As the NBA season starts its playoffs and slowly comes to a close, the WNBA is starting back up. On Monday April 14, 2025 the WNBA draft was held in New York City. Many unexpected and exciting things happened during the draft.
The first exciting thing that happened was already at the No. 1 pick. Paige Buekers, a 5th year senior at the University of Connecticut (UConn), got drafted to the Dallas Wings. Buekers had all her teammates cheering her on as she heard her name get announced by the commissioner of the WNBA, Cathy Engelbert. After this pick the Seattle Storm were on the clock to make their pick.
The Seattle Storm selected the first international player of the night from France: Dominique Malonga. She is a 6’6 center that can move easily across the court and not only score but also create chances for her teammates. An example of this is in one of her games against Gorzow she created a beautiful sequence that assisted her teammate Justine Mouyokolo. A perfect pick for the Storm that I think will mesh very well and contribute to a lot of success for the team in the future.
10 picks later, we saw Haliey Van Lith get drafted at number 11 to the Chicago Sky. This was a very nice pick for not only the Sky but also for Van Lith because her former teammate, Angel Reese, also plays there. These two know each other from their time spent at Louisiana State University (LSU). They won the 2023 NCAA National Championship together and now they will be reunited in Chicago hoping to bring home another championship together.
Moving on to Round 2 of the draft, the first pick was Aaliyah Nye who went to the Las Vegas Aces. She attended Alabama and Illinois during her college career and made herself known as a great shooter. Last season she shot 64.0% from the field. This choice was another perfect fit as the Aces were looking for a replacement for a recently traded player. Another notable pick in this round was the 6th pick where Te-Hina Paopao was drafted to the Atlanta Dream. She played at South Carolina and won the 2024 NCAA National Championship. She was a key part of their success and will be another key asset for the dream.
Finally we reach the 3rd and final round of the draft. In this round many wholesome things happened. The fifth pick of this round went to the newest team in the WNBA, the Golden State Valkyries. They selected Kaitlyn Chen from UConn. This was a very nice pick because she was in the crowd supporting Paige Buekers when she got drafted herself. Buekers actually also advocated for her to get drafted after she did.
A little later in this round another instance like this happened where Aubery Griffin got drafted as the 11th pick to the Minnesota Lynx. This was another one of Paige Buekers’ teammates at UConn who was in the crowd supporting her. Of Course earlier this night Buekers also advocated for Griffin to get drafted.
Overall this draft was full of surprises and exciting moments. All players are ready to get to work and get started on May 16th (the first game of the season). I am very excited to see what this new draft class will look like on the court!
