The Mystics are in the playoffs, and the rebuild just changed what 'success' means in Washington
Washington clinched its first WNBA postseason berth since 2023, doing it with the youngest roster in the league. The question now isn't whether they belong there, it's how far a team nobody expected to be here can actually go.
In brief
The Mystics are in the playoffs, and the rebuild just changed what 'success' means in Washington
Two seasons ago, the Washington Mystics finished 14 and 26, missed the playoffs, and fired their general manager. Last year they lost 28 games. This summer, they punched a ticket to the 2026 WNBA postseason, their first since 2023, with what is, by most measures, the youngest roster in the league. Nobody saw it coming this fast. The Mystics' own front office likely didn't, either.
Washington earned the berth when a win over the Portland Fire combined with a Chicago Sky loss to seal the deal. At that point, the reaction around the DMV was somewhere between shock and relief. The Mystics had spent two straight years as one of the league's worst teams. They lost 28 games in 2025 and finished seven back of the eighth-place Golden State Valkyries. That was not a team on the edge of a turnaround. It looked like a team in the early, painful stages of a long rebuild.
So what happened?
Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen made the All-Star team as rookies last season, and both took meaningful steps forward in 2026. Citron is averaging 16.9 points and 4.1 assists per game, improvements over her rookie numbers, and Iriafen has bumped her scoring to 15.1 with 9.3 rebounds a night. Those are numbers that earn respect in any conference, not just from a team trying to climb out of a hole.
Shakira Austin has expanded her offensive game, and depth behind the starters has come from 2026 first-round picks Lauren Betts and Cotie McMahon. Georgia Amoore, who missed her entire rookie campaign through injury, is second on the team in assists at 3.5 per game. Head coach Sydney Johnson, who also took on GM duties after Jamila Wideman was let go in April, has the team sitting fourth in the Eastern Conference.
Washington is bucking almost every historical precedent. Teams with rosters this young have by and large been very bad. Even accounting for WNBA expansion diluting the talent pool somewhat, putting together a winning record when only three players have more than one year of service time is remarkable.
The context matters. Few people would have confidently said Washington would make the playoffs with the youngest roster in the league. The season was supposed to be a rebuild, and in a sense it still is, but the stated goal was letting Citron, Kiki Iriafen and Shakira Austin develop alongside a young core while maintaining financial flexibility later. Getting to October while that group was still getting its sea legs? That was not part of the plan.
Washington is on pace for the No. 7 seed, sitting at 22 and 15 as the final weeks of the regular season play out. The Mystics hold the softest September schedule among the teams fighting over the sixth through eighth seeds, with three games against eliminated opponents and a trip to Indiana standing as their most consequential remaining matchup. That schedule means Washington has a real shot at climbing to a better seed before the bracket locks.
This is also the first WNBA postseason under the newly renovated Capital One Arena footprint in downtown Washington, with Monumental Sports and Entertainment midway through a $1 billion arena renovation project that will eventually house the Wizards, Caps and Mystics under one upgraded roof. Zach Leonsis, MSE's President of Media and New Enterprises, has pointed to the rise of all three Monumental teams as part of the same broader organizational momentum. The Mystics making the playoffs is not a side story in that picture. It's central to it.
As for what the playoffs actually look like: all eight teams in the 2026 WNBA bracket have been determined, and the remaining regular-season drama centers on seeding, home-court advantage and first-round matchups. Atlanta beat Minnesota 89 to 81 in one recent game, dropping the first-place Lynx to 31 and 10 and moving the Dream to 26 and 14, which means the top of the bracket is not settled, either. That leaves open the possibility that Washington could avoid the league's elite early if the seedings fall right.
Back to the Mystics: for right now, Washington is playing with house money, ahead of schedule in a rebuild that was supposed to take longer. The roster's median age might make them the youngest team in the field. Their ceiling, as of this week, is genuinely unknown. Citron's 16.9 points per game on a playoff stage will answer some of those questions fast.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
