The Lynx and the rest of the WNBA reloads Monday night with the league's annual college draft.
Only twice have the Lynx had the top overall pick. They used those selections on eventual Hall of Famers Maya Moore and Seimone Augustus.
Monday night, they have the second overall pick behind Dallas, and there is plenty of talent out there for the Lynx to come up with a quality player.
Sloane Martin is a play-by-play announcer for Big Ten Network, the WNBA and the voice of the Lynx. She says there are a lot of options for the team. "That is a huge position to be in, especially for a draft that looks to be quite strong," Martin says. "Certainly top-heavy, but also quite deep potentially as well too."
Martin adds it's hard to know what direction the Lynx will go, because there are such differences between those top prospects.
"With drafts, there's always a quintessential question about, do you draft talent versus need, size, skill? There's so many different facets that the lynx could be looking at tonight," Martin adds.
Those names include Lauren Betts, who led UCLA to the national championship, the newest UConn superstar Azzi Fudd, Olivia Miles from TCU, and international standout Awa Fahm of Spain. The consensus is those four names are the first four chosen, but the order is a complete unknown. Betts, Fudd and Miles come in after stellar college careers while Fahm has been played professionally overseas and is seen as more of a project, with a big upside.
Last year's number one overall pick came from Minnesota, via UConn with Hopkins native Paige Bueckers going to Dallas. Whoever Dallas chooses at No. 1 will see a huge salary bump her first year thanks to the new collective bargaining agreement that was ratified last month. That’s nearly seven-times what last season’s No. 1 pick Bueckers made. The No. 2 and No. 3 picks will get $466,913 and $436,016, respectively.
Second- and third-round picks will make $270,000 — which is more than the previous maximum salary in the old CBA.
The Wings could take guard Azzi Fudd from UConn, Spanish forward Awa Fam Thiam or UCLA center Lauren Betts on Monday night to complement a talented roster led by Bueckers.
Bueckers and Fudd were teammates at UConn and helped the Huskies win the national championship in 2025. Fam Thiem, who is 19, is a talented Spanish player currently playing in her country’s domestic league.
It's a very important pick for the Lynx considering they lost a good amount of talent in what was a wild start to the free agency period in the WNBA, a turnover of the roster that casts some doubt on what was one of the league's most dominant teams the last two years.
A massive amount of players were on expiring contracts with the new CBA negotiations taking place, leading to unrestricted free agent negotiations across the league.
Gone are starters Bridget Carlton, Alanna Smith who was co-defensive player of the year, backup center Jessica Shepard, bench sparkplug Natisha Hiedeman, and DiJonai Carrington, who the Lynx traded for midseason.
The Lynx used their one core designation on Napheesa Collier, giving them exclusive negotiation rights with their star player, although that contract is not done yet. They did re-sign starting guards Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride, plus added veteran forwards Natasha Howard and Nia Coffey, also a Hopkins native, and daughter of former Gopher Richard Coffey (and sister of Amir).
That's a turnover of half the roster, which makes this draft choice all the more important this year.
