2020 WNBA draft

Last updated
2020 WNBA Draft
2020 WNBA Draft Logo.png
General information
SportBasketball
Date(s)April 17, 2020
LocationVirtually
Network(s)USA: ESPN
Canada: TSN2/SN1
Overview
LeagueWNBA
Teams12
First selection Sabrina Ionescu
New York Liberty
  2019
2021  

The 2020 WNBA draft was the league's draft for the 2020 WNBA season. A draft lottery was held on September 17, 2019 and the New York Liberty were awarded the first overall pick in the draft. [1] [2] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the draft was held virtually without players, guests, and the media on-site. The draft was televised as planned; [3] it was the most-watched WNBA draft in 16 years and the second most-watched in ESPN's history. [4]

Contents

Draft lottery

The lottery selection to determine the order of the top four picks in the 2020 draft took place during halftime of the Connecticut Sun's semifinal game against the Los Angeles Sparks on September 17, 2019 and was televised on ESPN2. Four non-playoff teams qualified for the lottery drawing: Indiana Fever, Dallas Wings, New York Liberty, and Atlanta Dream. [1]

Lottery chances

TeamCombined 2018–2019 RecordLottery Chances (out of 1,000)
New York Liberty – WON17–51442
Indiana Fever 19–49276
Dallas Wings 25–43178
Atlanta Dream 31–37104

The lottery odds were based on combined records from the 2018 and 2019 WNBA seasons. In the drawing, 14 balls numbered 1–14 are placed in a lottery machine and mixed. Four balls are drawn to determine a four-digit combination (only 11–12–13–14 is ignored & redrawn). The team assigned that four-ball combination receives the No. 1 pick. The four balls are then placed back into the machine and the process is repeated to determine the second pick. The two teams whose numerical combinations do not come up in the lottery will select in the inverse order of their two-year cumulative record. Ernst & Young knows the discreet results before they're announced. [1]

The order of selection for the remainder of the first round as well as the second and third rounds is determined by inverse order of the teams' respective regular-season records solely from 2019. [1]

The lottery was won by the New York Liberty, who had the best chance to win the lottery. The Dallas Wings were awarded the second pick, followed by the Indiana Fever and finally the Atlanta Dream. [2]

Eligibility

Under the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the WNBA and its players union, draft eligibility for players not defined as "international" requires the following to be true: [5]

A player who is scheduled to receive her bachelor's degree within 3 months of the draft date, and is younger than the cutoff age, is only eligible if the calendar year of the draft is no earlier than the fourth after her high school graduation.

Players with remaining college eligibility who meet the cutoff age must notify the WNBA headquarters of their intent to enter the draft no later than 10 days before the draft date, and must renounce any remaining college eligibility to do so. A separate notification timetable is provided for players involved in postseason tournaments (most notably the NCAA Division I tournament); those players must declare for the draft within 24 hours of their final game. The latter timetable proved to be moot due to the coronavirus-induced cancellation of the 2020 NCAA tournament.

"International players" are defined as those for whom all of the following is true:

For "international players", the eligibility age is 20, also measured on December 31 of the year of the draft.

Three players with remaining college eligibility, all of whom were juniors in the 2019–20 college season, declared for the draft. All three were drafted in the first round:

Draft

*Denotes player who has been selected for at least one All-Star Game and All-WNBA Team
+Denotes player who has been selected for at least one All-Star Game
BoldDenotes player who won Rookie of the Year

Honorary picks

The WNBA honored Alyssa Altobelli, Payton Chester, and Gianna Bryant, daughter of Hall of Fame basketball player Kobe Bryant, who all died in the 2020 Calabasas helicopter crash, with honorary draft picks. [9]

First round

PickPlayerPositionNationalityTeamSchool / club team
1 Sabrina Ionescu *GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States New York Liberty Oregon
2 Satou Sabally *FFlag of Germany.svg  Germany Dallas Wings Oregon
3 Lauren Cox F/CFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Indiana Fever Baylor
4 Chennedy Carter GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Atlanta Dream Texas A&M
5 Bella Alarie FFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Dallas Wings (from Phoenix) [lower-alpha 1] Princeton
6 Mikiah Herbert Harrigan FFlag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom Minnesota Lynx South Carolina
7 Tyasha Harris GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Dallas Wings (from Seattle via Connecticut and Phoenix) [lower-alpha 1] [lower-alpha 2] [lower-alpha 3] South Carolina
8 Ruthy Hebard FFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Chicago Sky Oregon
9 Megan Walker FFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States New York Liberty (from Las Vegas via Dallas) [lower-alpha 4] [lower-alpha 5] UConn
10 Jocelyn Willoughby F/GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Phoenix Mercury (from Los Angeles via Connecticut) [lower-alpha 3] [lower-alpha 6] Virginia
11 Kitija Laksa FFlag of Latvia.svg  Latvia Seattle Storm (from Connecticut) [lower-alpha 2] South Florida/TTT Riga (Latvia)
12 Jazmine Jones GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States New York Liberty (from Washington) [lower-alpha 5] Louisville

Second round

PickPlayerPositionNationalityTeamSchool / club team
13 Kylee Shook FFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States New York Liberty (from Atlanta) [lower-alpha 7] Louisville
14 Kathleen Doyle GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Indiana Fever (from New York via Minnesota) [lower-alpha 8] [lower-alpha 9] Iowa
15 Leaonna Odom FFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States New York Liberty (from Dallas) [lower-alpha 5] Duke
16 Crystal Dangerfield GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Minnesota Lynx (from Indiana) [lower-alpha 9] UConn
17 Brittany Brewer FFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Atlanta Dream (from Phoenix) [lower-alpha 10] Texas Tech
18 Te'a Cooper GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Phoenix Mercury (from Minnesota) [lower-alpha 11] Baylor
19 Joyner Holmes FFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Seattle Storm Texas
20 Beatrice Mompremier FFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Los Angeles Sparks (from Chicago) [lower-alpha 12] Miami (FL)
21 Luisa Geiselsöder CFlag of Germany.svg  Germany Dallas Wings (from Las Vegas) [lower-alpha 4] Donau-Ries (Germany)
22 Leonie Fiebich FFlag of Germany.svg  Germany Los Angeles Sparks Wasserburg (Germany)
23 Kaila Charles GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Connecticut Sun Maryland
24 Jaylyn Agnew FFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Washington Mystics Creighton

Third round

PickPlayerPositionNationalityTeamSchool / club team
25 Mikayla Pivec GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Atlanta Dream Oregon State
26 Erica Ogwumike GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States New York Liberty Rice
27 Kobi Thornton FFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Atlanta Dream (from Dallas) [lower-alpha 13] Clemson
28 Kamiah Smalls GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Indiana Fever James Madison
29 Stella Johnson GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Phoenix Mercury Rider
30 Japreece Dean GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Chicago Sky (from Minnesota) [lower-alpha 14] UCLA
31 Haley Gorecki GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Seattle Storm Duke
32 Kiah Gillespie FFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Chicago Sky Florida State
33 Lauren Manis FFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Las Vegas Aces Holy Cross
34 Tynice Martin GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Los Angeles Sparks West Virginia
35 Juicy Landrum GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Connecticut Sun Baylor
36 Sug Sutton GFlag of the United States (23px).png  United States Washington Mystics Texas

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 February 12, 2020: Phoenix to Dallas [10]
    • Dallas acquired the fifth and seventh picks and a future first-round pick
    • Phoenix acquired Skylar Diggins-Smith
  2. 1 2 February 10, 2020: Connecticut to Seattle [11]
    • Connecticut acquired the seventh pick
    • Seattle acquired the 11th pick and Morgan Tuck
  3. 1 2 February 11, 2020: Connecticut to Phoenix [12]
    • Phoenix acquired the seventh and tenth picks and a 2021 first-round pick
    • Connecticut acquired DeWanna Bonner
  4. 1 2 May 16, 2019: Las Vegas to Dallas [13]
  5. 1 2 3 April 15, 2020: Three-team trade [14]
    • New York acquired the 12th pick; Shatori Walker-Kimbrough; and 2021 first, second, and third-round picks from Washington; Las Vegas's first-round pick (ninth overall), the 15th pick, and Tayler Hill from Dallas
    • Washington acquired Tina Charles from New York
    • Dallas acquired Washington's 2021 first-round pick and a 2021 second-round pick from New York
  6. April 27, 2019: Los Angeles to Connecticut [15]
  7. April 11, 2019: Atlanta to New York (three-team trade with Las Vegas) [16]
    • New York acquired the 13th pick from Atlanta
    • Atlanta acquired Nia Coffey from Las Vegas
    • Las Vegas acquired Sugar Rodgers from New York
  8. April 11, 2019: New York to Minnesota [17]
  9. 1 2 March 6, 2020: Minnesota to Indiana [18]
    • Indiana acquired the 14th pick and a 2021 second-round pick
    • Minnesota acquired Shenise Johnson and the 16th pick
  10. February 19, 2020: Phoenix to Atlanta (three-team trade with Connecticut) [19]
  11. May 21, 2019: Minnesota to Phoenix [20]
  12. May 20, 2019: Chicago to Los Angeles [21]
  13. May 16, 2019: Dallas to Atlanta [22]
  14. May 21, 2019: Minnesota to Chicago [23]

See also

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References

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