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<\/p>\nWASHINGTON \u2014 Darianna Littlepage-Buggs began her first WNBA training camp like any smart rookie would. She asked more experienced players for tips\u2014hearing to slow down and take it all in and believe that she would figure it all out. This is the advice that veterans have been giving rookies as long as training camps have existed. Yet when the Mystics\u2019 third-round pick relayed this to a room of reporters on media day earlier this week, there was a natural question that had to be asked next.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Veterans on this roster? Which veterans?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, I talked to all of them,\u201d Littlepage-Buggs said. \u201cI talked to Kiki and Georgia and Lucy especially.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mystics players Kiki Iriafen, Georgia Amoore and Lucy Olsen were rookies themselves just last year, with Amoore still a rookie for statistical purposes, after spending last season recovering from a torn ACL. Iriafen and Olsen are just 22 years old\u2014the same as Littlepage-Buggs. On any other roster, these players would likely still be considered youngsters themselves. Here? They might as well be veterans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Or, as put by another second-year player, Madison Scott:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re the young ones,\u201d she said, \u201cbut also the old ones at the same time, on this team.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a result of a group that is remarkably green.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Cotie McMahon was drafted 11th this year, and was the third first-round pick the Mystics had at the 2026 draft. | Brad Penner-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Washington entered training camp where the average WNBA experience is less than one season<\/a>. While that number will surely look a bit different as cuts are made and the roster is finalized, it can only change so much. The 18 players invited to Mystics camp include an incredible 12 rookies\u2014enough to fill an entire roster themselves. The remaining six include four players who had been rookies just last year. (Iriafen, Olsen and Scott are joined in that group by crafty guard Sonia Citron.) That leaves only two players with more than one season of experience in the WNBA: Shakira Austin and Michaela Onyenwere, both comfortably established in the league but hardly grizzled veterans, with four and five years in the WNBA, respectively.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m one of the oldest ones, which is freaking crazy,\u201d Onyenwere said. \u201cI\u2019m only 26!… Being a leader, in that way, it\u2019ll be super important for me to grow in that area.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
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