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The WNBA Draft is always one of the most exciting parts of the basketball year. Not only are drafts enticing showcases in any league as teams welcome the sport’s newest and youngest players, but the WNBA Draft’s placement just weeks before training camp provides a jolt of anticipation that carries seamlessly through the start of the season. Some of the eagerness may have been filed down this year after a series of high-profile seniors either declined to enter the draft (Rickea Jackson, Jacy Sheldon, Elizabeth Kitley, Celeste Taylor) or removed their names from consideration in the days leading up to the event after initially declaring (Charisma Osborne and Endyia Rogers). Nevertheless, there were still many intriguing prospects who will soon become WNBA players. While it will take several years before we can really judge how each front office performed on Monday, here are some draft grades based on my initial impressions:
(Note. You can view the college stats of most of the NCAA players drafted on our Draft Prospects stats page. I also wanted to shout out Em Adler, Hunter Cruse and Lincoln Shafer at The Next for putting together an excellent big board.)
Atlanta Dream: B+
No. 6: Haley Jones (A-), No. 8: Laeticia Amihere (B+), No. 15: Leigha Brown (B+)
There is a lot to like about Atlanta’s draft. Haley Jones entered the NCAA season as the clear No. 2 pick on many prognosticators’ boards. While she slid down those boards as the year progressed, in no small part because her 3-point shot ran even colder than it has in the past, it was still surprising to see her fall all the way to No. 6. Moreover, she fits Atlanta’s defense-first mentality and also helps provide another ballhandler, allowing Rhyne Howard and Aari McDonald to excel in off-ball opportunities. Laeticia Amihere represents as switchable of a defensive prospect as the WNBA has seen in years and could provide value as a successor to Monique Billings, who was re-signed this year but only for one year. Meanwhile, Leigha Brown does not provide as much value at the defensive end as her first-round counterparts, but she did lead all players on our draft prospects page in assists per game while being listed at 6-foot-1. My prevailing concern with Atlanta’s draft is how much they seemed to deprioritize shooting. Atlanta already has lots of traditional post players, among whom only Iliana Rupert profiles as a plus-shooter. While Amihere is the only post player among the team’s draftees, and while Nia Coffey and even Howard could provide more spacing if deployed at the power forward position, there will still be lots of more traditional double-post line-ups, which tend to shrink the floor in the half-court offense. Meanwhile, Brown, the best shooter among Atlanta’s draft picks, is the least likely to make the team and never eclipsed 33% three-point shooting in the three years she spent at Michigan. It is also possible to wonder if the Dream should have taken Jordan Horston with one of their two first-round picks. She fits the principles of strong defense, passing, and ball-handling indicated by the Dream’s picks while also holding more shooting upside than either Jones or Amihere. Regardless, Atlanta set itself up well for the future, and it is always possible for a front office to reconfigure a team if it starts by acquiring talent.
Chicago Sky: B-
No. 23: Kayana Traylor (B), No. 35: Kseniya Malashka (C+)
Chicago did not have as much to do on draft night, having traded away its own first-round pick last season in the deal that saw it acquire Julie Allemand while sending away Diamond DeShields and then forwarding the first-round pick it received back to Dallas in the Marina Mabrey trade. However, the Sky made decent selections with the picks they had. Traylor may be a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, but she at least flashed some scoring ability from all three levels as a solid complementary player at Virginia Tech after previously taking more of a leading role at Purdue. Chicago once again has an extremely competitive training camp lined up, and Traylor has a legitimate opportunity to make the team. Malashka, originally from Belarus, is probably intended as a sort of NCAA draft-and-stash, a la Los Angeles’s selection of Ivana Raca in 2021. She absolutely torched Conference USA defenses while also putting up excellent defensive playmaking numbers. However, she does not clearly profile as a shooter and is unlikely to replicate her college role in the WNBA given her listed height of 6 feet.
Connecticut Sun: C+
No. 22: Alexis Morris (B), No. 34: Ashten Prechtel (D)
Connecticut traded away its first-round pick when it sent Jasmine Thomas to Los Angeles in exchange for Olivia Nelson-Ododa among other players. The Sun also received a first-round pick in the Jonquel Jones trade but then sent that pick to Atlanta in exchange for Tiffany Hayes. As such, it was deep in the draft before the Sun were able to make any picks, but they were able to come away with a talented player in Alexis Morris. Morris’s abilities as a lead guard are clear, especially scoring the basketball, but there are concerns about her lack of size and the off-court issues that led to her being kicked off Kim Mulkey’s team at Baylor before rejoining her years later at LSU. There is also the question of whether there is room for her on the roster, as the team already has three point guards with WNBA experience plus a cap situation that requires the team to cut an experienced player to make room for Morris’s contract. While it would not be shocking if Morris beats out Nia Clouden for the team’s last roster spot, alleviating both issues, playing time would still be scarce for Morris in the short term. As for Prechtel, she played alongside a lot of talented players at Stanford, but it is still concerning when any prospect averages fewer than 10 minutes per game in any season, let alone her last two seasons of college ball. Add in the fact that Prechtel, a presumed stretch post player, has not eclipsed 33% three-point shooting in either of the last two seasons nor has she ever reached 65% free-throw shooting, and Connecticut probably would have been better off selecting a draft-and-stash player.
Dallas Wings: D
No. 3: Maddy Siegrist (B), No. 4: Stephanie Soares (D), No. 5: Lou Lopez Senechal (C-), No. 11: Abby Meyers (C-), No. 19: Ashley Joens (B-), No. 31: Paige Robinson (B)
Dallas had an interesting draft in more ways than one. The name of the game seemed to be shooting, as every single player the Wings selected grades out as an above-average outside shooter for their position. This makes sense given the serious shooting limitations of several of the players on the roster, including their perimeter players. Maddy Siegrist is an elite shooter at all three levels, and her high release should help her compensate for the size of WNBA opponents at whichever forward position she proves most capable of defending. Lou Lopez Sénéchal exploded at UConn after four years leading the charge at Fairfield, showing a smooth shooting stroke and taking full advantage of the cutting opportunities available in their Princeton offense. Speaking of Princeton, Abby Meyers transferred from the Tigers to Maryland after a stellar performance in last year’s NCAA Tournament. Ashley Joens likely would have been picked much higher had she declared last year. While she was an on-ball threat at Iowa State, the contrast between her slow, methodical driving which is unlikely to translate to the next level and her deadly 3-point shooting (including on stepbacks) could lead her to spend more of her time beyond the arc at the professional level. Finally, like every other player the Wings drafted besides Siegrist and Joens, Paige Robinson jumped a level, in her case from D-II Drury to Illinois State, and excelled as a well-rounded scorer. The low grades for some of these individual selections are partly prompted by the fact that many of them, Lopez Sénéchal especially, likely would have been available at one of the team's later picks while highly-regarded players like Jordan Horston and Haley Jones fell down the board, partly because of Dallas's own choices.
My grade for the Soares pick is much harsher than most draft grades you will see. This is partly because I am more skeptical of Soares as a prospect. Her size and interior scoring are tremendous, but she shot neither enough threes nor made enough of them for me to feel confident in her as a shooter, the skill that would make her a special prospect, and I am very worried about her lack of mobility on defense. I am also concerned about a player who likely will not only turn 24 before her first WNBA game given her likely prognosis from her January knee injury but who also currently has more caps for her national team than games of D-I (or professional) basketball. This is also not the first time Soares has torn her ACL. Given the number of players on Dallas’s roster after all of its draft selections, I can understand the rationale behind taking a draft-and-stash player, but Dallas trading for the pick without sacrificing any current year’s picks makes the Soares acquisition roster slot-neutral. If the team were charging for a draft-and-stash, I personally might have preferred Maïa Hirsch or Shaneice Swain, both of whom presumably would have still been available at No. 11 even if Dallas had not traded for Soares. There is also the fact that Dallas gave up a 2025 first-round pick from Atlanta. This may be the least enticing of Dallas’s future first-round picks, but 2025 is the last year that players can use the free year of eligibility the NCAA awarded in 2020-21 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If even half as many exciting seniors defer their draft entry next year as did this year, the 2025 draft class would be absolutely loaded.
You may also notice that Wings’s low overall grade is not quite commensurate with the grades of their individual draft picks. This is largely because most of their draftees have very similar skill sets. Siegrist, Lopez Sénéchal, Meyers, Joens, and Robinson all profile as good-to-great shooting wings with the ability to score a bit in the mid-range but whose athletic questions cast doubt on their ability to drive all the way to the rim or to defend effectively. Moreover, most of those players’ best position is probably going to be small forward. Siegrist is less egregious because of the possibility that she profiles as a (very small) power forward, but even excluding her, this is a level of duplication that suggests they might be fighting for roster spots on a shooting-starved team, not something you hope to see from a cohort of picks starting as high as No. 5 overall.
Indiana Fever: A
No. 1: Aliyah Boston (A), No. 7: Grace Berger (A-), No. 13: Taylor Mikesell (B), No. 17: LaDazhia Williams (C-), No. 25: Victaria Saxton (C-)
First of all, it might seem gauche to praise Indiana excessively for taking the consensus No. 1 pick at No. 1, but it is always a great day when a team can select a likely franchise cornerstone. Boston’s combination of interior dominance and expert awareness at both ends combined with her promise on the perimeter as a ball-handler and versatile defender make her not just an extremely talented basketball player, but one who fits just about any roster. Indiana is no exception. The Fever’s next pick in Grace Berger may not jump off the screen the same way but is no less of a great fit. Her combination of size and ball-handling ability pair her excellently with two of Indiana’s smaller guards, franchise player Kelsey Mitchell and young point guard Destanni Henderson, both of whom benefit from having the chance to play off the ball. Not to mention that Berger is a lifelong Fever fan who spent her five-year collegiate career leading Indiana to some of its greatest heights as a program. The main question for Berger is whether she can extend her excellent mid-range shooting touch beyond the 3-point line.
Further down the list, Taylor Mikesell was the best 3-point shooter in the draft. She is no lock to make the roster, especially with the serious concerns about her foot speed at both ends, but she could serve a valuable role given how many defense-first players and interior-focused post players the team already has. Given how crowded the Fever’s roster is, they may have been better suited to select a draft-and-stash player with one of their latter two picks, and neither LaDazhia Williams nor Victaria Saxton were particularly high on public draft boards as traditional post players without standout statistics or highlight reels. But that’s no reason to dock Indiana’s overall score when they found a clear franchise cornerstone at No. 1, not to mention the two strong picks following that choice.
Las Vegas Aces: A-
No. 36: Brittany Davis (A)
Las Vegas traded its first- and second-round draft choices in this year’s draft to Minnesota for better picks in last year’s draft, a shrewd move even if the Aces ultimately cut both players they selected. The defending champions were therefore left with only one pick in this year’s draft, and that was the very last one. They did about as well as they possibly could have in that situation. Davis was an impactful shooting guard for Alabama, leading the team in rebounding while shooting 35% from three on 200 attempts - the latter figure for the second year in a row. Add efficient scoring around the rim, and Davis might have as good a chance as any other third-round prospect to make a roster this season, even considering that she plays on a veteran team with championship aspirations and an absolutely loaded backcourt.
Los Angeles Sparks: B
No. 10: Zia Cooke (B), No. 14: Shaneice Swain (A-), No. 26: Monika Czinano (C)
The Sparks have a lot of guards, including a lot of big guards, but they don’t have a lot of guards who can shoot. Zia Cooke and Shaneice Swain represent two guards who should be able to shoot. Both Cooke and Swain are also fairly athletic, although both have had varying degrees of finishing difficulties inside the arc. At the same time, those questions may be overstated given how crowded the paint always was for Cooke at South Carolina and the talent deficit surrounding Swain in her breakout season in Australia this season. While Swain, as a 19-year-old international prospect, is almost certainly a draft-and-stash, she actually outperformed overseas teammate and current Spark Rae Burrell in several important statistical categories. Monika Czinano was a great college player and a master of rolling to the rim and positioning herself to score in the post, but her athleticism concerns are profound enough that it is very unlikely that she will be able to translate those skills to the WNBA level, especially since she lacks elite size.
Minnesota Lynx: A-
No. 2: Diamond Miller (A), No. 12: Maïa Hirsch (A), No. 16: Dorka Juhász (C), No. 24: Brea Beal (B), No. 28: Taylor Soule (A)
Even with the massive drop-off in her 3-point shooting this past season, Diamond Miller solidified herself as the consensus No. 2 prospect midway through the season. Her length, ballhandling ability, and creativity finishing around the rim all give her a solid foundation of skills with obvious potential for more. In addition, the creative line-ups Minnesota could run with various combinations of Miller alongside versatile veterans like Napheesa Collier, Aerial Powers and Damiris Dantas are tantalizing, especially if the Lynx again try to spread their ball-handling among less traditional point guard options.
There is also a great deal of intrigue surrounding the rest of their draft. Hot Take Alert: Don’t be shocked if Miller and Taylor Soule are the only rookies on Minnesota’s 2023 roster. Let’s start with the consideration that does not include a player getting cut, that Maïa Hirsch is almost certainly a draft-and-stash player. The 19-year-old French post player flashes impressive inside-out versatility at both ends of the floor playing for a French team that nearly qualified for EuroLeague Women, but she has a lot of skills that are just a little bit of refinement away from being truly impactful, most notably her 3-point shooting. A major concern with Dorka Juhász is that her jump shot does not pan out at the pro level after never exceeding 63% from the free-throw line in her five years in college. There is also the question of whether the strong assist-to-turnover ratio numbers she produced at UConn were more a product of the team’s Princeton system and if her 0.51 assist-to-turnover ratio from her three years at Ohio State is more indicative of her passing and decision-making skills. As such, one of the standout defensive forwards drafted later could claim a spot on the roster over her. Brea Beal’s defensive reputation precedes her, and she reached another level as an outside shooter this season, although she also has profound questions surrounding her free-throw percentage which never exceeded 60% for a season. Meanwhile, Taylor Soule has some serious fans, including at The Next where she slotted in the top 10 on their draft board. She has flashed very little in the way of a 3-point shot, but she could bring enough multi-dimensional defensive and driving ability, including from inside the 3-point arc, to convince the Lynx front office to keep her around.
New York Liberty: D-
No. 30: Okako Adika (D-)
It’s hard to blame New York for taking a player who may not be vying for a roster spot this year on a team that already appears poised to cut some very talented players. However, there were more traditional draft-and-stash options than a 26-year-old who averaged 8 points per game in her last college season. Spaniard Claudia Contell might have been a good fit here as a defense-first player with history as a point guard.
Phoenix Mercury: C
No. 27: Destiny Harden (C), No. 29: Kadi Sissoko (C)
Phoenix traded its first- and second-round picks in the deal where they acquired Diamond DeShields last offseason. The Mercury probably could have done more with their remaining picks. Destiny Harden vaulted into the national consciousness via incredible performances in Miami’s huge upsets over Louisville in last year’s ACC Tournament and Indiana in this year’s NCAA Tournament. However, her postseason resume outside of those two big games is actually rather lackluster, and her overall statistical profile is missing a signature strength while also indicating concerns about her outside shooting ability. Kadi Sissoko represents a similar type of swing as a slightly bigger player who got to the free-throw line a bit more often while also having more profound concerns about her outside shot and her turnover rate.
Seattle Storm: A-
No. 9: Jordan Horston (A), No. 18: Madi Williams (B), No. 21: Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu (C+), No. 33: Jade Loville (D+)
It is generally helpful to acquire players who can handle the ball well. It is especially helpful to acquire players who can handle the ball well and play great defense. It is especially helpful to acquire players who can handle the ball well and play great defense when your team does not quite have a traditional point guard (my apologies to Sami Whitcomb). Jordan Horston ticks all of those boxes, and it says a lot about the value of drafting her ninth overall when I, a relative Horston skeptic, still had her fifth on my personal, unpublished big board. Even if Horston has serious questions about her shooting ability, Seattle should know how to scheme around that particular problem after employing Gabby Williams last year. Also, the turnover problems that plagued Horston early in her Tennessee career have all but dissipated. As for the later picks, Madi Williams and Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu should both be competitive to make a roster that has several wide-open spots, with Williams, in particular, being an intriguing prospect as an athletic driver with holes elsewhere in her game. Meanwhile, Jade Loville’s dip in productivity across the board after transferring from Arizona State to Arizona threw water on what was looking like a mildly interesting profile.
Washington Mystics: A
No. 20: Elena Tsineke (A), No. 32: Txell Alarcon (A)
First of all, Washington did a great job in trading out of the first round in a draft where it did not have a guaranteed roster spot befitting the No. 4 pick and getting a first-round pick in a potentially loaded future draft in the process. Second of all, the Mystics did an excellent job with the picks they did keep. Good guards are hard to come by in the WNBA, and Elena Tsineke represents a guard who is a real threat to score at all three levels of offense. There are concerns about her having an assist-to-turnover ratio below 1 in all four years of her career at South Florida and whether the major efficiency strides she made as a relatively old senior are translatable, but there are similar concerns about prospects drafted higher than her. Meanwhile, Txell Alarcon was one of the best draft-and-stash options available as a quality shooter who has cemented herself in rotations of Spanish first-division teams for several years.
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