Queen Egbo trade addresses needs in Shakira Austin's absence and gets Mystics younger
Queen Egbo trade addresses needs in Shakira Austin's absence and gets Mystics younger originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
As injuries to the Washington Mystics bigs pilled up, the organization decided to make a notable trade that switched around their frontcourt depth. On Tuesday, Washington traded for the Indiana Fever's Queen Egbo sending 2023 offseason acquisition Amanda Zahui B. to Indianapolis in the process.
It's a move that gets the Mystics younger, but more importantly, addresses the needs of the organization right now. Egbo offers a skill set that Washington was missing without Shakira Austin (hip) and could be further amplified if Elena Delle Donne (ankle) misses more time.
Egbo joined Austin on last season's All-Rookie team following an impressive first year with the Fever. Playing alongside fellow big (and lottery pick) NaLyssa Smith, the 6-foot-4 center carved herself an impactful role in the starting lineup. Egbo averaged 7.2 points per game on 44.2% shooting from the field with no 3-point attempts. She also brought down 6.3 rebounds per game and 1.2 blocks.
Those numbers look solid but when extrapolating them out on a per-36 minute basis they tell a further story of her impact. She only averaged 21.8 minutes per game in a crowded frontcourt. Looking at her per-36-minute stats, those jump to 11.9 points, 10.4 rebounds and 2.0 blocks.
While playing time dwindled this year with the Fever drafting Aliyah Boston first overall, those per-36 numbers stayed consistent. Her rebounding numbers actually jumped significantly to 16.1 boards per-36 minutes.
Being a second-year player, it infuses more youth on a relatively aging roster. Austin, 22, was the only player under 26 years of age on the opening-day roster. Egbo comes to D.C. with two years remaining, following this season, under team control and then a year of restricted free agency. That means if Washington wants to keep the center tandem of Austin and Egbo around, they have the power to do so while both are on rookie contracts.
“This trade was an opportunity to acquire a young post talent that can complement our other post players,” general manager Mike Thibault said in a release. “In light of our injury situation, this trade becomes even more important.”
For at least the next two weeks, the Mystics will be without Austin's services. Her initial timetable for recovery was three weeks after injury on June 25 and then she'll be reevaluated. The timeline placed her return coming, at best, after the All-Star break in mid-July.
Then Delle Donne twisted her left ankle this past Friday night. It left the Mystics with just three bigs on the roster for Sunday's contest, one where Zahui B. made her first start of the season and set a season-high in minutes.
Head coach Eric Thibault said at Wednesday's practice that the timeline for the trade was "not necessarily because of the Shakira situation."
Egbo should be able to jump right into a pretty sizable role for Washington. She is scheduled to be in D.C. in time for their next game against the team that traded her on Friday night. While it will certainly take her some time to get acclimated to the team and the system, they simply will need her rebounding and defense as soon as possible.
Washington currently sits ninth in the 12-team league in rebounds and has allowed their last two opponents to score 48 and 44 points in the paint. Both are the first time this season the Mystics have allowed 40+ points in that category this year.
"Queen's a young post-player with a lot of upside, had a great rookie season a year ago," Eric Thibault said. "The things that jumped out right away are her rebounding and her rim protection, her defense especially. We know she can score a little bit but as you said it was Shakira out, obviously we have a void kind of at five in terms of being able to protect the rim. We can play different ways with Tianna (Hawkins) or Myisha (Hines-Allen) at five, but we kind of needed that that person that could come in and get some rebounds up and anchor us a little bit defensively."
Zahui B. will move on to her fifth team since being drafted No. 2 overall back in 2015. Washington acquired the rights to sign her in the offseason in exchange for two future second-round picks. It was seen at the time as a low-risk, high-reward type trade where the Mystics could attempt to unlock the stretch-five ability that Zahui B. has. Neither of those picks would likely lead to players that could contend for a roster spot with the competitive roster Washington intends to keep in this championship window.
She played in 12 of the team's 16 games with 11 of them coming off the bench. While she averaged 7.8 minutes per game, that stat is ballooned because of her 20 minutes in a spot start on Sunday. Typically, Zahui B. was the last person to come off the bench and played sparingly.
Still, teams can make use of her 30.9% career 3-point shooting ability. For Washington, the priorities for the center position hinged more on the other elements of the game - ones that Austin does at a high level and has been missed in her absence.
Once Austin returns it should set the Mystics up better in terms of their depth. When Austin came off the floor, Washington would then play a smaller lineup with one of Hawkins or Hines-Allen to play the five position. The rotation now becomes more natural with Egbo's role and strengths mirroring that of Austin's.
"[Egbo] kicked our butt pretty good on the boards earlier this year," Eric Thibault said. "And so those things stick with you a little bit and I think everybody kind of saw when [Indiana] drafted Aliyah that maybe Queen would be a player that would need a different role elsewhere at some point and it just happened to be this week."
