![\"Betnijah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/gettyimages-2290280684.jpg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\nBetnijah Laney-Hamilton played more than 15 minutes in both of her first two games for Washington. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Before mentioning any on-court attributes, we have to talk about experience.<\/p>\n
The Mystics have found ways to win, but they lack a veteran presence who can guide their first and second-year stars through the playoff experience. Laney-Hamilton joins the Mystics not only as the only player on the roster to win the WNBA Finals, but the only player to ever have been past the first round in the playoffs. Prior to her arrival, Shakira Austin and Michaela Onyenwere were the only Mystics to ever see WNBA postseason basketball, and both had been sent home in the first round of each of their playoff series.<\/p>\n
Laney-Hamilton\u2019s playoff experience gives the WNBA\u2019s youngest team a much-needed locker room voice.<\/p>\n
On the court, Laney-Hamilton\u2019s role may be more of a \u201cwe\u2019ll take whatever you can give us.\u201d If her 3-point stroke comes back, she will certainly absorb many of the minutes that rookies Angela Dugali\u0107 and Cassandre Prosper had been splitting. If not, she may look more like an oscillating rotation piece.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s 3-for-5 from 3 in her first two appearances in a Mystics uniform, and played meaningful minutes in both of the Mystics\u2019 losses to the Las Vegas Aces earlier this week. She was the only Mystic who had a positive plus\/minus in both games.<\/p>\n
Her scoring volume will be one of the more interesting stories through the last stretch of the season. Will she play well enough to find herself taking five to eight shots a game, or will she continue to hover below that mark? The Mystics desperately need shooting, so most of that volume may hinge on her ability to find a rhythm from 3. While her physicality and experience will add to Washington\u2019s already great defense, it\u2019s her offense that will move the needle more and determine if she can serve as an impactful piece.<\/p>\n
Whether or not Laney-Hamilton returns to 2024 form for the Mystics, her locker room presence projects to be a huge help to a team that is so vastly unfamiliar with postseason WNBA basketball, and rarely can you find that value off waivers this late in the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of their Saturday night game against the Los Angeles Sparks, the Washington Mystics are 19-14, a record…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":859265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-859264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=859264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/859264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/859265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=859264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=859264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=859264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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