The 2024 WNBA Draft is upon us, and this 12 months’s draft class is loaded with expertise at each place.
It options gamers like Caitlin Clark, a proficient scorer who can discover the rim from nearly wherever whereas additionally being an elite passer, and Cameron Brink, among the finest defenders in school basketball who also can shoot.
The Indiana Fever as soon as once more maintain the highest draft choose even after securing 2023 WNBA Rookie of the Yr Aliyah Boston final season, whereas the Los Angeles Sparks will choose second and the Chicago Sky will select third.
Right here’s a take a look at how the first-round of the draft might break down when gamers take the stage in Brooklyn Monday evening.
1. Indiana Fever: Caitlin Clark, G, Iowa
Once you get the possibility to take a once-in-a-lifetime participant you do it, and the Fever are absolutely not going to cross up on the NCAA’s all-time main scorer, who additionally notched 1,144 assists throughout her collegiate profession.
The choices for Clark of feeding Boston into the put up, whereas additionally having robust scoring expertise like NaLyssa Smith and Kelsey Mitchell alongside her, supply stable help for the previous Hawkeye in her first 12 months within the league.
The Fever began to see enchancment final season, leaping from 5 wins in 2022 to 13 in 2023, and including Clark will definitely assist them on their path to turning into a playoff staff.
2. Los Angeles Sparks: Cameron Brink, F, Stanford
Dropping Nneka Ogwumike to the Seattle Storm was a tricky blow for the Sparks, and whereas Brink brings a few of that two-way play, averaging 17.4 factors and 11.9 rebounds per recreation, it’s her defence that makes her stand out.
The Sparks had been final within the WNBA in opponents’ field-goal proportion final season and almost final in rebounds, needing work each on the boards and on defence. Whereas Brink will face extra physicality within the WNBA in relation to her scoring, her defence will definitely be a power that the Sparks are in determined want of.
3. Chicago Sky: Rickea Jackson, F, Tennessee
Simply three years faraway from their 2021 WNBA title win, the Sky’s championship-winning roster is not any extra. Whereas the staff introduced again Diamond DeShields this low season, they misplaced 2021 Finals MVP Kahleah Copper to the Phoenix Mercury.
Copper was the staff’s main scorer, and a participant like Jackson can’t solely rating however is a giant who can do all of it, averaging 20.2 factors, 8.2 rebounds and a couple of.3 assists per recreation in school. She is going to take among the scoring strain off of Marina Mabrey whereas additionally with the ability to bolster Chicago’s defence.
4. Los Angeles Sparks: Kamilla Cardoso, C, South Carolina
The Sparks having two picks within the prime 5 offers them the chance to pick out the six-foot-seven Cardoso to play alongside Brink. The addition of Cardoso would give the Sparks unmatched dimension down low and he or she is a participant who can both rating or not less than get to the free-throw line when she has the ball beneath the basket.
Cardoso can be a powerful rebounder and he or she averaged 14.4 factors and 9.7 rebounds per recreation throughout South Carolina’s excellent season. Her dimension additionally permits her to cease photographs as she notched 2.5 blocks per recreation this season.
5. Dallas Wings: Aaliyah Edwards, F, UConn
Whereas there’s consensus on the highest 4 picks, the Wings might go some ways with this spot, as additionally they maintain the ninth choose within the draft. They may go for a guard at 5, however have already got scoring expertise in Arike Ogunbowale and Satou Sabally. Or they may go along with Kingston, Ont. native Aaliyah Edwards.
Edwards averaged 17.6 factors and 9.2 rebounds per recreation at UConn this season, blossoming from a sixth-woman function off the bench to a starter who was closely relied on throughout a run to the Closing 4. She is a high-IQ participant who may be bodily down low but additionally arrange her teammates to attain together with her court docket imaginative and prescient.
6. Washington Mystics: Jacy Sheldon, G, Ohio State
The Mystics have plenty of holes to fill after Elena Delle Donne elected to not play this season and Natasha Cloud left for the Mercury. The staff now seems to be to rebuild round a returning core of Ariel Atkins, Shakira Austin, Brittney Sykes and Myisha Hines-Allen.
Sheldon is an environment friendly scorer from each inside and outdoors of the arc, averaging 17.8 factors per recreation this season. She’s additionally a powerful defender and a participant who will do all of it on the court docket, just like Cloud. Whereas she might have to regulate to guarding greater and extra expert gamers within the WNBA, she’s a participant who will give her all.
7. Chicago Sky: Angel Reese, F, LSU
The Sky and the Minnesota Lynx exchanged picks in a deal that now sees Chicago selecting seventh as a substitute of eighth, prone to assure they may seize Reese. In change, they despatched Minnesota the best to swap first-round picks within the 2026 WNBA Draft, a second-round choose within the 2025 WNBA Draft and ahead Sika Koné.
Reese, the Most Excellent Participant of the 2023 NCAA Girls’s Nationwide Championship, is a double-double machine who averaged 18.6 factors and 13.4 rebounds per recreation, is ready to rating down low or from mid-range, and can improve the rebounding of no matter staff drafts her. The Sky additionally might use her assist defensively as they allowed opponents to shoot 45 per cent from the sphere in 2023.
8. Minnesota Lynx: Nyadiew Puoch, F, Southside Flyers (WNBL)
The Lynx will be the first staff within the draft to dip into the pool of worldwide gamers. Puoch is ready to create her personal shot as an athletic huge who can run the ground and rating from many areas contained in the arc.
Whereas her averages of 6.2 factors and three.6 rebounds might not look like a lot, Puoch finally brings a defensive risk, and whereas the Lynx want some assist past the arc in relation to scoring, they received’t cross up a participant like Puoch if accessible.
9. Dallas Wings: Alissa Pili, F, Utah
Relying on how their first choose performs out, the Wings might select to maneuver their ninth choose, or they could choose to seize Sheldon if she’s accessible, after shedding Allisha Grey, Mabrey and DeShields.
Even when they do choose a giant like Edwards with their greater choose, it’s arduous to cross up on Pili, who shot 40.4 per cent from deep final season whereas averaging 21.4 factors. At six-foot-two she might not have the dimensions another bigs within the WNBA have, however she’s a participant who can catch and shoot with effectivity and can assist any staff with their taking pictures from deep.
10. Connecticut Solar: Dyaisha Honest, G, Syracuse
Misplaced in all of the speak of Clark’s record-breaking season was the scoring machine that’s Honest, who completed her school profession third on the all-time ladies’s NCAA Division I scoring record. Honest averaged 22.3 factors, 4.6 rebounds and three.6 assists per recreation in school, and will probably be a scoring risk on any staff.
The Solar had been the very best defensive staff within the league in 2023, and a fast guard like Honest, who averaged 2.2 steals per recreation, might assist them out in that space. She’ll must share the offensive load extra often than she did in school, which will probably be no drawback if she’s positioned with all of the expertise the Solar have to supply.
11. New York Liberty: Nika Mühl, G, UConn
Just lately recognized for being the woman who had Caitlin Clark locked down within the Closing 4 matchup between Iowa and UConn, Mühl could be an incredible match for the Liberty as they’re in determined want of a fringe defender like her.
Mühl elevated her taking pictures percentages in her ultimate season and may rating from deep, however is extra prone to discover her teammates for the open shot, which is why she averaged 6.9 factors, 6.5 assists and 4 rebounds per recreation this season. Even when she doesn’t search for her personal shot, the Liberty produce other scoring expertise that Mühl can discover.
12. Atlanta Dream: Charisma Osborne, G, UCLA
Osborne averaged 13.9 factors, 5.2 rebounds and 4 assists per recreation for UCLA, whereas additionally being a powerful defender who can create mismatches and was a key playmaker for the Bruins.
The Dream, nonetheless, are in want of a three-point shooter, and Osborne’s three-point shot will not be her robust swimsuit. If that’s the case, Ohio State’s Celeste Taylor, who averaged 10.8 factors per recreation and made 169 three-pointers in her school profession, might match the invoice.
