2024 WNBA draft explained

The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)'s draft for the 2024 season, following the 2023–24 NCAA Division I women's basketball season, was held on April 15, 2024, the 29th draft in WNBA history. The draft took place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, New York, and allowed fans to be in attendance for the first time since the 2016 WNBA Draft. It was exclusively televised on ESPN in the United States and on TSN1/3/4 in Canada at 7:30 p.m. EDT.^[1]

Draft lottery

The lottery selection to determine the order of the top four picks in the 2024 draft took place on December 10, 2023, and was televised on ESPN in the United States and on TSN5 in Canada. The four non-playoff teams in 2023 qualified for the lottery drawing: Indiana Fever, Phoenix Mercury, Los Angeles Sparks, and the Seattle Storm. The Fever won the lottery for the second time in franchise history and were awarded the top pick in the draft. The rest of the order went as follows: Sparks, Mercury, Storm.^[2]

Lottery chances

Note: Team selected for No.1 pick noted in bold text

Team	Combined 2022–2023 record	Lottery chances
Indiana Fever	18–58	44.2%
Phoenix Mercury	24–52	27.6%
Los Angeles Sparks	30–46	17.8%
Seattle Storm	33–43	10.4%

The lottery odds were based on combined records from the 2022 and 2023 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 and redrawn). The team to which that four-ball combination is assigned 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 are announced.^[3] The order of selection for the remainder of the first round as well as the second and third rounds was determined by inverse order of the teams' respective regular-season records solely from 2023.

Eligibility

Under the 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:^[4]

• The player's 22nd birthday falls during the calendar year of the draft. For this draft, the cutoff birth date is December 31, 2002.
• She has either:
  • completed her college eligibility;
  • received a bachelor's degree, or is scheduled to receive such in the three months following the draft; or
  • is at least four years removed from high school graduation.

A player who is scheduled to receive her bachelor's degree within three 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 (normally) must declare for the draft within 24 hours of their final game.

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

• Born and currently residing outside the U.S.
• Never "exercised intercollegiate basketball eligibility" in the U.S.

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

Draft invitees

On April 11, 2024, the WNBA released the names of the players who would be invited to be in attendance at the draft.^[5]

• Cameron Brink, Stanford
• Kamilla Cardoso, South Carolina
• Caitlin Clark, Iowa
• Marquesha Davis, Ole Miss
• Aaliyah Edwards, UConn
• Dyaisha Fair, Syracuse
• Rickea Jackson, Tennessee
• Elizabeth Kitley, Virginia Tech
• Nika Mühl, UConn
• Charisma Osborne, UCLA
• Alissa Pili, Utah
• Nyadiew Puoch, Southside Flyers (Australia)
• Angel Reese, LSU
• Jacy Sheldon, Ohio State
• Celeste Taylor, Ohio State

Draft

First round

width=30	Pick	width=333	Player	width=200	Nationality	width=383	Team	width=333	School / club team
1	Caitlin Clark		Indiana Fever	Iowa
2	Cameron Brink		Los Angeles Sparks	Stanford
3	Kamilla Cardoso			South Carolina
4	Rickea Jackson			Tennessee
5	Jacy Sheldon			Ohio State
6	Aaliyah Edwards		Washington Mystics	UConn
7	Angel Reese+			LSU
8	Alissa Pili			Utah
9	Carla Leite		Dallas Wings
10	Leïla Lacan		Connecticut Sun	Angers
11	Marquesha Davis		New York Liberty	Ole Miss
12	Nyadiew Puoch

Second round

width=30	Pick	width=333	Player	width=200	Nationality	width=383	Team	width=333	School / club team
13	Brynna Maxwell			Gonzaga
14	Nika Mühl		Seattle Storm	UConn
15	Celeste Taylor		Indiana Fever	Ohio State
16	Dyaisha Fair			Syracuse
17	Esmery Martínez			Arizona
18	Kate Martin			Iowa
19	Taiyanna Jackson			Kansas
20	Isobel Borlase		Atlanta Dream
21	Kaylynne Truong			Gonzaga
22	Helena Pueyo		Connecticut Sun	Arizona
23	Jessika Carter		New York Liberty	Mississippi State
24	Elizabeth Kitley		Las Vegas Aces	Virginia Tech

Third round

width=30	Pick	width=333	Player	width=200	Nationality	width=383	Team	width=333	School / club team
25	Charisma Osborne		Phoenix Mercury	UCLA
26	Mackenzie Holmes		Seattle Storm	Indiana
27	Leilani Correa		Indiana Fever	Florida
28	McKenzie Forbes		Los Angeles Sparks	USC
29	Jaz Shelley			Nebraska
30	Nastja Claessens		Washington Mystics	Castors Braine
31	Kiki Jefferson		Minnesota Lynx	Louisville
32	Matilde Villa		Atlanta Dream
33	Ashley Owusu		Dallas Wings	Penn State
34	Abbey Hsu		Connecticut Sun	Columbia
35	Kaitlyn Davis		New York Liberty	USC
36	Angel Jackson		Las Vegas Aces	Jackson State

Notes and References

1. Web site: WNBA Draft 2024 Presented by State Farm to be Held on April 15 at The Brooklyn Academy of Music . wnba.com . WNBA . 3 March 2024.
2. Web site: Negley . Cassandra . 2024 WNBA Draft: Fever land No. 1 selection in lottery with Caitlin Clark the presumptive top pick . Yahoo Sports . en-CA . December 10, 2023.
3. Web site: Dozier . Emily . WNBA Draft Lottery, explained: Updated odds for every team to win the No. 1 overall pick in 2024 . The Sporting News . December 10, 2023.
4. Web site: Article XIII, Section 1: Player Eligibility . 2020 Women's National Basketball Association Collective Bargaining Agreement . 110–111 . Women's National Basketball Players Association . December 14, 2020.
5. Iowa's Caitlin Clark, Stanford's Cameron Brink, South Carolina's Kamilla Cardoso, Tennessee's Rickea Jackson, and LSU's Angel Reese Headline Prospects to Attend WNBA Draft 2024 Presented by State Farm . WNBA . April 11, 2024 . April 13, 2024.

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