Instead, she says she worked on form shooting, putting up 100 to 150 form shooting shots where she wasn’t allowed to jump. She didn’t want to rush back to the court too quickly. While recovering from her injury, she told herself to stay patient but mentally engaged. Just giving everything I have when I’m out there.” “Coming in off the bench and providing defensively and offensively. “Right now, just giving all I got,” Powers continues. I think all of that was pretty hard when I first came to the team.” “It’s just different and learning the system too, what coach wants from us and the plays. “Just trying to learn your teammates on and off the court, especially on the court, who likes to do what, who likes to pick-and-roll, who likes to pick-and-pop,” she says. It hasn’t been an easy transition, but Powers is starting to feel more comfortable in Thibault’s system. In the team’s most recent game, a 102-59 victory over the Connecticut Sun, she tallied 13 points, four steals, and two rebounds in 20 minutes of play. She missed the first two games of the regular season, but returned on June 5 to score nine points in the Mystics’ 96-75 win over the Atlanta Dream.īetween June 9 and June 14, Powers averaged 16 points in three games.
#Aerial powers full#
Powers’ first full season with the Mystics got off to a slow start when she injured her left gluteal muscle in the team’s preseason game against the Minnesota Lynx. When she came to the start of the training camp, every shot was on the front rim. I think she’s worked hard to get her balance back in her shooting. I think the coaches have given her confidence, and she doesn’t necessarily lack for confidence in the first place. “I think that her teammates give her confidence.
“I think she’s got her confidence back,” Thibault told City Paper last month. This season, the 25-year-old Detroit native who played at Michigan State is becoming the player Thibault imagined she could be. Powers averaged just 6.1 points and 2.7 rebounds in 12.7 minutes per game as the Mystics reached the WNBA Finals. Last season, the Mystics acquired her in a mid-season trade with the Wings.
The Dallas Wings ended up selecting Powers with the fifth overall pick, and the Mystics took Kahleah Copper with the seventh pick out of Rutgers, but Thibault kept his eyes on Powers. She had all the tools he was looking for in a forward coming out of college. First-year player Stella Johnson showed out with her opportunity by scoring 25 points in a win against the Dream.Washington Mystics head coach Mike Thibault doesn’t hide the fact that Aerial Powers was one of the players he wanted to selectin the 2016 WNBA Draft. The rest of the roster consists of Leilani Mitchell and several young players and rookies that have yet to prove themselves in the WNBA. Earlier in the year against the Connecticut Sun, she set a career-high in points with 27 on 10-for-14 shooting. She had started every contest and had career-best averages in points (16.3), rebounds (4.8), assists (2.5), steals (1.5) as well as a 46.4% shooting clip. Myisha Hines-Allen is the fourth player who played last season that is still on the 2020 team.īefore Powers' injury, she was having a career-year in six games. That leaves only two of the top eight scorers (Emma Meesseman, Ariel Atkins and Tianna Hawkins) on the remaining active roster for the season. Three players did not return to the team in the offseason, two more players opted-out, Elena Delle Donne is out rehabbing her back, Shey Peddy was waived last week and now there is Powers' injury. Now losing Powers, means there are only four players left from last year's championship squad. RELATED: MYSTICS AREN'T FOCUSED ON PLAYOFFS, IT'S WINNING IN 2021 "I think she needs to start the healing process right now and she's got some structural issues that, not damage but structural issues that we can get to work on by getting her started with somebody right now." "She really wanted to try and come back and finish the last couple of weeks, but I think for her long-term health, there's no point in risking that," Thibault said. With a heightened chance to reinjure her hamstring with games basically every other day, it could cause longer issues for her and the team. For Thibault and his staff, they feel it is not worth pushing to bring Powers back.
With the team not being in a position to focus on defending its maiden 2019 WNBA championship, the franchise is now looking to prepare for the 2021 season when all of the team's stars come back. Powers has been out since she suffered a hamstring injury on Aug. Head coach Mike Thibault told reporters on Thursday that the 26-year-old is "probably not coming back" this season. Roster woes continue for the Washington Mystics as it is expected for the team to be without guard/forward Aerial Powers for the remainder of the 2020 season.
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