We interrupt our relentless coverage of the Final Four, with stories coming left and right from Cleveland, to bring you some silliness courtesy of our WNBA draft crew.
In the latest episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, our weekly WNBA Draft trio of Em Adler, Hunter Cruse and Lincoln Shafer is joined by Alex Simon, the sports editor at SFGATE, to do a … unique … version of a 2024 mock draft.
In this mock draft, each member of the quartet drafted for certain teams (dividing them unevenly to have a balanced number of picks). Adler had Atlanta, Dallas and Las Vegas; Cruse had Los Angeles, Minnesota, New York and Seattle; Shafer had Chicago and Connecticut; and Simon had Indiana, Phoenix and Washington.
But instead of everyone just picking the best player available, this draft was “run” by a 20-sided dice. When each person rolled the dice for their pick, getting a high number resulted in what Adler schemed up as the “best” possible outcome for that pick, and a low number resulted a sub-optimal selection.
For example, when Simon rolled for the No. 1 pick for Indiana, had he rolled a one or a two, he would have chosen Kaye Clark, a guard from Old Dominion, instead of Caitlin Clark. Luckily for the Fever, Simon rolled a 20, so the Iowa star went to Indiana as expected.
The whole episode is very silly and should not be taken seriously. But there is serious insight into the players chosen in the draft, trade discussions — including one completed move! — and a shocking final pick in this two-round exercise. You can also get some sneak peeks at the second version of The Next‘s WNBA Draft Board, which our draft crew has been working on for months and will release early next week.
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