Draft Recap and Offseason Trades

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Hofstra chapter.

On Monday, April 14th, the WNBA Draft was broadcast on ESPN. Unsurprisingly, UConn star Paige Bueckers was the first pick and went to the Dallas Wings. The second pick was held by the Seattle Storm, who chose Dominique Malonga from France. Malonga might only be 19, but she is a beast on the court; Malonga’s wingspan is allegedly 7’1”; at 6’6”, her ability to dunk the ball makes her an extremely valuable player. Even though Malonga is so young, she already has professional basketball experience in France.

Sonia Citron, who played for Notre Dame, went as the third pick to the Washington Mystics. Citron proved to be a great asset in March Madness for Notre Dame. The Mystics also had the 4th pick of the draft where they picked up Kiki Ifiaren from USC; Ifiaren was a top player at USC. The 5th pick of the draft belonged to the Golden State Valkyries, who are the newest team in the WNBA, so they are just beginning to build their roster. The Valkyries surprised many by choosing Juste Jocyte from Lithuania. Having two different foreign players being drafted in the top five is interesting.

With the Mystics having the sixth pick of the draft, they took Georgia Amoore, the Australian who played for Kentucky. The Connecticut Sun has their first pick of the draft with the overall pick being seven; the Sun picked Aneesah Morrow from LSU, who has proven multiple times to be an extremely versatile player. The Sun also has the eighth pick of the draft, selecting Saniya Rivers from NC State, which gives the Sun a good variety of players on their roster.

The LA Sparks had the ninth pick of the draft, and they selected Sarah Ashlee Barker, who played for Alabama; Barker shined in the UMD vs Alabama game that ended up going into double overtime. The Chicago Sky had the next two picks in the draft. For the tenth pick of the draft, they selected Ajsa Sivka from France, and Hailey Van Lith from TCU as the 11th pick. Van Lith is an extremely valuable player; she highlighted her abilities by bringing TCU to the Elite Eight for the first time in program history. To close out the first round of the draft, the Dallas Wings selected Aziaha James from NC State.

Round two consisted of 13 draft openings. The Las Vegas Aces selected Aaliyah Nye from Alabama. Then the Dallas Wings selected Madison Scott from Ole Miss. The Minnesota Lynx chose Anastasiia Kosu from Russia. Maddy Westbeld, who played in college for Notre Dame, was the 16th pick and is now on the roster for the Chicago Sky. Shyanne Sellers, who is an absolute powerhouse and broke some records while playing for UMD, was selected by the Golden State Valkyries.

Te-Hina PaoPao, who played under Dawn Staley at the University of South Carolina, went as the 18th overall pick to the Atlanta Dream. The Indiana Fever, who were yet to have a pick, chose Makayla Timpson from Florida State as the 19th overall pick. Bree Hall was chosen by the Indiana Fever as the 20th overall pick in the draft. The LA Sparks had the 21st pick and chose Sania Feagin from South Carolina. Aicha Coulibay, who played for Texas A&M, was chosen by the Chicago Sky. Lucy Olsen, who played for Iowa, was chosen by the Washington Mystics. Dalayah Daniels, who played for University of Washington, was selected by the Minnesota Lynx. The Connecticut Sun chose Rayah Marshall from USC next. 

Round three consisted of the last 13 players who will get selected to join a team for the WNBA. The Seattle Storm had the first pick in round three, they ended up choosing Serena Sundell from Kansas State. JJ Quinerly from West Virginia was drafted by the Dallas Wings. Liatu King from Notre Dame was drafted by the LA Sparks. Madison Corner from TCU was selected by the Seattle Storm. Kaitlyn Chen from UConn was drafted by the Golden State Valkyries as the 30th overall pick.

Aaronette Vonleh from Baylor was drafted by the Dallas Wings. Zaay Green from Alabama was selected by the Washington Mystics. The Indiana Fever drafted Yvonne Ejim from Gonzaga. Jordan Hobbs from Michigan was selected by the Seattle Storm. The Las Vegas Aces drafted Harmoni Turner from Harvard. The Atlanta Dream drafted Taylor Thierry from Ohio State. Aubrey Griffin from UConn was drafted by the Minnesota Lynx. The final draftee was Adja Kane from France, who was picked up by the New York Liberty.

While some teams got more draft picks than others, the distribution of players to teams is typically based on performance from the last season. The New York Liberty had the last draft pick because they won the WNBA championship game in 2024.

There have been more changes to each of the teams during the off-season with trades of players, draft picks, and more. Kelsey Plum, who notably plays for the Las Vegas Aces, was a part of a multi-team trade, so she will now play for the LA Sparks in the upcoming season. Another surprising trade was the New York Liberty gaining Natasha Cloud, who had previously been playing for the Phoenix Mercury. 

With that being said, congratulations to all those that were drafted!

The first preseason games start on May 2nd; the first game of the season starts on Friday, May 16th at 7:30pm on ION. We’re excited to see how this upcoming season will go for all of the rookies!