WNBA Draft Lottery: Who will land Paige Bueckers and Kiki Iriafen?

The place will Paige Bueckers start her WNBA profession? And which group may snag USC standout Kiki Iriafen?

The WNBA Draft Lottery, slated for Sunday, November seventeenth at 5pm ET, will start to reply a few of these questions.

The lottery groups — so as of odds for the No. 1 choose — are the Los Angeles Sparks, Dallas Wings, Chicago Sky, and Washington Mystics. The Wings even have a choose swap with the Sky, so if the Sky place greater within the lottery, the 2 groups will swap spots. In the meantime, the Golden State Valkyries will mechanically be penned in because the No. 5 choose, so that they’ll simply miss the lottery.

The faculty basketball season is simply starting, however with the WNBA Draft Lottery only a week away, right here’s a way-too-early projection of who groups may choose.

First, how does the WNBA draft lottery work?

The WNBA makes use of groups’ mixed file from the previous two seasons to ascertain lottery odds — so the 4 groups with the worst 2023-2024 common season information will partake in Sunday’s lottery.

Over the previous two seasons, the Sparks have a 22-55 file, and due to this fact have the perfect odds at No. 1 at 44.2%. The Wings and the Sky every have a mixed 31-49 file, and thus have a a 22.7% likelihood on the No. 1 choose, whereas the Mystics have a 33-47 file, and a ten.4% likelihood. However, due to the choose swap between the Wings and the Sky, the Wings even have greater odds for the No. 1 choose.

On Sunday — the day of the particular draft lottery — fourteen balls numbered 1-14 shall be positioned right into a lottery machine and combined, 4 balls shall be drawn, and the group assigned that four-digit mixture will obtain the No. 1 choose. The identical course of will happen for the remaining lottery picks.

After the highest 4, the rest of the picks shall be distributed as follows:

No. 5 — Golden State Valkyries

No. 6 — Washington Mystics (through Dream)

No. 7 — New York Liberty (through Mercury)

No. 8 — Indiana Fever

No. 9 — Seattle Storm

No. 10 — Chicago Sky (through Solar)

No. 11 — Minnesota Lynx

No. 12 — Phoenix Mercury (through Liberty)

The Las Vegas Aces and the Connecticut Solar are the one two groups with out first-round picks on this yr’s draft.

Which faculty basketball stars are more likely to be lottery picks?

The faculty season is simply starting, so issues may nonetheless shake out quite a few methods. However, right here’s an early projection of which stars is perhaps picked within the lottery.

1. Paige Bueckers, College of Connecticut

David Butler II-Imagn Photographs

Paige Bueckers is a close to shoe-in for the No. 1 choose, offered that this season pans out as anticipated. The 6’0 level guard averaged 21.8 factors, 5.3 rebounds, and 4 assists final season, serving to lead UConn to the Ultimate 4 regardless of her group coping with a slew of accidents. She missed the 2022-23 season recovering from an ACL tear, however hasn’t missed a beat in her return from damage, and has been extremely environment friendly all through her three-year profession. She was the primary freshman ever to win the nationwide participant of the yr award, incomes the Naismith Trophy in 2021.

Bueckers shot 53.3% from the sphere — and 41.9% from three — in her three collegiate seasons. She’ll seemingly be a high-impactful WNBA guard no matter the place she finally ends up, as she will be able to rating in any respect three ranges, deal with the ball, and successfully defend.

2. Kiki Iriafen, College of Southern California

Photograph by Catherine Steenkeste/Getty Photographs

Kiki Iriafen had an amazing junior season at Stanford, and is now paired up with JuJu Watkins in her senior season at USC. Iriafen, a 6’3 ahead, is an athletic and excessive scoring ahead who makes her personal robust case because the No. 1 choose, although Bueckers presently appears to be the front-runner. Iriafen averaged 19.4 factors and 11 rebounds at Stanford, and capped her yr with a number of standout performances, together with exploding for 41 factors, 16 rebounds, and three blocks to assist Stanford to the Candy 16 final season. Iriafen can rating by way of contact and has a midrange jumper, however presently doesn’t shoot threes. That’ll be one potential space of enchancment for her as she gears up for a WNBA profession.

3. Aneesah Morrow, LSU

Photograph by Kristen Younger/LSU/Getty Photographs

Aneesah Morrow is an outstanding rebounder and defender who excels at scoring within the paint. After two seasons at DePaul, Morrow transferred to LSU, the place she averaged 16.4 factors and 10 rebounds per recreation final season. Morrow, a 6’1 ahead, will see her draft inventory be solidified this season — however it’s simple that she has the athleticism and preliminary skillset of a profitable WNBA participant.

4. Azzi Fudd, College of Connecticut

Photograph by Mitchell Layton/Getty Photographs

Azzi Fudd’s draft inventory is predicated extra on her potential fairly than what she’s achieved on the court docket. The 5’11 UConn guard missed most of her sophomore season and practically all of her junior season with knee accidents. However, as gamers like DiJonai Carrington have demonstrated, a slew of school accidents don’t must be career-defining. Carrington underwent six knee surgical procedures and is now among the finest two-way guards within the WNBA.

All through her collegiate profession, Fudd has averaged 13.1 factors per recreation, taking pictures 52.7% from two and 38.6% from three. However, she’s solely performed a complete of 42 video games — this season will show essential in figuring out what she may be capable of do within the WNBA. One different factor that makes Fudd a little bit of a wildcard — she may additionally select to return to UConn subsequent season on condition that she has an extra yr of availability.