Cheryl Reeve has been one of the prominent names in the Coach of the Year conversation all season, and rightly so. She has coached a team that led the league standings for much of the season, now entering the playoffs as the No. 1 seed. For WNBA analyst and former college basketball player Rachel DeMita, however, all of that only gets Coach Reeve to third place in her Coach of the Year ranking.

For DeMita, her number one choice for Coach of the Year is Washington Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson. In fact, DeMita backed up her choice with a couple of quite compelling reasons.

“Coach Sydney Johnson is my Coach of the Year,” DeMita said, speaking on Friday’s episode of her CourtSide Club podcast. “The Washington Mystics essentially flip-flopped their record from last season.”

After finishing the season as the No. 5 seed, the Mystics will face the Atlanta Dream (No. 4) in their first playoff round.

“Why I have Coach Sydney Johnson as my Coach of the Year is it’s almost even less about how much better this Washington Mystics team has become… more about the culture that they’re building there,” she added. “The fact that this team is so young and they’re gelling like they are, and they’ve figured out their identity.”

DeMita’s second choice was none other than the head coach of the Golden State Valkyries, who finished as the No. 2 seed.

“Natalie Nakase in my number two spot. Then at three, I have Coach Cheryl Reeve,” she added.

Head coach Sydney Johnson came in and orchestrated a massive transformation for the Washington Mystics, taking them from a 16-28 record last season to an impressive 28-16 record and the No. 5 seed in the WNBA playoffs.

However, for DeMita, Coach Johnson did more than improve the Mystics’ record. He established a culture, identity, and cohesive playing style within an exceptionally young team while overseeing a major turnaround.

With the youngest roster, with an average age of about 24, Coach Johnson really made his team work with a young core of Georgia Amoore, Kiki Iriafen, and Sonia Citron. He turned their athleticism into a terrifying defensive unit, transforming the team into the No. 1 rebounding team in the WNBA and the No. 2 scoring defense in the league.

But then, this does not take away from what Coach Cheryl Reeve has done with the Minnesota Lynx this season, especially early in the season. The Lynx came in swinging, opening up the year with a blazing 10-2 start, which immediately gave them the cushion to dictate the pace of the standings.

Their longest run of the season, a 10-game winning streak that began July 8 against the Connecticut Sun and ended August 2 against the Indiana Fever, stood as the absolute longest winning streak by any team in the WNBA this season.

But apart from the winning runs, the Lynx were also statistically overwhelming their opponents on both ends of the floor. Out of all 15 teams in the league, they ranked near the absolute top in every critical team metric. They ranked second in the WNBA in net rating, second in offensive rating, and fourth in defensive rating.

With the team’s star, Napheesa Collier, missing a chunk of the season due to ankle surgeries, the fact that Cheryl Reeve was able to put Olivia Miles to use, who went on to have one of the best rookie seasons in recent memory, also speaks to Cheryl Reeve’s coaching ability and the environment she has created in Minnesota.

Now, there are still the playoffs to come, and that will definitely give each coach another opportunity to strengthen their case for Coach of the Year. Coach Cheryl Reeve will lead the Minnesota Lynx against the New York Liberty, while the Mystics will take on the Atlanta Dream in their first playoff round.