Last year I started, but ultimately abandoned, a WNBA mock draft because I felt like I hadn’t earned the right to have opinions on the subject. This from someone who has written and published maybe 10 NFL mock drafts going back to 2008. So this year, we’re sticking with it. I watch the games. I go to the games. I rewatch the games I go to. My Youtube history is littered with half-watched FIBA U-17 games. I listen to the smart people who cover the sport at the college and pro level. So, yeah, here is the internet’s least consequential WNBA mock draft published on the internet’s least visited (and used) website. 

1. Dallas Wings select Azzi Fudd (Guard, UConn)

This is the second straight year for the Wings in the catbird seat, but unlike last year, there’s no generational player with infinite marketing potential awaiting them. Also working against the Wings is a lack of 2026 draft capital, with just this pick and the first pick in Round 3 at their disposal to attempt to fill out an interesting but incomplete roster. 

If I had done this mock five days ago, Awa Fam would have been the relatively easy pick, but I think Dallas has signaled what direction they’re going with this pick with their free agent signings. In are Alanna Smith, Jess Shepard, and Awak Kuier (who returns to the Wings after spending the 2024 and 2025 seasons playing abroad). Back is Li Yueru. That’s four players over 6’4” in a sport where only five people can play at any one time and where Paige Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale are going to account for a lot of minutes. Adding Fam to the (don’t do the pun…don’t do the pun) fam (you fool) would only serve to clog things up in the frontcourt. 

Enter Azzi Fudd, off of a spectacular March Madness run…in 2025. The 2026 March run for Fudd was a lot more miss than hit. What I think will benefit Fudd in the W is that she won’t be facing the opposing team’s best defender every night. And she should benefit from the greater spacing on the floor versus what she saw in college. She also made significant strides as a defender in 2026. Of the clear top 4 picks in this draft, she has the lowest ceiling, but I also think she has the highest floor. Her defense will travel. And I find it very difficult to believe that a jump shot as picture-perfect as hers won’t travel with her to the next level especially with Bueckers as the primary distributor of the basketball. 

2. Minnesota Lynx select Olivia Miles (Point Guard/Mark Campbell Finishing School)

This is not in any way an indictment of Awa Fam, who I think, practically, is the best prospect in this draft. 

What this is is an indictment of Courtney Williams, Point Guard. This is not to say anything about Courtney Williams, Shooting Guard. Where I think the Lynx really came up short last season was in their complete lack of an eager playmaker. 

Now, the 2026 Minnesota Lynx look very different than the 2024 and 2025 versions who competed for WNBA titles. This version is Napheesa Collier, coming off surgery, Kayla McBride (potentially unable to fly on an airplane?), the aforementioned Courtney Williams, and Cheryl Reeve’s coaching acumen. 

Playmakers like Olivia Miles come along very infrequently in basketball. Her vision is an 80 on the baseball 20-80 scouting scale. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that her playmaking got Marta Suarez a draft night invitation. What sets her apart from the run-of-the-mill “distributor” is that she can also get her own shot, either getting downhill or from beyond the arc (see: 58.7% true shooting percentage in 2025-26). Her 3-point efficiency dipped during her final year after transferring from Notre Dame, but ultimately, no one is drafting Miles to be their primary scorer. You’re drafting her because she makes every single player on the floor with her better. 

Minnesota really lost out in free agency this cycle. Perhaps they add Emma Meesseman in the coming days. I think we’ll find out what Minnesota’s intentions are for 2026 the moment Commish Cathy reads this selection. If it’s Fam, I think Minnesota knows that Collier won’t be ready for the start of the season and they will, in essence, forgo competing for a playoff spot. If it’s Miles, they’re going for it again.

3. Seattle Storm select Lauren Betts (Center/UCLA)

This is kind of a disaster scenario for the Storm, who I think would rather have Fudd or Miles than Fam or Betts. Fudd would be an especially needed addition to a team that truly lacks an outside shooter beyond, maybe, Stef Dolson. 

But, uhh, instead how about a 6’7” center who cannot shoot from the outside? Again, this is not an indictment of Awa Fam. I just don’t see how you find minutes for Awa Fam, Dominique Malonga, and Ezi Magbegor, or how that even works in basketball terms. With their current roster, pairing Betts with Malonga could really open up the latter’s outside game, which is still a work in progress, but one that shows some promise. 

Betts would give Seattle a defensive anchor in the paint, allowing Malonga and Magbegor to use their length to disrupt entry passes. I think Betts’ offensive game needs significant work away from the paint and what will interest me most is how willing WNBA officials will be to allow her to use her signature elbow hook. But on day 1, you’re getting someone who can defend on the interior with physicality, which this roster presently lacks. 

4. Washington Mystics select Awa Fam (C/Valencia, ESP)

Does this make any sense in basketball terms? Not really! But we’ve reached the point where we have a team that has a lottery ticket and a very young roster and very little in the way of expectations for immediate on-court success, so screw it, take the uber-talented 6’4” 19 year old prodigy and figure it out. Maybe this makes Shakira Austin expendable? Maybe it doesn’t. It doesn’t matter. 

Fam is long and raw, but I think less raw than Dom Malonga was when she was drafted 2nd overall last year, ahead of current Mystics Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen. Fam can do everything on a basketball court. I don’t know that any one skill is particularly elite at this point. She’s not as fluid of a mover as Malonga to my eyes (we’re running with the lazy “foreign lottery pick” comp). But she’s a better passer, a better defender, and I like her willingness to play through physicality. She is, without question, the highest ceiling player in this draft. So do you run out a lineup of Georgia Amoore, Citron, Iriafen, Fam, and Austin and hope that it works? You sure do! Because if it does, that’s awesome. And if it doesn’t, you have a pick swap with the Chicago Sky in 2027 and a young core on cheap contracts. 

5. Chicago Sky select Flau’Jae Johnson (Guard/LSU)

Perhaps I am giving far too much credit to a deeply confounding man, but I think (almost) every move Jeff Pagliocca has made over the last week has been to get 4 to Chicago, especially trading Angel Reese. And I have to admit, I kind of really like it if that’s the goal. 

There are serious questions about Johnson’s consistency. Objectively, there were moments in her senior season where she didn’t look like a first round pick. There were also moments, like the game at Cameron Indoor, where she looked like the superstar we kind of all just categorize her as. 

And to be clear, she is a superstar. She’s the most media savvy player in this Draft. Whichever team drafts her is getting, if nothing else, a much easier workload for their social team. And the thing that I come back to with Flau’Jae is how much Kim Mulkey very clearly loves her. If Chicago makes this pick and gets the aggregate of Johnson that exists between that Duke game and, say, that Saturday night clunker against South Carolina, they have a really useful role player, but one who brings an entire brand with her. Anything more and you’ve got a microwave scorer who can get her own shot. All of that is a good thing for a fan base that is hungry for on court success and one that just lost the player they thought was their franchise cornerstone.

Look, if you gave me the option of Ariel Atkins, Angel Reese, Flau’Jae Johnson, and maybe one of their free agent signings vs. Rickea Jackson, Flau’Jae Johnson, two future first round picks, and the money it took to sign Skylar Diggins, Azura Stevens, and DiJonai Carrington, I’m taking the latter 100 times out of 100. Even with the Jacy Sheldon of it all.

6. Toronto Tempo select Iyana Martín (PG/Perfumerias Avenida, ESP)

You want to have some fun? No, not outside of the house. My idea of fun. Watch Martín run an offense on Youtube. Fire up some Spain U-19 games, pour yourself a cup of tea, and marvel. 

Martín is the type of player I’d fall in love with when I did NFL mocks. Everything is flash and she’s anything but perfect. I cannot say with any degree of certainty that she can defend or ever will defend. But she can pass and she can score. Those things sell tickets. And expansion teams need to sell tickets before they get relocated to Cathy’s City of the Moment. There are much, much more fundamentally sound PGs available here. But when you’re young, like the Tempo, you can afford big risks. Toronto should do that here. 

7. Portland Fire select Nell Angloma (Wing/Montpelier, FRA)

See: Tempo, Toronto. Look, the domestic players available at this point in the draft are all fine. Good, even. They each do a handful of things well (one of them does one thing at an elite level and we’ll talk about her soon). But like Toronto, knowing what the 2027 Draft could look like, I wouldn’t be super eager to win a lot of basketball games in 2026. I would, however, be eager to collect as many magic beans as possible and to some degree, every 19 year old player who hasn’t been through the NCAA gauntlet is a magic bean. Maybe Angloma develops a consistent outside shot working with a new set of coaches in Portland. The tape shows a wing who can post up similar-sized players and can get downhill and finish through contact. There’s more than a sketch of a really good basketball player here. 

8. Golden State Valkyries select Gabriela Jacquez (G/W/UCLA)

While I think Golden State would benefit from a player whose primary skill is shot-making, Jacquez just feels like a Natalie Nakase player, right down to the UCLA connection. Jacquez’s growth year-over-year is remarkable. The first time I heard her named bandied as a first round pick (back in November) I nearly drove my car off the road. But what she put on tape this season sold me. There are nights where her outside shot lets her down some. It’s the one area of her game that she really needs to improve on. Otherwise, she moves so well off the ball, can rebound quite well for a player her size, and she defends her ass off and I believe can do so 1-3 at the pro level.

9. Washington Mystics select Kiki Rice (PG/UCLA)

I am in the minority, but I think Kiki Rice can play the off guard in the W in the scenario where Georgia Amoore is Virginia Tech/Kentucky Georgia Amoore and running this offense like an orchestral conductor. I think Rice’s ability to get to the basket and finish is underrated. She’s a lights-out free throw shooter. She finished 2025-26 with a true shooting percentage over 60%. She shot 39% (we round up from the half) from 3. She’s not an elite on-ball defender, but she’s an absolute pest. She is my favorite player in this draft and I love this fit for her and for the Mystics. 

10. Indiana Fever select Angela Dugalić (F/UCLA)

This is a run on UCLA players that may never stop. This is also the first time I’ve gotten to a team and thought “what the hell do they do here?” Dugalić going in the top 10 was not on my bingo card when I started thinking about doing this, but other options just muddied up the rotations. Dugalić is a plug-and-play rebounder/defender who has shown a willingness to come off the bench and give solid minutes to a championship cause. I don’t necessarily think Indiana is on New York or Las Vegas’ level, but they’re in the next tier with Atlanta. When you get to that level, it’s all about filling little patches and Dugalić does that kind of perfectly. 

11. Washington Mystics select Madina Okot (C/South Carolina)

I have a rule when I do a mock draft: if you have multiple first round picks, you need to take a big swing with one of them. So far, Washington has had the highest ceiling player fall into their lap, and have taken a steady, four-year starter from a championship program. This is the swing. 

Okot showed flashes in South Carolina’s non-conference schedule that had me thinking she was a better pro prospect than Lauren Betts. I no longer believe that because of the harsh light of the SEC Conference and a matchup with Betts where Lauren asserted her dominance. What you’re doing here with Okot is acknowledging that Shakira Austin as a UFA is going to get a bag (this assumes Washington matches her offer sheet) and might want/probably wants/we think wants out of DC. 

Okot is still really raw with only one year of high-level coaching in college (sorry Sam!). You cannot teach 6’6”. There were enough flashes in November and December that with a 3rd first round pick, you swing for the fences and bet on your player development that has so far proven itself to be really good at what they do. 

12. Connecticut Sun select Gianna Kneepkens (G/UCLA)

Gianna Kneepkens does one thing really well. That one thing is: shoot 3 pointers. Connecticut’s current roster does one thing very, very poorly. That is: shoot 3 pointers. So let’s not make this harder than it needs to be, even if there’s a real pull to take a falling point guard with an elite skill. 

13. Atlanta Dream select Janiah Barker (F/Kim Caldwell’s Traveling Show of Wonders)

This isn’t drafting for fit. This isn’t even drafting for need. This is a team with championship aspirations and a dearth of future first round picks sitting at the blackjack table and hitting on 19 for the hell of it. 

Janiah Barker is otherworldly in the talent department. Dare I say that no one in this draft can match her athleticism. Her senior year, spent languishing in The System in Knoxville, TN, still saw her averaging 21 pts and 10 reb per 36 minutes with 3 stocks to boot. Barker needs to be coached. There were flashes in her UCLA season when she came off the bench where you saw the promise. I could envision a scenario where the Dream can play the uber-talented, and uber-enigmatic Barker 10 minutes per game and get her best. I can also see a scenario where they grow tired of her by the end of training camp and she languishes at the end of their bench or they move her to another team for draft capital. I think the Dream are in a good enough position with their roster where they can take a gamble. 

14. Seattle Storm select Raven Johnson (PG/South Carolina)

I have wanted to slot Raven Johnson to every team above here up to the Mystics at 4. Elite skills are hard to find. This isn’t a novel idea, I know. But it feels wrong to have all of these teams passing up on an elite defender because of roster construction. But let’s go through it:

Either expansion team could take Raven and they’d be smart to do so. It wouldn’t sell tickets but it would win basketball games. Golden State already has Veronica Burton, but Raven as a backup would be incredible. But then aren’t you wasting Raven and missing out on filling holes elsewhere on the roster? Washington is an interesting landing spot, but doesn’t Raven’s presence negate Georgia Amoore’s? Indiana playing Raven at the point with Caitlin off the ball is very interesting to me, but that only works in a world where Kelsey Mitchell suddenly retires. Connecticut has a glaring need for shooting which gets filled with Kneepkens. And Atlanta does not have the minutes for Raven. So now we come to Seattle, who has Natisha Hiedeman and Jade Melbourne at PG and quite honestly, I think Raven is better than both of them. This of course leaves Seattle with a bit of a disaster at the 2 and 3, but they pick again at 16 where there will be a bevy of options for scoring guards and wings if the draft plays out like this. 

15. Connecticut Sun select Cotie McMahon (G/Mississippi)

This came down to McMahon and Ta’Niya Latson, with a brief Maggie Doogan thought exercise, butI went with McMahon because of the growth she showed in her game and her maturity leaving Ohio State for Mississippi. Of every domestic player drafted this year, no one will have scored at a higher rate than Cotie McMahon did in 2025-26 (23.4 pts per 36 minutes). Now, they weren’t efficient points and I wouldn’t expect McMahon to find a 3 point shot all of a sudden in the W. But Latson is not an elite outside shooter herself and while she scored more efficiently at South Carolina, her size concerns me. McMahon has the size and frame to finish at the rim in the W. There are concerning defensive lapses, but I’m hopeful that coaching can help that, and Connecticut does not lack for defensive talent at the bigger guard spot with Saniya Rivers. 

A rotation of Leila Lacan, Saniya Rivers, Gianna Kneepkens, Aneesah Morrow, and Brittney Griner with Kennedy Burke, Aaliyah Edwards, Cotie McMahon, and Olivia Nelson-Ododa moves the needle quite a bit for the Sun as they exit pastoral eastern Connecticut for the sprawling hellscape that is Houston, TX. 

Players who I’d like to see the teams without a first round pick select:

Las Vegas: Teonni Key (F/C/Kentucky): Rebounding maestro, would give Las Vegas needed length behind A’ja Wilson.

Los Angeles: Rori Harmon (PG/Texas), Maggie Doogan (W/Richmond): The Sparks need a true point guard and one that can defend at a high level and Harmon fits that bill perfectly. Meanwhile Doogan is a plug-and-play replacement (and upgrade) over Sarah Ashlee Barker, who they lost in the expansion draft.

New York: LOL it does not matter. There is a player from the former Yugoslavia that 4 people have ever watched play basketball. New York will draft her late in the 3rd round. She will never visit the United States and we will forget this ever happened.

Phoenix: Grace VanSlooten (F/Michigan State): I just like Grace VanSlooten and think in a frontcourt composed largely of paint players, she’d provide some much needed flexibility off the bench.