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The Washington Mystics are trading guard Brittney Sykes to the Seattle Storm in exchange for Alysha Clark, guard Zia Cooke and a 2026 first-round pick, the Storm announced Tuesday afternoon. The Mystics subsequently waived Cooke following the trade, ESPN’s Alexa Philippou reported.
Philippou also noted that the Storm owned rights to three first-round picks, including their own, one from the Los Angeles Sparks and another from the Las Vegas Aces. Seattle shipped off the pick that they originally owned in Tuesday’s trade.
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The trade comes as the Mystics are 13-15 this season, sitting ninth in the WNBA standings. Seattle is sixth in the league with a 16-13 record. The Mystics and Storm are fourth and third in their respective conferences.
Washington is shipping Sykes off to the Pacific Northwest despite having decent numbers this season. The 31-year-old is averaging 15.4 points, 4.4 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game this season. She leads the team in points, assists and steals.
Sykes earned her first All-Star nod this year and arrives in Seattle with four WNBA All-Defensive Team selections, divided evenly between the first and second teams. She also led the league in steals twice and made the WNBA All-Rookie team upon her arrival.
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The Atlanta Dream drafted the Syracuse product with the seventh overall pick in 2017. Sykes remained in A-Town for three years, went to LA for another three before landing in DC in 2023.
Clark is leaving Seattle for the second time while averaging 3.5 points and 2.4 rebounds. She was drafted by the Storm in 2012 and spent her first nine seasons in Seattle. Clark played a pivotal role in Seattle’s title wins in 2018 and 2020 before joining the Mystics in 2022. The following year, she joined the Aces and won her third ring under Becky Hammon’s coaching.
Cooke, who won a national title with the South Carolina Gamecocks, was drafted by the Sparks with the 10th pick in 2023 and spent two seasons in the City of Stars with 68 games, averaging 11.9 minutes, 4.3 points and shot 30% from the field. Since joining the Storm, she’s appeared in 24 games and averaged 3.3 points.
Although Seattle has a better record so far this season, they are 0-2 against the Mystics. Sykes dropped 19 points in a 74-69 win on July 13 and 11 points in a 69-58 victory on July 25.
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