two to three years, [with] her commitment to herself, working on herself," and that Austin "wants to be great. She wants to be elite." Those endorsements matter because Austin’s early-season efficiency — better than 50 percent shooting and consistent double-figure scoring — is the clearest evidence she is playing through health and confidence rather than flashes.
The friction in the story is also obvious: this surge follows seasons in which injury limited her availability. The pressing question now is operational and immediate for the Mystics — can Austin sustain 17.1 points, 8.6 rebounds and significantly higher playmaking over a full campaign? Washington will see the answer in the games ahead; the next test comes in the Mystics’ game after Tuesday, and how Austin fares down the stretch of a full schedule will determine whether this season is a new baseline for her and for the team.
