Fansided

Winners and losers from the 2023 WNBA Draft

By Justin Carter

Apr 10, 2023; New York, NY, USA; Aliyah Boston poses for a photo before the WNBA Draft 2023 at Spring Studio. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 10, 2023; New York, NY, USA; Aliyah Boston poses for a photo before the WNBA Draft 2023 at Spring Studio. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 2
Next
Oklahoma Sooners guard Taylor Robertson (30) makes a 3-pointer from behind Oklahoma State Cowgirls guard Naomie Alnatas (3) during a women’s Bedlam basketball game between the Oklahoma State Cowgirls (OSU) and the Oklahoma Sooners (OU) at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, March 4, 2023. Oklahoma won 80-71.Women S Bedlam Basketball
Oklahoma Sooners guard Taylor Robertson (30) makes a 3-pointer from behind Oklahoma State Cowgirls guard Naomie Alnatas (3) during a women’s Bedlam basketball game between the Oklahoma State Cowgirls (OSU) and the Oklahoma Sooners (OU) at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Okla., Saturday, March 4, 2023. Oklahoma won 80-71.Women S Bedlam Basketball /

WNBA Draft Losers

New York Liberty & Las Vegas Aces Fans

The Liberty and Aces are the WNBA’s two best teams, and part of their roster building has involved trading away draft picks. That made Monday night really boring for fans of the two teams.

In the first round, neither team made a pick.

In the second round, neither team made a pick.

In the third round, the teams finally got on the board, with New York taking USC guard Okako Adika 30th overall and Vegas taking Alabama’s Brittany Davis 36th overall.

Now, I like Davis a lot, though I’m not sure the Aces have room for her, and they’re unlikely to make moves to open a spot for a third-rounder. So, ultimately this goes down as a pretty boring night for fans of the W’s top two contenders.

The End of the Dallas Wings Roster

The Dallas Wings already were in a roster crunch. Then Monday night happened.

The Wings took Maddy Siegrist third overall, which … good pick. They needed another scorer to play with Arike Ogunbowale, and they got a scorer. I think Siegrist, the leading scorer in Division I this year at 29.2 points per game, can thrive in a lower-usage role.

At five, the Wings reached a bit for Lou Lopez Senechal, but she’s a good player who gives Dallas some needed three-point shooting — she shot 44 percent from deep on 4.7 attempts per game.

But at the same moment commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced the Senechal pick, she also announced Dallas had traded a future first- and a second-round pick to Washington for Stephanie Soares’ draft rights. Soares won’t play this year because of a torn ACL, so that’s definitely a stash for the future. Which … I predicted on Twitter that Soares would end up in Dallas because they needed a stash pick to help their roster situation. The problem is they traded for her and gave up a future first, so she doesn’t really help the immediate issue of the team having too many players.

It kept going after that. With the 11th pick, the team took Abby Meyers from Maryland. At No. 19, they took Iowa State’s Ashley Joens, a really good scorer who dropped lower than expected, and now faces an uphill battle to make the team. They also added Illinois State’s Paige Robinson in the third.

The Wings just simply don’t have room for all these players, though. If we assume Siegrist and Senechal are on the team, just two of the following players should make the roster: Charli Collier, Kalani Brown, Kitija Laksa, Jasmine Dickey, Abby Meyers, Ashley Joens, Paige Robinson. It’s not a good time to be at the end of the Wings rotation.

Taylor Robertson

Look, I didn’t think Robertson was a first-rounder or anything like that, but the Sooner sharpshooter ended up going undrafted, which really highlights an issue with a 12-team league. Robertson finished her career at Oklahoma as the all-time Division I leader in made 3s, but because she’s a fairly one-dimensional player, she didn’t wind up on a WNBA team Monday night.

And that’s something this league is really missing out on by only having 12 teams: having room for one-dimensional players. A men’s player who shoots as well as Robertson would have a place in the NBA, but because there are just not enough roster spots, role players like Robertson fall out.

2023 WNBA Draft tracker. Every first-round pick. light

Check out our WNBA hub page for more news, analysis, opinion and unique women’s basketball coverage. And don’t forget to follow FOR(E) on Twitter, FanSided’s home for women’s sports.

Home/WNBA