What’s the WNBA Draft order? Who are the likely first-round picks?

rewrite this content and keep HTML tags

What’s the WNBA Draft order? Who are the likely first-round picks?

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2025 WNBA Draft.

The 2025 WNBA Draft is set for Monday night at The Shed at Hudson Yards in New York City. It is the second straight season the event will be open to the public, and all eyes will be on Paige Bueckers, as the UConn star and newly crowned national champion is expected to be selected first by the Dallas Wings.

Here is what you need to know about the draft.

The Las Vegas Aces forfeited its first-round pick in this draft as a result of providing impermissible player benefits during contract extension negotiations with Dearica Hamby.

The Indiana Fever won’t add a first-round draft pick as a teammate for Caitlin Clark. They won’t select a player until the No. 19 overall pick, in the second round, as well as the No. 20 and No. 33 picks.

As part of a four-team trade, the Fever gave away the No. 8 pick, which went to the Connecticut Sun along with NaLyssa Smith to Dallas. The deal brought Sophie Cunningham (Phoenix) and Jaelyn Brown (Dallas) to Indianapolis.

This is the first time since 2017 the Fever don’t have a top-four lottery pick, but their focus on building through free agency appears to have served them well.

How to watch?

The 2025 WNBA Draft will air at 7:30 p.m. ET Monday on ESPN. Ryan Ruocco will host alongside Rebecca Lobo and Andraya Carter, with Holly Rowe conducting interviews with draftees. There will be a WNBA Countdown pre-draft show at 7 p.m. with Elle Duncan, Chiney Ogwumike and Carter.

Which players will attend the draft?

These 16 players, listed alphabetically, are invited to Monday’s draft:

• Georgia Amoore (Kentucky)

• Sarah Ashlee Barker (Alabama)

• Paige Bueckers (UConn)

• Sonia Citron (Notre Dame)

• Sania Feagin (South Carolina)

• Kiki Iriafen (USC)

• Aziaha James (NC State)

• Dominique Malonga (ASVEL Lyon / France)

• Aneesah Morrow (LSU)

• Te-Hina Paopao (South Carolina)

• Saniya Rivers (NC State)

• Madison Scott (Ole Miss)

• Shyanne Sellers (Maryland)

• Ajša Sivka (Tarbes Gespe Bigorre / Slovenia)

• Serena Sundell (Kansas State)

• Hailey Van Lith (TCU)

Although the league tends to invite players with the best chances of being selected early in the draft, there are no guarantees. Last year, Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley and UCLA’s Charisma Osborne were among the draftees in attendance; Kitley was the last pick of the second round (after tearing her ACL a month earlier) and Osborne was the first third-round selection by Phoenix.

Who will be drafted in the first round?

Bueckers appears to be the obvious top pick. Because Olivia Miles (more on her below) decided not to enter the draft, the second pick is now expected to go to French teen phenom Malonga. Our expert Sabreena Merchant recently broke down how she expects the rest of the first round to go.

Will Sedona Prince and others not in attendance be picked?

Expect Lithuanian forward Justė Jocytė to be among the first absent players to hear her name called. Like Malonga, Jocytė is playing for the French club ASVEL Lyon. The 6-foot-2 forward has gained valuable playmaking experience in a professional context.

Former Iowa guard Lucy Olsen and Harvard guard Harmoni Turner are turning pro after decorated college careers but will not be present in New York. Florida State forward Makayla Timpson and USC center Rayah Marshall will also likely hear their names called in the first two rounds but will not be present.

Where 24-year-old center Sedona Prince gets picked is also an open question. Prince enjoyed the most successful season of her career last year at TCU, but her seven-year college odyssey includes three colleges, multiple injuries and multiple allegations of domestic abuse, all of which Prince has denied.

What is the draft process?

Bueckers, Feagin and Paopao will attend the draft just eight days after their programs competed for the national championship. WNBA teams couldn’t speak with them until the conclusion of their collegiate seasons.

Players have to declare for the draft within 48 hours of their last college game or April 1, whichever comes later. Unlike many other North American professional sports leagues, the WNBA does not hold an official scouting combine. However, in each of the past two seasons, there has been a collegiate All-Star Game featuring 20 of the best seniors in the country (whose seasons have concluded) during Final Four weekend. This year, there was also a combine where players had their heights and wingspans measured, scrimmaged and performed a variety of athletic tests.

Who opted to stay in college?

For much of the draft process, star guard Miles was expected to be one of the first players selected in this year’s draft. But after Notre Dame’s season ended, Miles elected to instead stay in college and enter the transfer portal. She had one year of eligibility remaining because she missed the 2023-24 season with a torn ACL.

Earlier this week, Miles announced she was going to TCU.

“I just want to be a pro without being a pro,” Miles said on TNT’s “Inside the NBA.” “Every day on campus, I want to act and be the way a pro would be so when I do actually go to the league.”

Miles was not the only player who chose to stay in college. LSU’s Flau’Jae Johnson, UConn’s Azzi Fudd and South Carolina guards Ta’Niya Latson (a transfer from Florida State) and Raven Johnson could have turned pro but chose to remain in school.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

TCU Horned Frogs, Connecticut Huskies, WNBA, Sports Business, Women’s College Basketball

2025 The Athletic Media Company

Source link