New York Liberty win WNBA draft lottery for second consecutive 12 months

For the second 12 months in a row, the New York Liberty received the WNBA draft lottery and can decide first in April’s draft. The remainder of the WNBA draft lottery, which was revealed Friday, was Dallas at No. 2, Atlanta at No. 3 and Indiana at No. 4. Lottery odds are based mostly on the cumulative data of the 2 most up-to-date common seasons.

With a cumulative document of 12-44, the Liberty had essentially the most probabilities to land the highest decide (442 out of 1,000). Atlanta (15-41) had 276 probabilities out of 1,000 to win the highest decide, Dallas (18-38) had 178 and Indiana (19-37) had 104.

These identical 4 groups had the lottery picks for 2020 as nicely, with New York getting the No. 1 choice — the primary time that occurred in franchise historical past — and taking Oregon guard Sabrina Ionescu. Nonetheless, she missed a lot of the season after an early ankle damage and New York went 2-20 within the WNBA’s bubble in Bradenton, Florida.

Dallas took her Oregon teammate Satou Sabally at No. 2, Indiana took Baylor’s Lauren Cox at No. 3 and Atlanta took Texas A&M’s Chennedy Carter at No. 4.

Atlanta has had the No. 1 choice as soon as: in 2009, when the Dream picked Louisville’s Angel McCoughtry. Dallas, a franchise that beforehand was in Detroit and Tulsa, has by no means had the No. 1 choice, and neither has Indiana.

“It is solely going to bolster what we’re doing,” New York normal Jonathan Kolb mentioned of getting the highest decide. The Liberty picked 3 times within the first spherical within the 2020 draft, taking UConn’s Megan Walker at No. 9 and Louisville’s Jazmine Jones at No. 12 after main off with Ionescu.

The WNBA draft choice order for the remainder of the primary spherical and the complete second and third rounds is set by inverse order of the groups’ common season end in 2020.