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Michael Voppel
Last season, Lauren Bates and the UCLA Bruins reached the Final Four for the first time in the NCAA era. Now Bates wants a return trip. But the senior has a lot to aim for personally as well, including becoming the No. 1 pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft.
A lot needs to be decided before that. The WNBA is negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement with the union, a story that has dominated around the league all year.
The draft lottery, expansion drafts for Toronto and Portland and a massive free agency that will consist mostly of players not on rookie contracts all need to happen before the 2026 draft.
In short, ESPN’s mock draft is one of many hypothetical exercises during the WNBA Finals, a picture that will gradually become clear over the next seven months. Here, we’ve listed the top five teams in order of their lottery odds and placed the expansion teams after them.
Five of our top six picks in this mock were eligible to go to the 2025 draft, but all opted to return for a second college season.
UCLA center | 6-foot-7 | senior
Dallas’ No. 1 pick in 2025, Yukon guard Paige BueckersWon Rookie of the Year honors but the Wings won only 10 games and tied for last place with Chicago. Last month, Wings Chris Coclans fired after one year As a coach. If the Wings win the draft lottery, it would be their third No. 1 pick in six seasons, although their top pick in 2021, Charlie Collier, is no longer playing in the WNBA.
Bates was a first-team All-American last season, averaging 20.2 ppg, 9.5 rpg and 2.9 bpg while shooting 64.8% from the field. He is a traditional center who does not shoot 3-pointers. WNBA teams will have to decide if this is a major flaw or something she can add to her strong low-block game.
TCU Point Guard 5-foot-10 senior
Miles enrolled early at Notre Dame, playing six games during the pandemic-shortened 2020–21 season. She then played three full seasons for the Irish but was sidelined until 2023–24 due to a knee injury. Many viewed her as a 2025 lottery pick, but she instead transferred to TCU for her final season of eligibility. She averaged 15.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg and 5.8 apg last season and appears to be the top point guard pick among college seniors.
The Lynx played in the 2024 WNBA Finals and had the best record in the league this year. But they are in the lottery thanks to a 2024 trade with Chicago.
Yukon Shooting Guard 5-foot-11 senior
After injury problems during his first three years at UConn, Fudd had an overall healthy 2024–25 season, in which he appeared in 34 of the Huskies’ 40 games. He averaged 13.6 ppg and shot 43.6% from behind the arc for the national champions. Fudd’s talent has never been questioned: when healthy he is an elite player, especially as a perimeter scorer.
Spain center | 6 foot 4
He looks to be the top international prospect in this draft. Pham, who will turn 20 next June, began playing with a Spanish pro club at age 15 and helped lead Spain to the EuroBasket final against eventual champions Belgium this summer by averaging 8.7 ppg and 4.2 rpg. Family capacity is high; She may very well be the No. 1 pick by draft time.
LSU Shooting Guard 5-foot-10 senior
Johnson has said that she hopes to increase her status to a potential No. 1, and that confidence is what makes her an attractive player. A national champion as a freshman, last season he had career bests with 18.6 PPG and 38.3% shooting from behind the arc. He also averaged 5.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists.
South Carolina Shooting Guard 5-foot-8 | senior
We don’t know what order expansion teams will pick in this draft, but for now we have Tempo here and the Fire at No. 7. Latson averaged a Division I-leading 25.2 PPG last season with Florida State. He sought a bigger profile with a program that regularly competes for national championships, and South Carolina provided that. How will Latson recover from a crime where she was the primary threat, becoming one of many? She is a career 32.6% shooter from behind the arc, which she would like to improve on.
ole miss small forward 6-foot-0 senior
She would spend her final season in the SEC after three years at Ohio State, where she was one of the Big Ten’s top players. He averaged 16.5 ppg and shot 37.4% from behind the arc in 2024–25, career highs. McMahon lacks a little size as a forward, but he should improve defensively at Ole Miss and could improve his stock to play at the next level.
maryland Shooting Guard 6-foot-3 senior
He spent his first three seasons at Indiana, where he averaged career-highs of 14.4 ppg, 5.4 rpg and 3.2 apg last season. Garzon, who will play her final season at a different Big Ten school, stands out as an efficient 3-point shooter with big size: She shot 42.6% from behind the arc during her Hoosiers career and made 220 3-pointers, including 88 last season.
UConn | power forward 6-foot-4 senior
One of the most intriguing transfers in college, Williams averaged 19.2 ppg and 9.8 rpg for Wisconsin last season. But his college career flew under the radar while with the Badgers, who last made the NCAA Tournament in 2010. Now she’s joining the 12-time national champion Huskies, and no program can better prepare players for WNBA success.
tennessee power forward 6-foot-4 senior
After two seasons at Texas A&M and one season at UCLA, Barker will finish her college career at Tennessee. She has averaged 10.3 ppg and 6.4 rpg in three collegiate seasons and has a good size skillset that intrigues WNBA evaluators. She will need to adjust to coach Kim Caldwell’s faster pace, but she has already spent two seasons in the SEC and is ready for the league’s style of play.
UCLA | Shooting Guard 5-foot-11 senior
She will play her final college season for the Bruins after a good career at Utah, where she averaged 19.3 ppg in 2024-25. His biggest strength is 3-point shooting: he made 94 threes at 44.8% accuracy last season. His 62.7 effective field goal percentage was the best in the Big Ten.
Spain Point Guard 5-foot-8
She was named MVP of the FIBA U19 World Cup in 2023, then was part of Spain’s runner-up senior team at the EuroBasket tournament this summer. She’ll turn 20 in January and may be ready to move up to the WNBA.
ruler Shooting Guard 6-foot-0 senior
The Dream had a good season under first-year WNBA coach Carl Smesko, who emphasizes 3-point shooting. Jackson made 87 threes while shooting 37.2% last season. And she was part of a Duke defense that allowed the ACC only 56.5 ppg per game.
14. Seattle Storm: kiki rice
UCLA | Point Guard 5-foot-11 senior
She was second to Bates in scoring (12.8 ppg) for the Bruins’ Final Four team last season, while also averaging 5.0 assists and 3.5 rebounds. There appear to be not a lot of top point guards available in this draft, and we’ll see if Rice impresses WNBA evaluators with her game management skills.
South Carolina center | 6-foot-6 senior
Okot, who is from Kenya, played two years at Zetec University before spending last season at Mississippi State, where he averaged 11.3 ppg, 9.6 rpg and 1.1 bpg and shot 64.9% from the field. Now his role at forward could be even bigger at South Carolina chloe kitsch Out for the season with a knee injury. (Coincidentally, Kitts was on our first-round draft board before his injury and may still enter the draft after this season.)
