Sonia Citron landed at No. 2 in SB Nation’s ranking of the top sophomore players in the WNBA, a spot that tracks with the season she has put together for the Washington Mystics. She is averaging 17.1 points, 3.4 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.3 steals, and that scoring mark is the second-highest among second-year players.
Paige Bueckers leads the list
Paige Bueckers checked in at No. 1, with Citron right behind her at No. 2. The ranking also puts another Mystics second-year player in the top five, since Kiki Iriafen came in at No. 5.
Citron was the runner-up for Rookie of the Year last year, and she’s picked up right where she left off. Noa Dalzell’s blurb on her framed the season plainly: “Citron was the runner-up for Rookie of the Year last year, and she’s picked up right where she left off.”
Kiki Iriafen at No. 5
Iriafen’s numbers give the Mystics a second data point in the same conversation. She is averaging 14.6 points and 8.9 rebounds, with the points total ranking fourth among sophomores and the rebound mark ranking second.
Her perimeter growth is part of the case, too. Dalzell wrote: “Iriafen, a former Stanford and UCLA standout, is averaging 14.6 points (fourth-most among sophomores) and 8.9 rebounds (second among sophomores), while also showing her extended range (she’s shooting 35.7% from three this season).”
Washington Mystics building young
The bigger picture is simple: the Washington Mystics have two sophomores ranked among the best at their position group, and both were selected in the 2025 WNBA Draft, when Citron went No. 3 and Iriafen went No. 4. That is the kind of young core a team can build around, but rankings alone do not add wins.
That is the friction for Washington. Citron and Iriafen were both All-Stars in a season when the Mystics had a realistic chance of making the playoffs until the very end, and the club still has to turn individual production into results. The Mystics host the Sun on Wednesday, and the immediate test is whether the young core can keep producing at this level while the team tries to stay in the mix.
