November 4, 2023
Locked on Women’s Basketball: Discussing The Next’s 2024 WNBA draft board
By The Next
'One of my favorite parts of this is trying to see the different perspectives on different players'
In the latest episode of Locked on Women’s Basketball, Hunter Cruse, Em Adler and Lincoln Shafer discuss their preseason board for the 2024 WNBA Draft. This exercise is different from a mock draft because, instead of trying to project the order in which prospects will be chosen, it projects the “future value” of each prospect in the WNBA.
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All three co-hosts evaluated prospects for the preseason board, and in some cases, their opinions differed. Here’s Lincoln on one such difference:
“I’m high on [UCLA guard] Charisma Osborne. She is an incredible defender. She’s a really good playmaker, especially out of pick-and-roll. The outside shot hasn’t been there. I’m willing to chalk a lot of that up to the continued shoulder issues she’s had, which is not something that most people would do. But I still think that she can be a really good WNBA player. Her point-of-attack defense is something that really intrigues me.
“And we’re always gonna have differences on players … because that’s how basketball works is that nobody sees it the same as someone else. … One of my favorite parts of this is trying to see the different perspectives on different players.”
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Similarly, Hunter explains why he valued UConn forward Aaliyah Edwards higher than she ended up on the board:
“With the core strength, her lower-body flexibility and everything she can do as an athlete, I really value that, even though she’s slightly undersized at 6’3. I really value her technique and just how she operates at the center position. I think there’s a lot of versatility: You can put her at the four or the five. You likely want someone next to her that’s also got some more size to alleviate some of that pressure. But I think there’s a lot of value in someone like her.”
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