The WNBA is enjoying a new era of young stars taking over, and the 2026 draft order will officially take shape on Sunday.
The league held its draft lottery to determine the top of the order, with five teams in the running for the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft, which will be held on April 13.
Let’s take a look at the breakdown of the WNBA draft lottery and some of the top prospects in next year’s class of future stars.
The Dallas Wings had the best odds to win the WNBA draft lottery at 42 percent, followed by the Minnesota Lynx (26.1 percent), who own the Chicago Sky’s first-round pick. The lottery was rounded out by the Seattle Storm (16.7 percent), who own the Los Angeles Sparks’ first-round pick, the Washington Mystics (9.7 percent) and the Sky (5.5 percent), the latter of whom acquired the right to swap first-round picks with the Connecticut Sun.
The sixth and seventh picks belonged to the league’s newest expansion teams, the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, respectively, while the rest of the order was determined by the inverse of teams’ final 2025 regular-season records.
UCLA senior center Lauren Betts entered the year as the presumptive No. 1 pick, and while she hasn’t been as dominant as her 2024-25 All-American season, she’s still expected to hear her name called early on draft night.
Through five games this year, Betts has averaged 15.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 2.2 blocks. She showed her full potential last season when she averaged 20.2 points, 9.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 2.2 blocks on her way to being named Naismith Defensive Player of the Year.
There’s a chance that Betts will face some competition to be the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft. The agent for fellow center Awa Fam, who plays for Valencia in Spain, told ESPN’s Michael Voepel that competing in the WNBA is her “top priority” for 2026. The 20-year-old has shown immense potential at the international level and could be the prize of next year’s draft class.
TCU point guard Olivia Miles, who transferred from Notre Dame for her final collegiate season, has averaged 17.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 7.6 assists to lead the Horned Frogs to a 5-0 start. She appears to be the top backcourt option, along shooting guards Azzi Fudd of UConn and Flau’jae Johnson of LSU.
Fudd has upped her game in her senior year, increasing her scoring average from 13.6 points to 20.4 points while shooting 50.0 percent from three-point range. She dropped 31 points with seven triples to lead the No. 1 Huskies over No. 6 Michigan on Friday.
Johnson has also showed new dimensions to her game in her final college season. The two-way star has averaged 17.3 points and 1.5 steals while shooting 57.1 percent from beyond the arc.
For now, it appears that the battle for No. 1 could come down to Betts or Fam, but there’s still a lot of time left for players to make a case to be the top pick in the 2026 WNBA draft.
