The 2022 WNBA Draft is less than a week away, as the three-round event will begin at 7 p.m. ET on Monday, April 11 on ESPN, with some debate still ongoing about who will end up as the top overall pick.
Baylor forward NaLyssa Smith and Kentucky guard Rhyne Howard are the consensus top two players in this year’s draft, but what order they’ll go in remains a mystery. Adding another layer to that debate was news breaking that the Atlanta Dream had acquired the No. 1 overall pick from the Washington Mystics, moving up from the third position by sending Washington this year’s second rounder at No. 14 overall and the right to swap 2023 first rounders with the first round pick Atlanta received from Los Angeles in a trade earlier this offseason.
Washington moves back and seems likely to end up with Ole Miss center Shakira Austin, while the Dream will get their choice at the top of the draft. Atlanta is a team in rebuilding mode after a 2021 season that saw coach Nicki Collen leave for the Baylor job just before the season started and then had internal turmoil involving a fight that went viral between Courtney Williams and Crystal Bradford, as well as suspending their 2020 first round pick Chennedy Carter for conduct detrimental to the team in the middle of the season.
All three of those players are gone from this year’s roster, and as such the Dream will go with who they think is the best player available at the top of the draft to pair with last year’s third overall selection, guard Aari McDonald, and clearly have one of Smith or Howard in mind. We’ll have to wait until Monday night to find out which they’re selecting and which will stay on the board for the Indiana Fever picking second.
