WNBA Draft 2026 winners and losers, including Storm, Sky, Tempo, and Valkyries

The 2026 WNBA Draft had uncertainty at the top until the last moment. The Dallas Wings could have gone in a number of different directions with the first overall pick, but eventually the team settled on reuniting former UConn teammates Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd in the backcourt. Dallas’ Fudd pick at No. 1 set the course for the rest of the draft, which included several big surprises throughout the first round.

Find a full recap of every pick made during the 2026 WNBA Draft here. Now let’s dive into some winners and losers from the evening.

Yes, you need a couple years at minimum before you can truly judge a team’s performance in the draft. So why do this exercise? It’s a fun way to see what we were thinking in the immediate aftermath of the draft. Teams get things wrong all the time, and writers do, too. Feel free to check back in the future to see what we got right, and where we missed.

Awa Fam was the best prospect in the class, and I thought she should have been the Wings’ choice at No. 1 overall over Fudd. Seattle got her with the No. 3 pick, which is just great business. The Storm weren’t done: they also swung a shocking trade for former LSU star Flau’Jae Johnson. Seattle landed the two best athletes in the draft, and it gives them arguably the league’s best young core moving forward.

Fam, a 6’4 big out of Spain, is everything the league wants out of a modern front court player with a tremendous combination of length and mobility. She should thrive as a pick-and-roll target offensively, and have coverage versatility defensively. Fam joins Seattle’s first round pick last year, French big Dominique Malonga, for the league’s scariest young front court. Malonga is blessed with world class length (7’1 wingspan) and athleticism, and already proved to be a productive player in the W at only 20 years old last season. Fam and Malonga is just an unfair combination if both hit their ceiling. Adding Johnson to the wing — where she can lock down defensively, thrive in transition, and hit some open threes — makes the whole package even more enticing.

The Storm will need a couple years before the two young bigs really hit their stride, but the upside here is terrifying.

It’s not that Gabriela Jaquez is a bad player. She was one of my favorite role players in this class for her high-motor, Swiss army knife skill set on the wing. It’s just that Jaquez felt more like a late first-rounder than a top-5 pick, and Chicago left better players on the board by choosing her at No. 5 overall.

It felt like the Sky drafted for fit instead of upside. That’s a strange move for a team that has gone 23-61 combined over the last two years. GM Jeff Pagliocca has a reputation for making short-sighted decisions that mortgage the team’s future to try to save his job, and he did it again. The Sky signed Skylar Diggins in free agency, traded for Jacy Sheldon, and also have Courtney Vandersloot, so maybe that’s why they passed on lead guard Kiki Rice at No. 5 overall. Well, Diggins is 35 years old, Vandersloot is 37, and the Sky just aren’t good enough to be passing up the long-term upside of Rice for a player who fits the current lineup better right now in Jaquez.

My main issue with Jaquez is that she operated at such low usage at UCLA with only an 18 percent usage rate. Drafting low usage college players is always a risky move even if teams project them for similar roles in the pros. It’s always easier to scale down than it is to scale up. Jaquez also had nearly as many turnovers (70) as assists (78) this season with the Bruins. Her outside shooting development was encouraging, but she doesn’t have nearly the same track record as a shooter as someone like Sonia Citron, who Pagliocca foolishly traded the draft rights to last season.

Jaquez will probably be a solid role player, but the Sky needed to be shooting for something more than that without a true franchise player on the roster. I think they will regret passing on Rice.

The Bruins won the national championship in women’s college basketball, then watched six players get chosen in the top-18 picks of this draft, including four of the first nine picks. That’s a hell of a recruiting pitch going forward. Head coach Cori Close is building a power program out in Los Angeles.

Want to get the steal of the draft? All you have to do is pick behind the Chicago Sky. Kiki Rice slipping to No. 6 is almost unfathomable. The former No. 1 overall recruit took a few years to develop her outside shot, but this season she looked like the player she was promised to be out of high school. Rice is more of a combo guard than a pure point, but she still combines a fantastic first step with advanced driving ability and an understand of how to get to the cup and finish. Her shooting touch is developing nicely: she made 90 percent of her free throws, and 38.5 percent of her threes this season — a big improvement from the 21 percent three-point stroke she showed as a freshman.

While the other expansion team, the Portland Fire, is very much playing the long game in their first season, Toronto could be pretty good right away. Marina Mabrey was a nice pick in the expansion draft who will be a good starter from day one, and signing Brittney Sykes in free agency was an inspired move. Isabelle Harrison and Nyara Sabally is a solid veteran front court. Rice feels like she could be one of the three best players to come out of this draft five years from now, giving Toronto a future face of the franchise if they can continue to develop her.

Winner: The Mystics drafting Lauren Betts

There’s been some criticism about Washington’s other picks in the 2026 draft, but it really doesn’t matter if Betts if as good as I think she can be. The 6’7 center was absolutely dominant in the post on UCLA’s national championship run, and she has a multi-year history of being an on/off monster. I know that everyone wants more mobile bigs with floor spacing potential these days, but there’s still no substitute for a physically dominant big inside with soft touch. Betts and Sonia Citron is going to be a killer combination. Yes, the Mystics need to add a lot more shooting. Yes, it’s weird that they didn’t try to get shooting with any of their other picks. I just think Betts is a home run at No. 4 overall, and Washington will have a long runway to surround her with better-fitting pieces.

Loser: Golden State Valkyries

I just don’t understand the value behind the Flae’Jae Johnson trade. Golden State said that the trade was completed before the draft, which is fine, but it still strikes me as bad value even without factoring in that Johnson was available. I’d rather have the No. 8 overall pick than two second rounders in the WNBA Draft. Historically the talent in these drafts tends to thin out after the early second round, and adding three expansion teams in the last two years will only take away from more late round value. I was excited about Flae’Jae Johnson on the Valkyries after their awesome debut season last year. It just wasn’t meant to be.

The Minnesota Lynx had the best record in the WNBA last year at 34-10, but their dream season fell apart in the playoffs against the Phoenix Mercury when Napheesa Collier went down with an ankle injury. The Lynx received the No. 2 overall pick thanks to a pick swap with the Sky from the original Angel Reese trade, and they used it to add an elite point guard prospect in Miles. The 5’10 ball handler left Notre Dame for TCU for her senior season, and put up fantastic overall numbers with a 36.4 percent assist rate, excellent rim finishing, and a 35 percent three-point stroke. Miles is so quick off the dribble, and she made 62 percent of her shots at the rim with only 17 percent of them being assisted. She’s also really good at getting into the passing lanes defensively.

It’s not often an elite team adds a great prospect with a top pick, but the Lynx pulled it off. This continues to be one of the best run franchises in the W.