Discontinue the WNBA Draft
A few articles ago, I was so excited about the WNBA draft. Everybody got better, players got a chance to thrive, dreams were coming true. Well here we are only a few weeks later, and it’s all for not. It finally seemed like the league is going to embrace these young talented college players. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Strap in Everybody
First off, the biggest loser here is Shyanne Sellers whose been waived not once, but twice. After being picked as part of Golden State’s first draft, she didn’t even make it through camp and was the first player waived. The she was picked up by the Dream and waived again. The comments made by Golden State head coach Natalie Naksase really irked me. She did that Sellers did everything they asked her to do, but her job (Nakase) is to pick the 12 best players that fit the team - not the 12 best players. So by that backwards logic, why even draft Sellers in the first place? Or radical idea here, why not change the system just a little bit so she can thrive? Kaitlyn Chen was also released. I’m sorry, but what the hell are we doing here? A former Ivy League player of the year and new national champion who just happened to slip to you in the third round. You can’t find a way to get her involved? Give me a break. And although Laeticia Amihere was not a draft choice this time, her release is also questionable given her 20 points in the last preseason game which led the team. Fans are saying what more did she have to do, and they are 1000% correct to feel that way. Golden State will not have a single person in their draft class on the roster with both Sellers and Chen not making the cut, and number five overall pick Juste Jocyte will not be coming to the states until next season.
Dallas and Vegas also made some odd choices here. The Wings drafted and subsequently waived draft picks Madison Scott and Aaronette Vonleh. That is two of their five player draft. Then in true Aces fashion they show the draft means nothing to them. They made two picks and released third round pick Harmoni Turner from Harvard. It looks like fellow draftee Aaliyah Nye is safe for now. The Aces also waived Deja Kelley who was brought in on a undrafted tryout. Despite 12 points and game winning basket, she gets the boot as well. Make it make sense. You have two vets in Megan Gustafson and Cheyanne Parker-Tyus out for a while. You didn’t see ANYTHING in these young players to give them a shot? Hard to fathom.
Next up, I have a gripe with the Seattle Storm. Hello?! Is anybody home up there in the pacific northwest. Out of the four player draft class, three of them have been waived. Three players on the roster are out for the year with ACL injuries, so you clearly need the help do you not? Look, I know number two overall pick Dominque Malonga was a lock to make the roster as she should be. I also get Jordan Hobbs and Madison Conner were longshots. But I need someone to explain to me why Erica Wheeler was chosen over Serena Sundell. This roster needs some young talent at guard. Sundell was the total package and Wheeler maybe as one year left, or two at best. Wheeler was a great story but her time is over now. Sundell got robbed. Indiana also cut two of their three draft picks with both Bree Hall and Yvonne Ejim being told they did not make the team.
I don’t want to spend this whole article ripping the league because my track record shows I do support the W a lot, so let’s give some credit to the Sun. As of right now, Aneesah Morrow, and Saniya Rivers, and Rayah Marshall (all three draft selections) have made the team. So far it looks like that is the only instance where each player selected survived the cuts. Every other group has cut at least one or obviously more as we’ve documented. They will be major cogs in the pending rebuild in Connecticut, which may or may not finish in Connecticut now with the swirling reports of sale and possible relocation of the team.
Still Need to be Better
So, what can we do to keep massive amounts of talent players from hitting the streets and not playing in the WNBA? The obvious solution is don’t cut the draft picks right off the bat. This is the only league where this happens consistently. Even with two more teams coming next year and one more coming after that, I still think this will be a reoccurring problem. In the NBA you have 15 roster sports with the chance to have 18 depending on two way players. The W does not have a G league, where there can be 10-13 players on those. The WNBA needs to expand to at least 14 roster spots per team, which the commissioner has said she does not want to do for whatever reason, and then somehow get some kind of minor league affiliate. The NBA does it and women’s soccer is in the process of doing something similar. It can be done. If you are in an NBA city, use their G League home and piggy back of them. If not, use the closest one you can find. Example, Connecticut would use Maine.
The league also needs to start embracing the future instead of hanging onto the past like they can’t let go. These older players who just take up roster spots and don’t play much have run their course. But now let’s get to the title of the article and why we are here. The draft should not continue if the league and teams are going to continue to waste everybody’s time. Anybody in the first round picked outside the top five really only has a 50/50 chance most of the time, and anyone picked in the second or third round has roughly a 25% chance or less. If you go undrafted it’s one million to one odds, so here is what should happen instead.
Invite who you feel are the best players in the country to the draft and put them in the stage area and/or the crowd. Have a one round draft where everybody gets at least one pick. If as a team you don’t want to pick, trade out. After that, let everyone become a free agent and on the spot allow players and team reps to negotiate and then sign who you want to a three or four year contract, and actually give them a chance to develop and improve. If anybody wants to control their own destiny, say you don’t want to be drafted and declare as a free agent to give the player more power in the situation. Now I know what you are going to say, “that’s a stupid idea because the top picks can just opt out of going to the bad teams and go to the good ones instead”. Well, that is very true. But the top players in college who want to go pro were going to make it anyway.
This gives anybody not as highly touted a better chance to have a real chance to play in the league and find the best fit for them. This as opposed to thinking a player can fit the system only to find out they can’t and cutting them thus ruining everybody’s life by losing an opportunity. And of course, with the new collective bargaining agreement coming out and players wanting more money, part of this would be to pay the players a real salary so they aren’t coaxed into NIL money to stay in college. Stash the players that need more work in the “WG League” (working title) and let them get better over time. That way we don’t have amazing players waiting around and instead going overseas or playing in the Athletes Unlimited league where they can get seriously hurt.
On top of all of that, Unrivaled is still an option to play in the offseason while making some good money and competing against the best. Everybody wins here. With the contracts, the players have already said they aren’t asking to be paid like the NBA players. They just want to make what they feel they are worth based on what the league has done. Take the hockey contract approach and give them a longer deal with money over time, and actually give the players a contract in the millions. We all want this league to be the best it can be but we also want everyone to have as much of a fair shot that they can get. These owners have a lot of money, that isn’t an issue. Next year will be the 30th year of the WNBA and they are still running into the same issues that make everybody frustrated. This is really not that complicated. A lot of this can be fixed fairly easily. Be like Nike and just do it.