2025 WNBA draft explained
| League: | WNBA |
| Teams: | 13 |
| 2025 WNBA Draft |
| Sport: | Basketball |
| Date: | April 2025 |
| Location: | TBA |
| Prev: | 2024 |
| Next: | 2026 |
The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)'s draft for the 2025 season will be held following the 2024–25 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. This will mark the first draft for the newest expansion team for the league, the Golden State Valkyries. The lottery teams are decided based on the four teams that do not make the playoffs, while the league hasn't stated how the Valkyries will fit in to the draft yet.
Draft lottery
The lottery selection to determine the order of the top four picks in the 2024 draft will take place following the 2024 WNBA season. The four non-playoff teams in 2024 will qualify for the lottery drawing.
Lottery chances
| Team | Combined 2023–2024 record | Lottery chances |
|---|
| | 44.2% |
| | 27.6% |
| | 17.8% |
| | 10.4% | |
The lottery odds were based on combined records from the 2023 and 2024 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.
[1] 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 2024.
Eligibility
Under the 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:[2]
- The player's 22nd birthday falls during the calendar year of the draft. For this draft, the cutoff birth date is December 31, 2003.
- She has either:
- completed her college eligibility;
- received a bachelor's degree, or is scheduled to receive such in the three months following the draft; or
- is at least four years removed from high school graduation.
A player who is scheduled to receive her bachelor's degree within three 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
First round
| width=30 | Pick | width=333 | Player | width=200 | Nationality | width=383 | Team | width=333 | School / club team |
|---|
| 1 | | | | |
| 2 | | | | |
| 3 | | | | |
| 4 | | | | |
| 5 | | | | |
| 6 | | | | |
| 7 | | | | |
| 8 | | | | |
| 9 | | | | |
| 10 | | | | |
| 11 | | | | |
| 12 | | | | | |
NOTE: There are only 12 picks in the 1st Round, due to Las Vegas having a draft pick stripped for violating WNBA policy. (See below section:
Draft Pick Movement)
Second round
| width=30 | Pick | width=333 | Player | width=200 | Nationality | width=383 | Team | width=333 | School / club team |
|---|
| 13 | | | | |
| 14 | | | | |
| 15 | | | | |
| 16 | | | | |
| 17 | | | | |
| 18 | | | | |
| 19 | | | | |
| 20 | | | | |
| 21 | | | | |
| 22 | | | | |
| 23 | | | | | |
| 24 | | | | |
| 25 | | | | | |
Third round
| width=30 | Pick | width=333 | Player | width=200 | Nationality | width=383 | Team | width=333 | School / club team |
|---|
| 26 | | | | |
| 27 | | | | |
| 28 | | | | |
| 29 | | | | |
| 30 | | | | |
| 31 | | | | |
| 32 | | | | |
| 33 | | | | |
| 34 | | | | |
| 35 | | | | |
| 36 | | | | |
| 37 | | | | |
| 38 | | | | | |
Draft Pick Movement
Trades
The following are trades that will have effect on the draft order placements following the 2024 season.
Loss of Draft Pick
- The Las Vegas Aces lost their own 2025 1st Round Pick because the franchise violated league rules regarding impermissible player benefits and workplace policies.[5]
Notes and References
- Web site: Dozier . Emily . WNBA Draft Lottery, explained: Updated odds for every team to win the No. 1 overall pick in 2024 . The Sporting News . December 10, 2023.
- Web site: Article XIII, Section 1: Player Eligibility . 2020 Women's National Basketball Association Collective Bargaining Agreement . 110–111 . Women's National Basketball Players Association . December 14, 2020.
- Web site: Costabile . Annie . Sky acquire two future second-round draft picks from Liberty for rights to Rebekah Gardner . chicago.suntimes.com . Chicago Sun Times . 19 June 2024.
- Web site: Mystics acquire Jade Melbourne from Storm for 3rd-round pick . ESPN.com . First Level Media . 19 June 2024.
- Web site: Voepel . Michael . WNBA suspends Hammon, strips draft pick: What's next for Las Vegas Aces, Dearica Hamby? . espn.com . ESPN . 19 June 2024.
