April 11, 2022
Locked On Women’s Basketball + The Next’s 2022 WNBA Mock Draft
By The Next
We asked our beat writers covering each WNBA team to make the pick for their team
It’s WNBA Draft Day! Of course, you had to know we here at The Next were going to cover this day on every platform possible.
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It’s also the first day of the five-days-a-week partnership with the Locked On Podcast Network, where The Next staff will be churning out podcasts every single weekday. To start that, we’ve kicked it off with a big one: Our staff’s WNBA Mock Draft of the first round!
Without further ado, check out the latest Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast episode with The Next staff, where we asked our beat writers covering each WNBA team to play the role of GM and make the pick for their team. There is one note to add: these videos were recorded before the weekend, when Minnesota traded the eighth pick to Las Vegas.
Here’s how our staff sees (or, in the case of the eighth pick, saw) the Draft going:
No. 1 — Atlanta Dream (Spencer Nusbaum) — Rhyne Howard, guard/forward, Kentucky
No. 2 — Indiana Fever (Tony East) — NaLyssa Smith, forward, Baylor
No. 3 — Washington Mystics (Jenn Hatfield) — Naz Hillmon, forward, Michigan
No. 4 — Indiana Fever (Tony East again) — Shakira Austin, center, Ole Miss
No. 5 — New York Liberty (Jackie Powell) — Emily Engstler, forward, Louisville
No. 6 — Indiana Fever (Tony East … AGAIN again) — Kierstan Bell, guard, Florida Gulf Coast
No. 7 — Dallas Wings (Arie Graham) — Elissa Cunane, center, NC State
No. 8 — Minnesota Lynx (Lucas Seehafer) — Nyara Sabally, center, Oregon*
*Note: this pick now belongs to the Las Vegas Aces. Read this link for more from Lucas on why the Lynx made the trade.
No. 9 — Los Angeles Sparks (David Yapkowitz) — Sika Kone, forward, Mali
No. 10 — Indiana Fever (Tony East … mercifully, for the final time) — Christyn Williams, guard, UConn
No. 11 — Las Vegas Aces (Matthew Walter) — Rae Burrell, guard/forward, Tennessee
No. 12 — Connecticut Sun (Jacqueline LeBlanc) — Veronica Burton, guard, Northwestern
And if you want to see these picks on social media and share the videos, check out this Twitter thread:
Be sure to check out The Next and Locked On Women’s Basketball all week as we recap what the big takeaways were from Monday night — and we break down what each team did, too. Yes, even Chicago, who doesn’t have a pick in the draft, as of now.
Thanks everyone, and enjoy the WNBA Draft!
