Contents

2023 WNBA draft

Basketball player selection

2023 WNBA Draft
General information
Sport	Basketball
Date(s)	April 10, 2023
Location	Spring Studios New York Manhattan, New York City
Network(s)	United States: ESPN Canada: TSN3/5
Overview
League	WNBA
Teams	12
First selection	Aliyah Boston, Indiana Fever
← 2022 2024 →

The 2023 WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) Draft, the WNBA's draft for the 2023 WNBA season and 28th draft in WNBA history, was held following the 2022–23 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The 2023 draft took place at Spring Studios New York on April 10, 2023. It was exclusively televised on ESPN in the United States and on TSN3/5 in Canada at 7:00 p.m. EDT.^[1]

Draft lottery[edit]

The lottery selection to determine the order of the top four picks in the 2023 draft took place on November 11, 2022, and was televised on ESPN leading into ESPN's women's college basketball game that evening featuring defending National Champion South Carolina at Maryland.^[2] The four non-playoff teams in 2022 qualified from the lottery drawing: Indiana Fever, Atlanta Dream, Los Angeles Sparks, and the Minnesota Lynx. The Sparks made a trade in February 2022 that allowed their pick to ultimately end up with the Washington Mystics at the time of the drawing. Each team had a representative at the lottery drawing - Kelsey Mitchell for the Fever, Head Coach Tanisha Wright for the Dream, Natasha Cloud for the Mystics, and Napheesa Collier for the Lynx. The Fever won the lottery for the first time in franchise history and were awarded the top pick in the draft. The rest of the order went as the following: Lynx, Dream, and Mystics.^[3]

Lottery chances[edit]

The lottery odds were based on combined records from the 2021 and 2022 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.^[4]

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 2022.

Eligibility[edit]

Under the current 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:^[5]

• The player's 22nd birthday falls during the calendar year of the draft. For this draft, the cutoff birth date is December 31, 2001.
• She has either:
  • completed her college eligibility;
  • received a bachelor's degree, or is scheduled to receive such in the 3 months following the draft; or
  • is at least 4 years removed from high school graduation.

A player who is scheduled to receive her bachelor's degree within 3 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[edit]

On April 7, 2023, the WNBA released the names of the players who would be invited to be in attendance at the draft.^[6]

• Laeticia Amihere, South Carolina
• Brea Beal, South Carolina
• Grace Berger, Indiana
• Aliyah Boston, South Carolina
• Zia Cooke, South Carolina
• Jordan Horston, Tennessee
• Ashley Joens, Iowa State
• Haley Jones, Stanford
• Dorka Juhász, UConn
• Lou Lopez Sénéchal, UConn
• Taylor Mikesell, Ohio State
• Diamond Miller, Maryland
• Alexis Morris, LSU
• Maddy Siegrist, Villanova
• Stephanie Soares, Iowa State

Key[edit]

Draft[edit]

First round[edit]

Pick	Player	Nationality	Team	School / club team
1	Aliyah Boston+	United States	Indiana Fever	South Carolina
2	Diamond Miller	United States	Minnesota Lynx	Maryland
3	Maddy Siegrist	United States	Dallas Wings (from Atlanta)[a]	Villanova
4	Stephanie Soares	Brazil	Washington Mystics (from Los Angeles via Atlanta, traded to Dallas)[b][c][d]	Iowa State
5	Lou Lopez Sénéchal	Mexico	Dallas Wings (from Phoenix via Chicago)[e][f]	UConn
6	Haley Jones	United States	Atlanta Dream (from New York via Connecticut)[g][h]	Stanford
7	Grace Berger	United States	Indiana Fever (from Dallas)[i]	Indiana
8	Laeticia Amihere	Canada	Atlanta Dream (from Washington)[c]	South Carolina
9	Jordan Horston	United States	Seattle Storm	Tennessee
10	Zia Cooke	United States	Los Angeles Sparks (from Connecticut)[j]	South Carolina
11	Abby Meyers	United States	Dallas Wings (from Chicago via Indiana)[i][e]	Maryland
12	Maïa Hirsch	France	Minnesota Lynx (from Las Vegas)[k]	ESB Villeneuve-d'Ascq

Second round[edit]

Pick	Player	Nationality	Team	School / club team
13	Taylor Mikesell	United States	Indiana Fever	Ohio State
14	Shaneice Swain	Australia	Los Angeles Sparks	Cairns Dolphins
15	Leigha Brown	United States	Atlanta Dream	Michigan
16	Dorka Juhász	Hungary	Minnesota Lynx	UConn
17	LaDazhia Williams	United States	Indiana Fever (from Phoenix)[e]	LSU
18	Madi Williams	United States	Seattle Storm (from New York)[l]	Oklahoma
19	Ashley Joens	United States	Dallas Wings	Iowa State
20	Elena Tsineke	Greece	Washington Mystics	South Florida
21	Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu	Cameroon	Seattle Storm	South Florida
22	Alexis Morris	United States	Connecticut Sun	LSU
23	Kayana Traylor	United States	Chicago Sky	Virginia Tech
24	Brea Beal	United States	Minnesota Lynx (from Las Vegas)[k]	South Carolina

Third round[edit]

Pick	Player	Nationality	Team	School / club team
25	Victaria Saxton	United States	Indiana Fever	South Carolina
26	Monika Czinano	United States	Los Angeles Sparks	Iowa
27	Destiny Harden	United States	Phoenix Mercury (from Atlanta)[m]	Miami
28	Taylor Soule	United States	Minnesota Lynx	Virginia Tech
29	Kadi Sissoko	France	Phoenix Mercury	USC
30	Okako Adika	Denmark	New York Liberty	USC
31	Paige Robinson	United States	Dallas Wings	Illinois State
32	Txell Alarcón	Spain	Washington Mystics	Araski AES
33	Jade Loville	United States	Seattle Storm	Arizona
34	Ashten Prechtel	United States	Connecticut Sun	Stanford
35	Kseniya Malashka	Belarus	Chicago Sky	Middle Tennessee
36	Brittany Davis	United States	Las Vegas Aces	Alabama

Trades[edit]

See also[edit]

• List of first overall WNBA draft picks

References[edit]