Top WNBA draft storylines beyond Caitlin Clark going #1

Yahoo Sports women basketball writer Cassandra Negley breaks down some of the key storylines that you should look out for during the 2024 WNBA Draft.

Video Transcript

CASSANDRA NEGLEY: This is Cassandra Negley with Yahoo Sports, giving you a Draft Preview for the 2024 WNBA draft on Monday. Now, this is the draft featuring Caitlin Clark, who is most likely going number one to the Indiana Fever. But there are some interesting storylines beyond that, including other lottery teams that are looking to rebuild on a longer timetable than the Fever are on.

So let's look at Los Angeles. They have the number two and the number four picks. It's the second year under head coach Curt Miller. Nneka Ogwumike left in free agency, leaving a rather blank slate for Curt Miller to build upon as the Sparks try and get back to the postseason. They won the number two pick.

Then they received the number four pick in a trade with the Seattle Storm that maybe, somewhat ironically, opened up that space for the Storm to sign Ogwumike, as well as point guard Skylar Diggins-Smith. If you're looking at players that the Sparks might target, look at the bigs-- potentially Cameron Brink of Stanford, Kamilla Cardoso of that championship South Carolina team.

Chicago is the third team in the lottery. They have picks number three, number eight, and number 13. Chicago is the last team not named Las Vegas Aces to win a championship way back in 2021. But the core from that team is gone. Head coach James Wade left in the middle of last season. One of his final moves as general manager was selling the future for the present.

So the Sky have worked in the offseason to try and get those picks back, which they did. So with those three high picks, Chicago, under first-year head coach Teresa Weatherspoon, is looking to build towards the future and build around those three players, whomever they might be. Rickea Jackson largely seems to be their target at number three. Those are some of the key things you should be looking out for for the WNBA draft.

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