Quickly after the ladies’s faculty basketball season concluded, the WNBA Draft was held in New York Metropolis and the sports activities subsequent group of stars discovered their new properties.
From choose No. 1 to select No. 38, legacies have begun, and careers are underway. Listed here are eight takeaways from Monday’s draft.
Paige Bueckers is a star
Not that anybody wanted the draft to verify that, but it surely was undoubtedly Bueckers who would go No. 1 total to the Dallas Wings.
Her profession at UConn was the most effective we have seen on the collegiate degree, and he or she will definitely step into the WNBA and immediately develop into the most effective gamers.
French basketball continues its rise
After back-to-back seasons with the No. 1 choose within the NBA Draft coming from France, the No. 2 choose within the WNBA is from France as properly.
Dominique Malonga was chosen by the Seattle Storm, and he or she seems to be to proceed Frances’ ascension in basketball.
Adja Kane from France was additionally chosen within the draft at No. 38 total by the New York Liberty.
Mystics immediately develop into playoff contenders
After a 14-26 season in 2024, the Washington Mystics chosen three Day 1 starters in Monday’s draft, and they’re now properly inside attain of the playoffs.
Sonia Citron (SG), Kiki Iriafen (PF) and Georgia Amoore (PG) will likely be starters on a workforce that struggled final 12 months and can put the Mystics again in place to succeed in the postseason for the third time within the final 4 seasons.
Good day for Chicago
After deciding on Angel Reese within the first spherical of the 2024 draft, the Chicago Sky bought one other playmaker within the first spherical within the type of TCU level guard Hailey Van Lith.
Van Lith led TCU to its most profitable season in current reminiscence, and she’s going to now reunite along with her former LSU teammate Reese in Chicago.
South Carolina continues to develop gamers
The South Carolina Gamecocks have produced a number of the WNBA’s greatest present gamers like Aliyah Boston and A’ja Wilson.
The Gamecocks had three extra gamers chosen on Monday (Te-Hina Paopao, Bree Corridor and Sania Feagin) had been all chosen within the second spherical of the draft.
Subsequent season, the Gamecocks may have at the very least two extra gamers chosen in Ta’Niya Latson and Raven Johnson. The Gamecocks proceed to compete with the likes of UConn and LSU in producing glorious WNBA gamers.
Guard play guidelines
Of the 38 gamers chosen, 21 of these are both level guards or taking pictures guards.
In a sport that has develop into extra about isolation ball and taking pictures three-pointers, it’s no shock to see guard play develop into the point of interest of the draft.
Worldwide stars are coming
France wasn’t the one nation represented within the draft on Monday, as three different nations noticed gamers taken.
Juste Jocyte (Lithuania), Ajsa Sivka (Slovenia) and Anastasiia Kosu (Russia) had been all chosen within the draft. Very like the NBA, the quantity of expertise coming from abroad to the WNBA is a really welcome sight.
SEC expertise again on show
After simply six gamers from the SEC had been chosen within the 2024 WNBA Draft, that quantity was virtually doubled on this 12 months’s draft.
Ten gamers from 5 completely different colleges had been represented and chosen in Monday’s draft, as soon as once more proving that very similar to males’s faculty basketball, the SEC is the dominant convention in girls’s faculty basketball.
