WNBA Draft Day 2025

[Green Chile]

Kaitlyn Chen!!!!!!

An uphill battle to make a squad but holy hell it's awesome for her to get a shot

[Sealab2024]

Aubrey Griffin is such a Lynx pick. Teammates love her, no ego, all dirty work and impacts games without needing the ball. Geno said she's not 100% so it wouldn't surprise me if she spends her first year in street clothes as the Lynx #1 cheerleader. But if she can get healthy she can be an invaluable role player in time.

Kosu: the potential pick that will be a draft and stash this year

Daniels: extra length off the bench

Griffin: glue girl. Will fit into whatever role you need if healthy.

Not bad for a team with no #1 pick who also picked up Samuelson. I doubt any of the rookies make a real impact but there's potential there.

[cdubbz]

Valkyries with Kaitlyn Chen! 3 rounds - 3 guards baby. I watched a good amount of UCONN this season so I really liked her game. Hard to see her making the roster unless Valkyries go completely young which is rare.

As a fan I would love to see a team full of young players with a few vets, but would definitely feel bad for vets losing their roster spots.

[hermes]

Aubrey Griffin is such a Lynx pick. Teammates love her, no ego, all dirty work and impacts games without needing the ball. Geno said she's not 100% so it wouldn't surprise me if she spends her first year in street clothes as the Lynx #1 cheerleader. But if she can get healthy she can be an invaluable role player in time.

Kosu: the potential pick that will be a draft and stash this year

Daniels: extra length off the bench

Griffin: glue girl. Will fit into whatever role you need if healthy.

Not bad for a team with no #1 pick who also picked up Samuelson. I doubt any of the rookies make a real impact but there's potential there.

yeah, pretty alright for what we our goals probably were. cheryl reeve probably checked all of her boxes

[UcanUwill]

Joycte at 5 is a bit of a shocker.

Why is that? Legit question as I know nothing about WNBA and their draft. She is our biggest Lithuanian hope, many call her Magic Jocytė, cause she is pretty reminiscent of Luka Doncic, tall point guard that made senior debut at age 16, at her age group she was so much better than everyone else it was laugahble. She was wonderkid, few years back I thought she would be first pick in draft for sure, but sadly, from very young age, she became very injury prone, its hard for me to believe she is 19 still, because shes been around for so long already and it feels like and she already lost years to injuries...

[NoStatsGuy]

I'm so proud of Paige. Ever since I saw a random highlight reel show up in my YouTube feeds almost a decade ago of her cooking girls when she was like 16 I've been a fan of this resilient young woman and she's finally made it.

i remember the first ballislife clips from her... absolutely cooking the opposing team and getting into a yapping battle with their headcoach.

she was the first girl, where i said wow this girl got some game and a certain demeanor, that i havent seen with girls before. i dont think shes as good as clark right now. but im expecting big things from paige.

i also have a soft spot for HVL, i didnt follow tcu or watched many games this year i wonder why she fell to 11. shes a dog and has a huge fanbase, i was sure that would be a factor aswell

[Jstock12]

Happy for Jocyte. She's basically still coming back from that weird injury that has slowed her down significantly. I really think she has a lot of untapped potential. And I expect her to be very impactful offensively from the get go. Defensively it will be an adjustment for sure. But she was picked for her crazy Doncic-like offensive ceiling anyway.

[MrDollarBills]

I'm so proud of Paige. Ever since I saw a random highlight reel show up in my YouTube feeds almost a decade ago of her cooking girls when she was like 16 I've been a fan of this resilient young woman and she's finally made it.

i remember the first ballislife clips from her... absolutely cooking the opposing team and getting into a yapping battle with their headcoach.

she was the first girl, where i said wow this girl got some game and a certain demeanor, that i havent seen with girls before. i dont think shes as good as clark right now. but im expecting big things from paige.

i also have a soft spot for HVL, i didnt follow tcu or watched many games this year i wonder why she fell to 11. shes a dog and has a huge fanbase, i was sure that would be a factor aswell

I wish I could find the original clip that I saw but it was one where Paige was running the wing on a break. She cuts to the sideline and catches a pass as her defender comes flying at her. Paige pump faked, watched the girl jump out of bounds and then casually drained a 3. Absolutely filthy.

And yeah I hope HVL makes it. I still would love to know what happened behind the scenes at LSU but I have no doubts Mulkey treated her like crap. She's a tough kid and bounced back in a big way. It's going to be interesting to see what happens in Chicago.

[Sealab2024]

Joycte at 5 is a bit of a shocker.

Why is that? Legit question as I know nothing about WNBA and their draft. She is our biggest Lithuanian hope, many call her Magic Jocytė, cause she is pretty reminiscent of Luka Doncic, tall point guard that made senior debut at age 16, at her age group she was so much better than everyone else it was laugahble. She was wonderkid, few years back I thought she would be first pick in draft for sure, but sadly, from very young age, she became very injury prone, its hard for me to believe she is 19 still, because shes been around for so long already and it feels like and she already lost years to injuries...

It was just higher than most people had her going. Not like a gigantic upset or something. Plus I just didn't see an expansion team going that direction. Nothing personal against her or her talent. Just a bit of a surprise

[UcanUwill]

Joycte at 5 is a bit of a shocker.

Why is that? Legit question as I know nothing about WNBA and their draft. She is our biggest Lithuanian hope, many call her Magic Jocytė, cause she is pretty reminiscent of Luka Doncic, tall point guard that made senior debut at age 16, at her age group she was so much better than everyone else it was laugahble. She was wonderkid, few years back I thought she would be first pick in draft for sure, but sadly, from very young age, she became very injury prone, its hard for me to believe she is 19 still, because shes been around for so long already and it feels like and she already lost years to injuries...

It was just higher than most people had her going. Not like a gigantic upset or something. Plus I just didn't see an expansion team going that direction. Nothing personal against her or her talent. Just a bit of a surprise

I didn't take offense or anything, just asked. I know nothing about WNBA draft prospects, but knowing how talented Justė is, I am actually surprised there were 4 girls drafted even higher. Of course Paige was in the draft, so I imagine she was first, but yeah, as I said, Justė became very very injury prone very early ir her career, so her stock dropped. When she came into the scene when she was 15, she was insane.

[Sealab2024]

Why is that? Legit question as I know nothing about WNBA and their draft. She is our biggest Lithuanian hope, many call her Magic Jocytė, cause she is pretty reminiscent of Luka Doncic, tall point guard that made senior debut at age 16, at her age group she was so much better than everyone else it was laugahble. She was wonderkid, few years back I thought she would be first pick in draft for sure, but sadly, from very young age, she became very injury prone, its hard for me to believe she is 19 still, because shes been around for so long already and it feels like and she already lost years to injuries...

It was just higher than most people had her going. Not like a gigantic upset or something. Plus I just didn't see an expansion team going that direction. Nothing personal against her or her talent. Just a bit of a surprise

I didn't take offense or anything, just asked. I know nothing about WNBA draft prospects, but knowing how talented Justė is, I am actually surprised there were 4 girls drafted even higher. Of course Paige was in the draft, so I imagine she was first, but yeah, as I said, Justė became very very injury prone very early ir her career, so her stock dropped. When she came into the scene when she was 15, she was insane.

It really was personal preference after 3 honestly. I just figured an expansion team would go for someone with more stateside recognition for their first pick, but she's certainly talented enough. Funny story: during the draft I was watching a stream and a couple people were like "she's from Slovenia, I wonder if she's related to Luka". And me being a jerk was like "you idiots realize Slovenia is an actual country and not a city or town right"? Turns out she's from Lukas hometown....

[Jstock12]

It was just higher than most people had her going. Not like a gigantic upset or something. Plus I just didn't see an expansion team going that direction. Nothing personal against her or her talent. Just a bit of a surprise

I didn't take offense or anything, just asked. I know nothing about WNBA draft prospects, but knowing how talented Justė is, I am actually surprised there were 4 girls drafted even higher. Of course Paige was in the draft, so I imagine she was first, but yeah, as I said, Justė became very very injury prone very early ir her career, so her stock dropped. When she came into the scene when she was 15, she was insane.

It really was personal preference after 3 honestly. I just figured an expansion team would go for someone with more stateside recognition for their first pick, but she's certainly talented enough. Funny story: during the draft I was watching a stream and a couple people were like "she's from Slovenia, I wonder if she's related to Luka". And me being a jerk was like "you idiots realize Slovenia is an actual country and not a city or town right"? Turns out she's from Lukas hometown....

Are we still talking about Jocyte? Or Ajsa Sivka?

[Sealab2024]

I didn't take offense or anything, just asked. I know nothing about WNBA draft prospects, but knowing how talented Justė is, I am actually surprised there were 4 girls drafted even higher. Of course Paige was in the draft, so I imagine she was first, but yeah, as I said, Justė became very very injury prone very early ir her career, so her stock dropped. When she came into the scene when she was 15, she was insane.

It really was personal preference after 3 honestly. I just figured an expansion team would go for someone with more stateside recognition for their first pick, but she's certainly talented enough. Funny story: during the draft I was watching a stream and a couple people were like "she's from Slovenia, I wonder if she's related to Luka". And me being a jerk was like "you idiots realize Slovenia is an actual country and not a city or town right"? Turns out she's from Lukas hometown....

Are we still talking about Jocyte? Or Ajsa Sivka?

I might b confused. I was hitting my THC pen pretty hard last night

[MrDollarBills]

I hope Russell gets to style some more players. It's cool to see this kinda thing

[UcanUwill]

It really was personal preference after 3 honestly. I just figured an expansion team would go for someone with more stateside recognition for their first pick, but she's certainly talented enough. Funny story: during the draft I was watching a stream and a couple people were like "she's from Slovenia, I wonder if she's related to Luka". And me being a jerk was like "you idiots realize Slovenia is an actual country and not a city or town right"? Turns out she's from Lukas hometown....

Are we still talking about Jocyte? Or Ajsa Sivka?

I might b confused. I was hitting my THC pen pretty hard last night

Yeah, Jocytė is our fellow Lithuanian. Our womens basketball is at terrible state considering how popular sport is, and that a ton of our women are over 6 feet. Our National team just qualified for Eurobasket after 10 years absence, at one point they were even relegated to B division, so its getting better, and Jocytė is our huge hope, she absolutely dominated youth tournaments and she made senior debut at age 16.

[cupcakesnake]

Why is that? Legit question as I know nothing about WNBA and their draft. She is our biggest Lithuanian hope, many call her Magic Jocytė, cause she is pretty reminiscent of Luka Doncic, tall point guard that made senior debut at age 16, at her age group she was so much better than everyone else it was laugahble. She was wonderkid, few years back I thought she would be first pick in draft for sure, but sadly, from very young age, she became very injury prone, its hard for me to believe she is 19 still, because shes been around for so long already and it feels like and she already lost years to injuries...

It was just higher than most people had her going. Not like a gigantic upset or something. Plus I just didn't see an expansion team going that direction. Nothing personal against her or her talent. Just a bit of a surprise

I didn't take offense or anything, just asked. I know nothing about WNBA draft prospects, but knowing how talented Justė is, I am actually surprised there were 4 girls drafted even higher. Of course Paige was in the draft, so I imagine she was first, but yeah, as I said, Justė became very very injury prone very early ir her career, so her stock dropped. When she came into the scene when she was 15, she was insane.

This should be a good situation for Juste. The Valkyries will be absolutely awful of course, but there's a lot of international players and they have a big need for self-creation and scoring. If she's ready for it, the Valkyries can give her plenty of on-ball reps and run offense with her/for her.

The most likely Valyrie starters are: Tiffany Hayes at guard, Monique Billings and Kayla Thornton at the forward spots, and Temi Fagbenle at center. That means there's a wide open guard spot with no veteran, and Juste is the highest profile prospect.

I worry about her a bit as a young, skinny player. If she becomes their lead ball handler immediately, she's going to see some mean defense. I like this pick for the Valkyries though and hope it's a good partnership.

[cupcakesnake]

I'm at work so got the draft recorded. I haven't seen much of Malonga, what's the scoop on her?

She's 6'6.

She is very skilled. Great instincts on defense and runs the floor like a gazelle. Excellent soft touch.

She dunks and will in game.

Pro experience like Victor/Luka

She is not a center. She is a wing.

Seattle has their franchise player

why didn't she go #1?

There's a bit more boom or bust potential with Malonga. Paige is a super obvious, well known commodity the league has been anticipating for 3 years.

Personally, I think Malonga has a high floor because of the elite foot speed at her size. Even if those mentioned wing skills don't end up translating, we're still talking about a mobile giant with good defensive instincts. She's 19 years old, which is unusually young for a WNBA rookie. Paige is 4 years older. If this was the NBA, the youth would be a good thing, but in the WNBA- with its limited roster spots- you basically need to come in and earn your keep pretty quickly. People aren't stashing projects. We see top picks that are out of the league after getting drafted to veteran heavy teams.

[MrDollarBills]

She's 6'6.

She is very skilled. Great instincts on defense and runs the floor like a gazelle. Excellent soft touch.

She dunks and will in game.

Pro experience like Victor/Luka

She is not a center. She is a wing.

Seattle has their franchise player

why didn't she go #1?

There's a bit more boom or bust potential with Malonga. Paige is a super obvious, well known commodity the league has been anticipating for 3 years.

Personally, I think Malonga has a high floor because of the elite foot speed at her size. Even if those mentioned wing skills don't end up translating, we're still talking about a mobile giant with good defensive instincts. She's 19 years old, which is unusually young for a WNBA rookie. Paige is 4 years older. If this was the NBA, the youth would be a good thing, but in the WNBA- with its limited roster spots- you basically need to come in and earn your keep pretty quickly. People aren't stashing projects. We see top picks that are out of the league after getting drafted to veteran heavy teams.

Bingo

I think Dominique will be a franchise player because you just can't teach a lot of what she does and her ability to cover ground, but Paige is pretty much a sure bet as long as her knees hold up.

You really can't go wrong with either pick imo.

In terms of selling tickets and making money, obviously Paige is the one you go with right now. Long term? Malonga may end up being the better prospect.

[MrDollarBills]

It really was personal preference after 3 honestly. I just figured an expansion team would go for someone with more stateside recognition for their first pick, but she's certainly talented enough. Funny story: during the draft I was watching a stream and a couple people were like "she's from Slovenia, I wonder if she's related to Luka". And me being a jerk was like "you idiots realize Slovenia is an actual country and not a city or town right"? Turns out she's from Lukas hometown....

Are we still talking about Jocyte? Or Ajsa Sivka?

I might b confused. I was hitting my THC pen pretty hard last night

I was lit last night too. Very fun draft and the interviews by Holly Rowe were top notch. She's the best in the business

[MrDollarBills]

Paige, Arike and Dijonai have me ready for the season to start.

Liberty and Wings nation assemble