AceShowbiz - Shakira Austin has a dream teammate in mind, and she did not need long to name her. The Washington Mystics star appeared on the latest episode of Post Moves with Candace Parker & Aliyah Boston, where she told hosts Candace Parker and Aliyah Boston that she would love to share a roster with Indiana Fever guard and upcoming free agent Kelsey Mitchell.

Asked by Boston to name the one player she would most like to team up with, Austin paused before delivering her answer. "I got to think…I was thinking. I ain't gonna lie. No shade, but Kelsey Mitchell," she said. The reply drew an immediate, joking protest from Boston, Mitchell's current teammate. "Not too much. Not too much. Shade! Slow it down. We're going to cut this out there. We got to edit this y'all. I should have never asked that," Boston said.

The conversation also turned to Austin's expanded leadership role in Washington and her long road back from injuries. She described a career that began in a far more limited capacity on a contender. "I've been through a whirlwind of coming back from injuries and honestly just trying to finally get to where I felt I could be in the league. And that was before my injuries. As soon as I came in, my role was very different. It was very limited. I was on a competitive team. We were in the playoffs every year. Mystics had just won a championship. I was playing with Elena (Delle Donne)," she said, referring to Elena Delle Donne.

Austin said the goal was never simply to get healthy but to earn a larger share of the offense. "I just wanted a bigger role. I felt like I have the skillset. I felt like I had the talent. It was just being able to make that mental adjustment, grow my IQ in the off-season… I felt like I just wanted to be in a bigger role to showcase not only could I be dominant, but I could play-make, I could attack from full court, I could dribble off the wing, come off ball screens," she said. "And I mean, this year I made my mistakes through it, and I think the one thing I was always able to depend on was just the growth and my approach to my work."

The episode also unpacked the origin of the Mystics' viral "Young Hos" nickname. Parker admitted the phrase caught her off guard. "The first time I heard that, it sent me…I need to understand who was the one that came in the locker room and was like, guess what we're going to be called? The Young Hos," she said. Austin explained that the label was embraced by the group before anyone could trace it to a single source. "I can't even really pinpoint a player. I feel like at first, we just embodied it. If you understand what the Young Hos is, it's not what most people think, especially if you're a little older," she said.

She recalled her father's bewildered reaction and the moment the nickname became official merchandise. "My dad's calling me, he's like, 'You guys are calling yourself the young hos? What the hell!' I'm like, 'No.' And then mind you, that meeting, perfect timing, Angela (Dugalić), she comes in with a box full of shirts that got 'Young Hos' on it. But I'm going to blame Georgia (Amoore). I feel like Georgia is the one," Austin said, naming Angela Dugalić and Georgia Amoore as the locker-room culprits.

Looking ahead, Austin has a specific request for whichever team picks her up in Unrivaled: list her as a guard. "My intentions this year is just to, honestly, whoever puts me on the team, put me as a guard. I want to work on my abilities on the wing, I want to work on my shooting, just those reads that I've introduced more this year, but I don't think I was as efficient as I could be," she said. "So, just coming in with just another chip, just never really settling. I felt like my post-ups, I hope I can find someone consistently to train with this off season at Unrivaled so that I just know exactly what I want to get to every single time. And just having the ability to be a three-way scorer is something I want to come into next season with the W."

Post Moves is an AMP Sports Original Series. The weekly show, hosted by Parker and Boston, is available on all major podcast platforms.