Who’s Next — The Next’s 2025 WNBA Draft Board, V2.0

Tiering off prospects is important, so we continue to use the baseball approach: “future value,” on a scale of 20-80. You can find a full breakdown of the the scale here, but for this board, the important numbers translate to: 30 — reserve; 40 — mid-rotation player; 45 — second division starter/average rotation player; 50 — average first division starter/above-average rotation player; 55 — above-average first division starter/worst starter on a title team; 80 — perennial MVP candidate. Having a 45 FV is nothing to scoff at — a median outcome as an average player is real good, given what a crapshoot most of the draft is.

Players’ tiers say nothing about their ceilings or floors, just what we think their average outcome is likely to be.

Some notes before we get to the list:

• The board is as long as there are players that we’d be willing to give solid minutes to, if we were WNBA general managers. You may be wondering why some notable names that show up in others’ mock drafts are missing here; that is why.
• This is NOT a predicted draft order. This is our evaluation rankings.
• We like players with clearly definable roles. Players who do a lot of things fairly well are a lot harder to give minutes to than ones who are great at a handful of things.
• Positions listed aren’t what they play right now, but what we expect them to play in the pros. For example: JJ Quinerly played point guard for West Virginia, but since she won’t have much playmaking primacy at the next level, we have her as an off-ball guard in the W.
• Ages reflect what age the player will be classified as during the 2025 season.
• This class is one Cameron Brink shy of having the same top-end talent as last year and is considerably deeper: Our final 2024 board had eight players at least 45 FV and 11 players above 30 FV; this year, we’ve got 10 at least 45 FV and 17 players above a 30 grade.

So without further ado:

(Offensive and defensive roles are per Basketball Index)

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80 FV

1. Paige Bueckers, point guard, UConn

Similar to: Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander without the foul-baiting

Paige Bueckers is the greatest basketball shapeshifter ever. At UConn, she filled a different role each healthy season she played there, and was the best at what she did every single time. After missing most of the 2021-22 and all of the 2022-23 seasons, Bueckers was at her absolute best as an upperclassman. The Paige Bueckers of the past two seasons is the most well-rounded point guard prospect the WNBA has ever seen.

Offensively, Bueckers is an elite playmaker, one of the greatest pull-up shot-creators to ever set foot on a basketball court, and incredibly creative at finding ways to generate efficient offense for herself and others. She’s a star both on and off the ball, equally capable of flying around screens, running the pick-n-roll (PnR), hitting spot-up shots at an elite rate, and scoring efficiently at the rim. It is simply impossible to overstate how good Bueckers is at creating offense for herself, making a living off a wildly difficult shot diet and still scoring at mind-boggling, flabbergasting efficiency, a combination at a level that quite simply no one has ever done before.

Perhaps even more rare than the level of Bueckers’ offensive stardom is her defensive skill set. She has great size for a guard and uses it well on the defensive end, making highlight blocks from the weakside on a regular basis, capably guarding one-on-one across multiple positions while navigating screens and containing dribble penetration, and rebounding well to thrive turning defense into offense.

The only possible concerns about Bueckers’ WNBA prospects are her relatively low level of pull-up 3 point shot — mostly offset by how unprecedentedly good she is at midrange shooting — and her passivity. She doesn’t always impose herself on games when things get tight the way others at this level do, but she is still more than capable of it (see: 2025 NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament). Altogether, Bueckers is one of the greatest guard prospects we have ever seen and should make a massive impact in the WNBA from the moment she takes the court.

Variance: Low

55 FV

2. Dominique Malonga, center, Lyon (Wonderligue, France)

Similar to: Tall Temi Fagbenle, Nic Claxton

You might remember seeing videos of a 16-year-old doing a drop-step dunk with ease. Well, that’s Dominique Malonga, and she’s now turned her athletic gifts into consistent production. As a teenager this season, she won MVP in the EuroCup and was the most dominant player in the French league.

Malonga has a rare combination of vertical athleticism, footspeed and hip flexibility, allowing her to score in ways that few players her size ever have. She’s a smooth mover, routinely beating smaller defenders down the court in transition for easy layups (and sometimes dunks). Malonga’s offense has also made strides in the halfcourt over the last year: She can attack bigs off the dribble from the 3-point line in isolation, knock down one-legged midrange jumpers and her hand-eye coordination has improved rolling to the rim. She’s also shown more confidence taking threes, shooting 30.3% on 1.6 attempts per game.

The biggest question with Malonga’s offense is her ability to generate quality looks consistently. She tends to settle for fadeaway jumpers and take layups at awkward angles when guarded by stronger post defenders. As much as that may be a processing or feel issue, it could just as easily disappear once she gets into a WNBA training program and gets stronger.

On the defensive end, Malonga’s lateral athleticism, coupled with one of the longest wingspans in draft history, potentially gives her real coverage versatility. She holds her own on switches, can hedge and recover in ball screens and covers ground as a weakside rim protector (1.4 blocks per game, No. 1 in the French league). Malonga’s feel for space and positioning in drop coverage has gone from underwhelming in 2023-24 to very respectable this season. Her already strong defensive playmaking numbers would be blowing her competition out of the water if she read the ball better and understood where her hands need to be on contests. Malonga’s post defense, strength development, and reaction time are the next steps to hitting an All-Defensive outcome. With how much she’s improved over the past couple of seasons, it’s not unrealistic to think she gets there.

Variance: High

3. Sonia Citron, wing, Notre Dame

Similar to: Bridget Carleton, if Danny Green could dribble

Citron is the most wing-y wing imaginable. At 6’1, she has size for a backcourt player and is adept at using it against smaller matchups, but doesn’t have the burst or hip flexibility to score on guard defenders from the perimeter or hold up for long stretches at the point of attack. On the other hand, she can stretch frontcourt defenders past their comfortable range and create some impact with backline rotations, but isn’t strong enough to do much against true combo forwards in the paint on either end.

Those skills consolidate into a player who’s more about breadth of skill than depth: Whatever you want Citron to do, she can do pretty well, but asking her to do it at a higher level or against a different positional matchup probably isn’t going to work. She’s a very good off-ball shooter with a quick, compact jumper that she can get to from a variety of setups and actions, which translates to a quality pull-up midrange shot and the occasional pull-up 3-pointer as well. She’s good mirroring in space and in ball-denial and pressures the ball on the drive but is mediocre at navigating ball screens. She has a great nose for getting downhill through the PnR or cuts but has no bag to create those opportunities on her own, and is a very good finisher but takes contact rather than creating it. She makes good team rotations but not impactfully enough to play the helper role. She’s a quality passer with good accuracy but limited vision.

What separates Citron from other jacks-of-all-trades, besides her overall baseline talent level, is her floor game. She rarely makes mistakes, one of just 219 players among the former Power Five to play 3,000 minutes with at least a 20% usage rate and a sub-15% turnover rate, per Sports Reference.¹ Citron rarely blows a defensive assignment or misses a rotation, either, and is an active communicator. She moves well around the arc without the ball and takes advantage of open cutting lanes.

Variance: Low

50 FV

4. Te-Hina Paopao, combo guard, South Carolina

Similar to: Tyasha Harris, Reed Sheppard

When she left Oregon after her junior season, Te-Hina Paopao was a great PnR guard coming into her own as a premier shooter, but was a clear negative defensively. After two years at South Carolina, Paopao has developed into one of the best shooters in the country and a more-than-capable defender.

Paopao’s shot versatility and accuracy are elite. Her shot, compact, clean and consistent, has proven to be arguably the best in this draft class. She can hit pull-up threes better than most anyone, off-screen threes, midrange shots off movement, and has improved her in-between game, showing off a floater that allows her to be even more effective in the PnR. Paopao’s ability to shoot at any level coming off screens is one of her most desirable WNBA traits. But she is not a great isolation scorer and hardly ever gets to the free-throw line, and despite excellent passing reads and accuracy, her limited ability to force rotations going downhill means she is probably not going to be a lead ball-handler at the next level. And she has never developed much creation ability outside of PnRs, severely limiting her ability to impact games if openings don’t come to her.

Paopao improved a remarkable amount on the defensive end during her two seasons in Columbia, going from a liability on that end to a calming presence that made plays and contained drives well. She had good weakside help instincts as a Duck, but would frequently stray too far off her assignment and was a liability at the point of attack. Now, she is a capable if unexceptional point-of-attack defender and a plus off-ball defensive guard between chasing through screens and communicating. The difference is a yawning chasm that stretches beyond the line of sight. Whether all of these improvements stick in WNBA lineups that will have less defensive talent than the Gamecocks’ is a real question, but Paopao has become, at worst, a passable team defender.

Variance: Medium

5. Justė Jocytė, wing, Lyon (Wonderligue, France)

Similar to: Goran Dragić, if Katie Douglas couldn’t defend

Justė Jocytė is the closest thing women’s basketball has ever had to a prodigy. At ages 14-16, comparisons to Luka Dončić weren’t hyperbole. Then her development stalled. How much of that is attributable to growing pains (both figurative and more literal), a torn hip labrum or just a low ceiling is the biggest question about her future.

It seems Jocytė was born with an immaculate internal metronome already ticking. Her ability to control the tempo of an offense out of the PnR may be the best in this draft class, with an advanced feel for getting downhill, strong and deliberate acceleration, a Chris Paul-like hostage dribble, excellent processing and ability to manipulate the primary help defender and a preternatural ability to find open space in tight quarters. All of that combines with plus passing velocity and accuracy off the dribble to create standout playmaking from anywhere on the court. The on-ball package had been limited across recent years by her ability to handle high ball-pressure and blitz coverage, but much of that time was spent both playing through a torn hip labrum suffered in August 2023 and then recovering from surgery. Right on schedule for such a recovery timeline, though, neither has been an issue in recent months.

Jocytė’s lasting offensive issues are a lack of cutting, an inability to create in iso without a screen and jump shot consistency. The first issue is due to low activity off the ball, the second because of a pedestrian first step, limited bag and difficulty turning the corner downhill. The jumper is more perplexing, because by all rights she should be one of the best pull-up shooting prospects in recent years. She has incredible body control in every aspect of the game, which is most visible in her ability to draw fouls but translates to an exceptionally smooth midrange shot off the dribble. She stabilizes her shoulders very well even off movement, and is great on leaners and turnaround jumpers. Her 3-point form has always been similarly smooth and coordinated, with a good power transfer, and her career shooting mark around 38% from deep now includes plenty of pull-up and off-screen shots as of this season.

Besides speed and quick-twitch, the glaring problem with Jocytė is the defense. Or, rather, the lack thereof. She’s mediocre enough at staying in the corner or the backside slot and giving a dig here or stunt there without straying far enough to allow an open three, and she fights admirably against mismatches both in the post and in space, but everything else is just bad.

The biggest difference between Jocytė and her teammate Malonga as prospects is that, where the latter has made massive developments over the past couple of years, Jocytė is mostly the same player at 19 that she was at 15. The consistency with which she forces extra rotations by opposing defenses has gotten better, and her shooting versatility from three has really come along this year. Everything else is fairly indistinguishable.

Variance: Medium

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45 FV

6. Kiki Iriafen, big, USC

Similar to: San Antonio Dearica Hamby, Marcus Morris

Which version of Iriafen are you getting at the next level: the steady, complementary piece that thrived in Stanford’s structured system alongside Cameron Brink, or the one whose defensive shortcomings and offensive inconsistencies were exposed in USC’s heliocentric offense?

Offensively, Iriafen is most comfortable working from a triple-threat position at the elbow and mid-post. As a Cardinal, she looked dynamic in those spots, finishing 62.8% of her halfcourt attempts at the rim and shooting 46.5% from the midrange against Quad 1 opponents, per CBB Analytics. Defenders had to pick their poison: Close out too hard and she’d drive by, or sag off and she’d knock down the jumper. This season in Los Angeles, those numbers dipped to 52.5% at the rim and 33.3% from mid-range in a new offensive context. Still, there’s reason to believe she’s closer to the Stanford version as a shooter, given a projectable high-release jumper. Iriafen’s good at sealing defenders in the post, but her interior scoring questions are rooted more in touch than technique, as she tends to miss more point-blank layups than you want for a player with her explosiveness attacking on drives. At the mesh point, her ability to function as a DHO hub has stood out, though her screen-and-roll game could generously be described as “raw.”

Iriafen’s defense is a mixed bag. First, the good: It’s rare to see a 6’3 big with her versatility on the perimeter. She offers real value as a wing defender, capable of containing dribble penetration, providing solid help-side awareness and using her hip flexibility to stick with shooters off screens. Now, for the bad, there’s little indication Iriafen can hold up as a five at the next level — something her college coaches rarely asked her to do anyway. Her post defense lacks physicality, and she struggles with timing, short-area explosiveness and verticality as a rim protector. Iriafen posted a 2.0% block rate, the same as 5’11 teammate Talia von Oelhoffen.

Variance: High

7. Saniya Rivers, wing?, NC State

Similar to: Los Angeles Brittney Sykes, Bilal Coulibaly

In a world without the Lyon center, Saniya Rivers would be the best pure athlete in the 2025 draft. The 6’1 defensive dynamo has a lengthy stride that eats up ground, a massive vertical leap, historic rotational flexibility and ridiculous quickness that allows her to put opposing ball-handlers and bigs alike in a maelstrom.

The selling point on Rivers is her ability to defend multiple, if not most, positions at an elite level. Her combination of size, athleticism and great instincts allows her to defend 1-4, and not just holding her own, but actively dominating those matchups, especially against point guards. Her timing and rotations are precise and extraordinary, and her ability to process, diagnose and cover weak points in her team’s defense borders on the supernatural. Her ability to contest, block and simply erase smaller players is frightening. Right down to legitimate rim protection, Rivers is flat-out one of the handful best non-center defensive prospects in women’s basketball history.

As you would expect for someone of her athletic profile, Rivers thrives in transition, but the rest of her offensive game lags behind the other end, to say the least. Her vision and ability to read the floor help her to be a good passer, but her scoring touch leaves quite a bit to be desired. Her jump shot is generally flat, inconsistent, and she tends to settle for that jumper far more often than required for someone of her athletic gifts. Rivers has also struggled to score consistently at the rim, the main thing that separates her from similar archetypes like Gabby Williams or Jordan Horston, but when the shots are falling, she looks like a superstar (see: Nov 12, 2023 vs. UConn).

The hope for Rivers is that she finds a way to cut the waste out of her offensive game, and either make spot-up shots or generate offense for herself at the rim at a high enough level that she is able to stay on the floor and flaunt her game-changing defense. That will require deliberately retraining her jumper form and/or finishing approach, as well as how she approaches the concept of scoring, steps she has yet to look interested in taking.

Variance: High

8. Sania Feagin, center, South Carolina

Similar to: Kevon Looney, Michelle Snow on steroids

In a W still dominated by the frontcourt, in a multi-year span where good true centers have been hard to come by, Sania Feagin is just a really good, smart basketball player. Dawn Staley has churned out WNBA post players in the 10 years since she recruited A’ja Wilson to Columbia, and while Feagin may not be the superstar Wilson or Aliyah Boston was, she is a pro-ready center for a league of teams paying through the nose for post depth.

Feagin doesn’t have the same level of one-on-one offensive ability as some of the more decorated Gamecock alums, but she has proven to be a reliable complementary piece on multiple championship teams. Where every player needs time to develop into the best collegiate player they can be, Feagin needed even more time to get committed to buying in and locking in on a possession-to-possession basis, slowly but steadily earning more minutes until Staley saw her “feel[ing] and sound[ing] like what she was capable of,” earning a full-time rotation spot last year and the starting gig this year. Over these past two seasons, she has shown her smooth spot-up midrange shot (41.4% on 58 midrange jumpers, per Synergy), finishing ability and her skill as a passer anywhere on the court. Her post-up process has improved to where she can consistently seal open angles and finish, though doing so through tougher contests isn’t nearly as reliable. Her screening game in particular has come a long way toward making her a quality contributor even outside the post. Feagin’s not going to be a top scoring option in the WNBA, but neither will she be someone who can be completely ignored in any facet on that end.

Defensively, Feagin has been a standout for an elite unit. Her communication, footwork and coordination are great, and her feel and timing in help has been very good. She is almost never out of position, especially impressive in her ability to recover from hedges or shows. The main concerns for Feagin defensively are her propensity for cheap, early fouls and mediocre rebounding.

Many may scoff at the rather paltry box score numbers that Feagin put up in her time at South Carolina, but instead of transferring, she went through the work of, basically, getting her head in the game and playing up to her talent level. That’s a level of coachability and dedication that can be hard to find. It may also mean that there is still more in her game to achieve now that she’s reached this level mentally.

Variance: Medium

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9. Shyanne Sellers, wing, Maryland

Similar to: Iziane Castro Marques, Devin Vassell

If Shyanne Sellers had two consistently healthy legs, she’d be a top-five player in this class. Instead, she’s suffered multiple lower-body injuries each of the past two years, including four separate incidents that injured or reaggravated her right knee this season. That’s the difference between an explosive two-way wing and a limited spot scorer.

At her best, Sellers has the kind of quick-twitch athleticism that allows her to operate in a phonebooth and the core stability to pull off acrobatic finishes and passes and tough closeouts and rotations. She is a true three-level scorer, that rare breed: a reliable, good, one-motion catch-and-shoot 3-pointer since she cleaned up her form two summers ago, with the ability to hit off the dribble but for not being able to consistently stabilize her center of gravity; a good-but-not-great midrange pull-up jumper that she’s comfortable with anywhere from the rim to just inside the arc, with a high release point and natural fadeaway that makes it nearly unblockable, plus a devastating floater; and great finishing thanks to excellent body control around and through contact and a strong ability to draw fouls. The process of getting to those shots is even more impressive, with a deep bag, strong nose for manipulating on-ball defenders to get downhill and eagerness to put smaller defenders in the cup. Great passing velocity and good screening help her teammates as well.

There’s also Sellers’ combination of both a guard-like ability to defend in space with good hands and feet on the perimeter to disrupt her assignment, and the forward-like length to make an impact in backline help rotations.

At her worst, Sellers is hampered by injuries and otherwise plays impatiently, undisciplined. She can’t get downhill past her defender, and lacks the explosiveness to stop on a dime and rise up over tight coverage; shots get tougher, and while she’s still an excellent scorer, she’s severely inconsistent. Her ability to pass into tight windows is overshadowed by poor anticipation. She closes out with heavy feet and is easily blown by off the catch on defense, and frequently fails to make team rotations.

Those defensive problems in particular predate the bulk of her knee issues and haven’t gotten any better. It’s possible Sellers’ overall defensive game would have improved this season if she had been healthy, but it’s impossible to know.

Variance: Medium

10. JJ Quinerly, off-ball guard, West Virginia

Similar to: Miles McBride, quicker Alex Bentley

To say nothing of her staggering two-way production, JJ Quinerly has arguably the best soft factors of anyone in this class. Between earning Big 12 postseason honors under three different coaches, changing her jumper form even after an all-conference first team selection and having possibly the biggest motor in the nation, Quinerly has proven not only an eagerness to put in relentless work but the ability to quickly adapt that work into her game at a high level.

Quinerly is known best for her defense, and for good reason. In two years under head coach Mark Kellogg’s full-court press/halfcourt zone scheme, she’s become the back-to-back Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, one of the couple most productive point of attack defenders of the past 15 years. She has elite hands both on the ball and in one-pass-away help, leading to excellent pressure on ball-handlers and passing lanes, and she’s got superb body control for recovering over ball screens and providing better backline help than a 5’8 player has any right to. Quinerly is merely very good at actually navigating those screens, but makes up for it with an uncanny ability to play the ball from beside or behind the driver for constant downhill disruption. When playing ball-denial, her ability to track both the ball and her assignment helps play up her hands in help, and she is the best in the class at rotating and closing out while maintaining a two-way go on her feet.

On paper, Quinerly’s offensive game should clearly be WNBA-caliber: Since making changes to clean up her jump shot mechanics two offseasons ago, mostly related to hand positioning, she has shot a very solid 35.5% on catch-and-shoot 3-pointers and an elite 44.6% on pull-up midrange jumpers, per Synergy. A nasty handle, great off-ball movement both inside the arc and around the perimeter, great screening and very strong creativity on the ball to get to her spots provide plus ancillary skills as well. But Quinerly doesn’t have much of a floor to prevent the bottom falling out when the shots aren’t hitting — poor rim pressure on her own, mediocre deceleration and pedestrian playmaking for a 2-guard. This has been an issue against the better defenses she’s faced.

Whether Quinerly’s scoring struggles against top competition are more about her skill set or the almost complete dearth of offensive talent on West Virginia’s roster lately is the key to her future prospects, because she’s not the kind of screen navigator or dominant athlete to have her defense raise the floor enough on her profile to still be a top pro.

Variance: High

40 FV

11. Aziaha James, off-ball guard, NC State

Similar to: Bennedict Mathurin, Betty Lennox

Can I interest you in a midrange-operating 2-guard with a career 2-point accuracy near 50% and a highlight reel full of ankle-breakers and mind-boggling finishes at the rim? Of course I can. Meet Aziaha James.

James has a few excellent skills to her name, all residing under the bucket-getting umbrella. She’s hit over 40% of her pull-up twos since breaking into the rotation as a sophomore, per Synergy, including a ludicrous 50% this year, and the shoulder stability on the jumper says those numbers are probably prescriptive. She’s got a great handle, with a variety of crossers, hesis and spins. She’s a crafty finisher who can work around contact from ridiculous angles while realigning in midair. She’s smooth attacking off the catch and actively adjusts her approach off the dribble. She’s a quality pull-up 3-point shooter on significant volume and good enough spotting-up to still be guarded off the ball.

Every other aspect of James’ game is just about fine. Her passing is fine, her shot distribution for someone who takes this many 2-pointers is fine, her cutting is fine. She’s somewhere between mediocre and decent guarding on the ball, chasing around screens, providing off-ball help and x-ing out. She isn’t great shooting off of uncomfortable bases, however, and is totally unswitchable, toast in the post against wings.

What works in James’ favor despite an overall profile that is usually prone to plateauing — “non-playmaking midrange shot-creator with low-usage defense” is the right-right first baseman of basketball — is a relatively positive development arc. James has made appreciable gains every year at NC State, from adding a pull-up three to improving her consistency to getting to the rim more often. It’s hard to predict where she could continue rounding out her game next, but it’s reason to believe in her more than a similar player like Lucy Olsen.

Variance: Medium

12. Ajsa Sivka, combo forward, Tarbes (Wonderligue, France)

Similar to: Cathrine Kraayeveld, Sam Hauser

A 6’3 19-year-old putting up good 3-point numbers against Europe’s best competition while throwing eye-popping passes and guarding the opponents’ best wing. A teenager who’s struggled with injuries the past few years, and in her first healthy season started off strong before her play fell off a cliff halfway through. Obviously these are both Ajsa Sivka, but whether the story that makes them cohesive is “normal growing pains” or “an early season flash in the pan” is all the difference.

The potential for Sivka is a 3-&-D combo forward, with a nice plus sign next to the “3.” Her shooting form is super compact and incredibly quiet through her hips and shoulders, and she does not need to perfectly set her feet to get her weight balanced, allowing her to take off-screen and pull-up threes with ease. Her form is similar and her shoulders stable on midrange shots off the dribble, but she seems to still be intimidated by how fast defenders can close out despite her release point. She’s got great foot speed, lateral quickness and hip flexibility for her size, which translates to very good mirroring in iso and speed-to-power conversion to contest drives every step of the way downhill. Sivka’s ball-denial is good as well without her taking herself completely out of the play, and her backline awareness and timing have continued to improve.

The possible “plus” on the first half of “3-&-D” mostly comes from Sivka’s passing. She’s a gifted PnR passer in the two-player game with elite velocity from any angle, very good accuracy with flashes of plus anticipation, and the ability to make quarter-court prescribed reads quickly enough that it could translate to drive-and-kick playmaking.

But even if Sivka did play to her season-long stats on a consistent night-to-night basis, the limitations to her game are strong. Her dribble control is fine but not good enough to frequently get downhill, and without much improvement there’s little upside in the midrange either. Her deceleration is basically non-exist and there isn’t enough of a finishing package to make up for it. Though she’s excellent using off-ball screens, when she’s not trying to fly off of one, she doesn’t move much. Those are all difficult to fix, if you believe they’re fixable. Her ball screen navigation is also poor, but given her hip flexibility and defensive dexterity, it’s likely this is more of Sivka not yet knowing how to physically stick through screens than not being able to.

Variance: High

13. Anastasiia Olairi Kosu, combo forward, UMMC (Premier League, Russia)

Similar to: Kalana Greene on a pogo stick

The Olairi Kosu experience is unlike anything we’ve ever evaluated, considering both the tape and the level of competition in the Russian league in 2025. She is the best athlete on the court at all times in every direction, averaging 4.9 offensive rebounds and 6.1 stocks (steals + blocks) per 40 minutes.

On defense, Kosu has the tools to guard at least three positions at a high level, thanks to her excellent vertical, lateral and straight-line athleticism. Her hips are incredibly fluid, allowing her to stick with drivers in isolation, though despite unbelievable rotational flexibility she has been uncomfortable mirroring guards at getting over ball screens at the point of attack. Kosu also has the length and instincts to create chaos in passing lanes or blocking shots helping over from the weakside or switching onto bigger players. Her second jump is even more explosive (and rarer) than her first, helping her make plays most players can’t. The question now is whether she can rein in her gambling tendencies and turn her elite physical tools into disruptive point of attack defense. If she does that, you’re looking at one of the best defenders in the league.

Offensively, Kosu remains a work in progress. Right now, she’s a complete non-shooter who scores almost exclusively in the paint, which puts pressure on her to fill gaps in other areas. Luckily, she’s already an elite rebounder, a sharp cutter, draws fouls at a high rate and shows impressive mid-air body control at the rim. If Kosu can become a reliable screener in primary actions and make passing reads quick enough to keep the ball moving, there’s a foundation to build on.

Variance: Highest

14. Georgia Amoore, point guard, Kentucky

Similar to: Crystal Dangerfield with an efficient shot profile, Patty Mills

There have only been three high-major players since 2010 who have averaged 18 points and six assists in multiple seasons: Caitlin Clark, Sabrina Ionescu and Georgia Amoore, per Her Hoop Stats. Yet, for Amoore, whether that will translate to a productive WNBA career is unclear.

Starting with the offense, Amoore’s biggest strength is her processing. She is a superb live-dribble playmaker and picks defenses apart by keeping them on their toes, whether she will pull up, drive or relocate. She uses the Nash dribble better than anyone in college basketball, stringing out defenders and manipulating space with her patience. She’s added counters to her scoring process with a smooth floater game and improved finishing (61.8% on halfcourt rim attempts, per Synergy). Amoore is also a deadly midrange scorer with a good handle and impressive bend to create space on pull-ups. Off the ball, she’s a great shooter, off of movement or spotting-up, and she has a good feel for relocations.

The swing skill for Amoore’s prospects is her 3-point shooting consistency (27.9% on pull-up threes over the last two seasons, per Synergy). Her shot-selection can be questionable at times, and her shooting can fluctuate from game to game or even quarter to quarter. It’s the difference between her looking like the second coming of Steph Curry across the second half of her junior season and her shooting herself out of games at times as a senior. Given that she’s 24 years old, you’d have hoped these inconsistencies would have been cleaned up by now.

Amoore has good off-ball instincts on defense and is generally in the right spots when chasing shooters. The challenge is how you keep her from being targeted every time down the court in ball screens. Her poor on-ball footwork and positioning result in her allowing dribble penetration at a high rate.

Variance: High

15. Sarah Ashlee Barker, combo forward, Alabama

Similar to: Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, Ben Sheppard

After returning from a lower leg injury on Jan. 26, Barker was one of the best players in the country, averaging 21.2 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 4.6 assists on 60.9% true shooting over her last 13 games, per Sports Reference.

On offense, Barker’s game flows from her constant motor, making her a seamless fit in any system. She’s an elite finisher, able to control the tempo of her drives out of ball screens, explode downhill to her right, and convert with outstanding footwork, body control and positioning around the rim. She’s also a strong cutter, attacks closeouts well and thrives in transition by consistently beating defenders down the court. Her 3-point shot is clean — 39.6% on 91 catch-and-shoot attempts, per Synergy — though she can be hesitant to let it fly at times despite being able to hit while deeply contested. While Barker often forces risk-reward jump passes in a high-usage role, she has good passing vision. Her playmaking should scale well into an off-ball context.

Defensively, Barker profiles as a reliable team defender at the next level with her athleticism, toughness and energy. At Alabama, she often defended up a position against opposing 4s due to their four-guard lineups, but in the WNBA, she’ll likely only match up with smaller off-ball 4s like Kayla Thornton, Nia Coffey or Alysha Clark. Barker is a sharp off-ball and help defender who communicates well and consistently makes plays — as shown by a 3.5% steal rate and 2.3% block rate this season. While her footwork and angles can be inconsistent at the point of attack, her effort helps mask some of those worries.

Variance: Medium

16. Aneesah Morrow, power forward, LSU

Similar to: Glory Johnson, Precious Achiuwa

We’ve never seen a player like Aneesah Morrow before. That’s both an enticing prospect and a warning sign.

Morrow is an enticing offensive player: one of the few most prolific offensive rebounders of all time, the outline of a matchup nightmare at the 4 with her combination of strength and quickness and willingness to score from any spot creating moments where she looks completely unguardable. Unfortunately, those moments never became more consistent from the flashes of utter dominance as a Blue Demon. Morrow struggles to score efficiently from just about anywhere on the floor, having shot 30.5% on 2-point jumpers at LSU, per Synergy, and struggling at the rim against quality defenders with pro-caliber length.

Perhaps the most concerning piece of Morrow’s offensive game is her lack of balance. Despite her strength, Morrow is frequently caught off-balance while trying to get to her spots, which leads to the shots she takes being much more difficult than they should be, and her to be laying on her back on the floor quite a lot. Her scoring totals are quite impressive, but will she be able to bully bigger and stronger players at the next level?

Defensively, Morrow is often a pest in passing lanes and defending opposing players with a weaker handle, allowing her to create turnovers and start the break. This, along with her prodigious rebounding ability, is the main hope for any sort of defensive leap in the WNBA. In Baton Rouge, Morrow’s defense has been near disastrous. She cannot contain drivers, she does not provide consistent rim protection and her off-ball defense oscillates between gambling and nonexistent. When tasked with providing primary paint coverage, she allowed open lanes to the rim time and time again. This will have to improve if she is to be a positive impact player in the W.

Morrow dazzled crowds at Wintrust Arena during her freshman and sophomore seasons at DePaul, scoring a ton of points, grabbing every rebound available and dominating the majority of the Big East including the high-level post and big wing defenders she faced. Her role at LSU changed drastically from the time when she used to take a half-dozen or more 3-pointers in a game, but Morrow’s ability to mold the game around her to her will remained. Whether she can continue to mold the game will depend on how much she can adapt to new roles.

Variance: Low

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30 FV

17. Bree Hall, off-ball guard, South Carolina

Similar to: Sydney Wiese

No prospect in recent draft history fits the 3-&-D term more than Bree Hall. She’s a good spot-up shooter and wing defender, but don’t expect anything more in the way of shot-creation, closeout attacking or passing.

Starting with the defense, this has been her calling card over the last four seasons, taking on the assignment of defending the likes of Madison Booker, Mikaylah Williams and Sellers. Hall is excellent at defending 3s by using her length and sound footwork to bother wing scorers. She’s a good help defender, too, with a high motor and attention to detail on the defensive end. However, Hall doesn’t have the rotational flexibility to get around good screens at the point of attack, which hinders her ability to stay with faster ball-handlers and limits her defensive utility.

Offensively, Hall plays within herself and maximizes her strengths. She’s constantly moving around the perimeter with clean, repeatable shooting mechanics and has knocked down 38.3% of her catch-and-shoot 3s the past two years, per Synergy. Hall doesn’t force the issue and understands her weaknesses — her 13.9% usage rate is among the lowest you’ll ever see from a non-big prospect. She struggles to create off the dribble due to stiff hips, limited explosiveness and a poor handle overall. She doesn’t finish well at the rim because of this, converting just 31.4% of her only 35 halfcourt rim attempts this season, per Synergy. As a passer, she can make basic reads in stationary situations but doesn’t provide much playmaking value.

Variance: Low

18. Lucy Olsen, off-ball guard, Iowa

Similar to: AD Durr, Philadelphia Shake Milton

Do you love old-school basketball and think all these newfangled 3-pointers are ruining the game? Have you complained that nobody respects the midrange anymore? Do you wanna see point guards posting up? Did you like Aziaha James, but want a player with way more rotational stability on awkward-looking jumpers who is to varying degrees worse at almost everything else? Well, Lucy Olsen is the player for you.

Olsen is one of the best midrange scorers in the country. Her burst, strength and core stability at the guard spot allow her to get to her spots against smaller defenders and her high release point nullifies most attempts at contesting her shot. She gets to this shot off of an infinite variety of actions and angles, making her one of the most versatile shot-creators in years on a shot-to-shot basis. Olsen also finished her senior season on a hot streak from behind the 3-point line, which brought her numbers back in line with her breakout sophomore campaign and, if continued as a professional, is the skill she needs to keep her on a roster. But while Olsen’s passing is good, it’s not elite, and guards with such a heavy reliance on taking and making difficult shots need either another high-level skill or incredibly strong shooting consistency.

Olsen’s defense is nothing to write home about. She has never been a tremendous defender, and the infrastructure built at Iowa the last decade or so did nothing to encourage her on that end of the ball. She can struggle to stay in front of drivers and fall asleep off the ball.

But the game is about a bucket! And very few college basketball players have been better than Lucy Olsen at putting the ball in the hoop the last two seasons.

Variance: Medium

19. Hailey Van Lith, combo guard, TCU

Similar to: Tyler Kolek, Coco Miller

After a basketball odyssey, including three different schools in two or three different roles, Hailey Van Lith is just a good and solid combo guard that can add value to a PnR offense.

Van Lith is a good but not great shooter, a very good but not elite playmaker, and was at times excellent operating the PnR at TCU. Despite her gaudy scoring numbers at Louisville and her reputation as a shooter, Van Lith’s 3-point shooting never quite caught up to her ability inside the arc. But where she did develop later in her college career was her scoring at the rim, where she has shown herself to be a crafty driver with a lot of ways to score through small windows and find ways to the rim in spite of her physical limitations, her strong deceleration creating opportunities there and in the short midrange.

Van Lith is a bit undersized and a half-step slow, which makes a bigger difference on the defensive end, where she is not the one leading the dance. The lasting image (the shrug picture) of her time at LSU is the purest manifestation of this problem, where she was a step slow and too small to make an impact at the point of attack. She is a capable chaser, though, fairly good at navigating off-ball screens and playing near the top of opposing PnRs well enough for that secondary role.

Variance: Medium

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