The free agency departure of the Seattle Storm’s top five scorers from last season forced the team into a rebuild, whether they wanted it or not. Now building primarily around last year’s No. 2 overall pick Dominique Malonga, the Storm picked four players in the 2026 WNBA Draft who will contribute to an increasingly youthful roster.
The Storm selected Spanish international Awa Fam with the No. 3 overall pick, Duke guard Taina Mair with the No. 14 pick, TCU center Marta Suarez in the second round and Michigan State forward Grace VanSlooten in the third round. However, Suarez didn’t stay with Seattle for long. After Suarez was selected, but before the next pick was announced, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert brought news of a shocking trade to the draft stage.
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Audible gasps erupted in the room when it was announced the Storm had traded for Flau’jae Johnson. Minutes after selecting Suarez with the No. 16 overall pick, the Storm officially traded Suarez and a 2028 second-round pick to the Valkyries in exchange for Johnson, whom Golden State had picked No. 8 in the first round. Everyone was left shocked and confused; even LSU head coach Kim Mulkey looked like she was trying to figure out what just happened while already sporting the updated hat.
Confusion for Storm fans quickly morphed into excitement. The 6′ off-ball guard is a fantastic player and a much better fit for the team’s needs than another big would’ve been. Golden State’s general manager confirmed the trade was unofficially agreed to before the picks were made. That doesn’t explain why a second-round pick two years in the future was enough to move up eight picks, but it is likely the Storm didn’t want to ask too many questions.
Seattle had been looking for a way to move up in the draft and get a player who can improve the team now and be a building block for the future.
“I think Flau’jae is a really dynamic, talented young player who’s going to just impact on both ends of the court,” Storm general manager Talisa Rhea told media after the draft. “She can score multiple ways. She’s a great defender, gets deflection, steals, is going to be out in transition with our group.”
Johnson’s defense is what stuck out the most to The IX’s draft board writers. They described her as “a great wing defender, a top athlete in any direction — horizontal or vertical — who mirrors in space, pressures the ball well both at the point of attack and on the drive, and is a standout navigating screens.”
However, her offense is inconsistent. Johnson is at least an excellent spot-up shooter though, so The IX Sports’ analysts think this leaves pathways for her to be a productive offensive player in a narrower role. If she climbs toward her ceiling, Johnson could become a premier 3-&-D player who also adds “a little juice inside the arc as a change of pace.”
Though Johnson’s rights were still held by Golden State when she spoke to media, she is mentally prepared and excited for the challenge and to start her pro career.
“In Baton Rouge, you play in front of at least 10,000, 11,000 every game. So I feel like, you know, pressure from the fans, pressure from everything, it’s about how you look at it,” Johnson told reporters in New York. “I think pressure makes diamonds and I’m super excited to come and add what I can. All I want to do is add value, and I feel like any place that I come add value to is going to elevate.”
Although the drama of the trade for Johnson took some of the attention off Seattle’s other picks, getting Fam at No. 3 when many, including The IX, projected her as a potential No. 1 overall pick is another fantastic addition. The 20-year-old big from Spain is 6’4 with a 6’8 wingspan and already has nearly five seasons of pro experience in Europe under her belt.
Fam is the most decorated international prospect since Storm legend Lauren Jackson in 2001. Playing for the senior Spanish national team, The IX draft board said “she recently look like one of the best players on the court against Team USA in March.” Fam has so far played her her best in the biggest moments and The IX analysts credit that to “a rare combination of skill, strength, athleticism and processing speed at her age.”
Her offense is incredibly impressive and she has added to it by making real strides as a jump shooter, though currently her defense is more flashes than consistent production. Read The IX’s draft board for the in-depth breakdown of Fam’s strengths, areas for improvement, and why her ceiling comp is Jackson, someone whose success Storm fans would be thrilled to replicate.
Selecting the young Spaniard does mean Seattle technically has four centers on its roster alongside Fam in Malonga, Ezi Magbegor and Stefanie Dolson. Malonga is 6’6 and 20 years old. Magbegor is 6’4 and 26 years old. Dolson was brought in as a veteran but the core the team is building around is now Malonga, Magbegor and Fam, who the Storm view as able to play with each other. The team think Fam will fit in well partially because “she’s shown to be a big that can kind of play anywhere with anyone,” head coach Sonia Raman told the media Monday night, and partially because they are all very versatile.
“I don’t know if we’ve seen this type of a frontcourt,” Raman said. “I’m excited for the creativity that allows us as coaches to lean into some really innovative ways that we’re going to use them on both ends. So obviously more to come there. … I think being young, they’re going to develop together, they’re going to develop that chemistry with each other. And there’s a lot of ways that we’re going to be able to move them around and and be able to kind of play off of each other in a really dynamic way.”
After selecting Fam but before the Storm made their big trade, they made another surprising but less dramatic choice when they selected Mair at the end of the first round. Mair was not on The IX’s draft board and not a first round selection in any mock drafts. Rhea said the team felt they still needed depth at the guard spot and that Mair is a young player whose future they believe in.
“She’s really dynamic,” Rhea said. “She just is a great person, works hard, great culture addition for our group. She can score a lot of ways. She had a great NCAA Tournament, was playing really well at the end, and you could see her confidence, how she was able to create for herself and others.”
The 5’9 guard played three seasons at Duke where she averaged 9.4 points, 4.3 assists and 1.8 steals per game. As a senior, Mair was named to the All-ACC First Team and a WBCA All-America Honorable Mention. Mair tied for the ACC’s league-high assists with 201, matching Duke’s program record set by Chelsea Gray. She had a particularly fantastic March as she was named 2026 ACC Tournament MVP, highlighted by a 19-point and 12-rebound performance in the title game.
The two-time ACC All-Defensive team selection showed that form again late in the NCAA Tournament. She recorded 22 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals in Duke’s buzzer-beater victory over LSU, and 21 points, seven rebounds, six assists and four steals in their loss to eventual champions UCLA.
The IX’s ACC reporter Martin Heintzelman says Mair is a great defensive player who can play above her size, get lots of steals, shoot pretty well and has a ton of that unteachable hustle. Heintzelman further described her as an assist machine who basically ran Duke’s offense for 36 minutes a game and almost never turned the ball over. Though she rebounded pretty well in college he is unsure how that’ll translate.
“You can see kind of a theme here, she’s a high motor player and what struck me is just her competitiveness, she’s going to find a way on both ends,” Raman said. “She’s going to get after it on defense, really skilled play-making guard, and so I think that’s a really good fit for how we want to play.”
The IX’s Emily Adler thinks Mair’s upside in terms of pro projection is that getting her in a better offensive context will mean more catch-and-shoot threes and fewer off the dribble. Being that she’s good at the former, her 34.1% shooting from three as a senior will look better. Good at defending on and off the ball, Mair has a solid midrange shot and creation for a 2-guard, but could learn to do more at the rim. Though she was Duke’s point guard, Adler doesn’t see Mair as a lead playmaker commanding a full offense in the W, but she is a solid pick-and-roll passer who can still help offensive creation.
With their final pick of the night, No. 39 overall, Seattle selected VanSlooten from Michigan State. Like most third-round picks, making the roster will be tough, but the Storm like what they think the 6’3 forward can show in training camp to compete for a spot.
“One of the things that struck us was, really high motor,” Raman said. “That’s something [important] when you want to have a chance to get into training camp and make your mark, being a really hard worker, being a high motor player. [She also brings] more depth in that forward spot and can get in there, can slash. A lot of versatility with Grace. So we were very excited when we saw that she was available there.”
VanSlooten started her college career at Oregon as the No. 4 ranked forward in the 2022 recruiting class. As a Duck in 2023 she was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team and in 2024 she led the team in scoring on her way to a spot on the Pac-12 Honorable Mention Team. The Toledo, Ohio native then transferred to Michigan State University where she once again lead her team in scoring. She was named to the All-Big Ten Second Team in both 2025 and 2026. As a senior she averaged 15.1 points on 50% shooting from the field, 6.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.9 steals per game.
Rhea and Raman talked a lot about picking high-motor, competitive players, and that fits directly into the style of play that Raman is looking to implement with her new squad
“We’re going to really try to instill being the hardest working team on the court, that starts in practice,” Raman said. “That’s your identity, along with a really strong defensive identity. We want to get out and run. We have to get the stops to be able to do it. So building our foundation on the defensive end will be our first priority.”
The Storm know they are in rebuild mode at this point and felt that going into the draft with two first round picks and snagging another provided an ideal opportunity.
“We felt like it was a great time to just reset the foundation, get good people to come in that are going to play hard,” Rhea said. “We really want versatility. We want players that can play multiple positions, that are going to play fast, you know, disrupt on the defensive end, be able to do multiple things on the court and really buy into this team first culture of development.”
For draft picks, a rebuild means more potential playing time. Seattle fans will hope that more playing time helps them improve faster helped by the new head coach’s career focus on development.
“We’re really leaning into a lot of decision-making in our player development, our court sessions, our drill work, so training that chemistry, training them to be able to make reads so that they can get out run play a little bit more free,” Raman explained. “It really starts with that hard work, that chemistry, that culture, and really pouring into and laying that foundation culturally.”
All four picks will get their chance to prove themselves when training camps open on April 19. Rhea said they are in conversations with free agents and plan to bring in a few more to compete.
