🥳 Layup Lines: Draft winners and losers

Happy Tuesday and welcome back to Layup Lines, your quick recap of what’s going on in the WNBA.

• I mocked the first 10 draft picks in yesterday’s newsletter and got three right. Don’t let me get hot!  

This 634 word newsletter should take a little over 2 minutes to read.

🐻 UCLA dominates the draft

• The Bruins kept their national championship celebration rolling through last night’s WNBA Draft, where the program set a league record with five players drafted in the first round and six overall.

  • Three consecutive UCLA players were drafted with picks 4-6 (Lauren Betts, Washington, Gabriela Jaquez, Chicago, and Kiki Rice, Toronto), and then Angela Dugalic (No. 9, Washington) and Gianna Kneepkens (No. 15, Connecticut) rounded out the first round.

  • These drafts are usually dominated by UConn and South Carolina, so it was very cool to see the UCLA bond last night.

👍 Winners and losers

• Last night had three clear winners:

  • Dallas: Those claiming the Wings took Azzi Fudd just because of her relationship with Paige Bueckers aren’t watching college basketball. Dallas just signed a bunch of defensive bigs and needed a guard who can shoot and defend. Fudd is built for this backcourt…and also, y’all think this is the first couple on the same W team? They’ll figure it out.

  • Seattle: Sure, Awa Fam Thiam, Dominique Malonga and Ezi Magbegor are all similar post players, but if you’re actively rebuilding, the best place to start is with young, uber-talented bigs who have plenty of room to develop. And getting Flau’jae Johnson from Golden State basically for free was the biggest coup of the night.

  • Minnesota: The rest of the roster is in shambles, but Olivia Miles was the best guard in the draft and could be the perfect complement to a healthy Napheesa Collier.

• I hold the opposite opinion for Washington. The Mystics missed the playoffs last year largely because they couldn’t shoot and already employ two promising young bigs in Shakira Austin and Kiki Iriafen. So why did Washington need to use three first-round picks to take another center (Betts) and two power forwards who both can’t really shoot from outside (Angela Dugalic, Cotie Mcmahon)?

  • I also strongly disliked the Valkyries drafting Flau’jae Johnson at No. 8, then trading her to the Storm for No. 16 overall pick Marta Suarez and a 2028 2nd round pick.

    • Even if this is a result of a pre-draft trade, as Golden State is claiming, moving down eight spots to pick up a 2nd round pick in two years in a league where non-lottery picks rarely make an impact is moronic.

📺 Take to go

• I am BEGGING the powers at ESPN to get a few more producers in the room for these WNBA live events. The expansion draft was a complete flop — imagine the NFL adding two teams and then just releasing the two new rosters on a 30 minute broadcast with no buildup — and the rookie draft is just not produced well.

  • Maybe there’s nothing to be done about the weird ambient noise problem where the players have to listen to the same analyst audio we get on TV, but there is something to be done about the many moments of unforced, awkward errors.

  • Holly Rowe doesn’t need this much screen time. There should some background music going as the players walk up. And it’s beyond time to find a bigger venue than whatever the hell The Shed is (I live here and still don’t know).

  • It shouldn’t be this hard to create a functional WNBA broadcast, ESPN. Figure it out!

Layup Lines is written 100% by a human being. AI tools help with the visuals. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you back here next week!

— Everett Cook, Founder & Editor