WNBA Draft winners and losers: UCLA seniors, Cathy Engelbert, Azzi Fudd

WNBA Draft winners and losers: UCLA seniors, Cathy Engelbert, Azzi Fudd

The longest draft in WNBA history is in the books. The players selected Monday will be better compensated than any draft class in league history, and they’ll also have more opportunities to make the league now that it offers 15 rosters with 12 players each and up to two developmental player spots per team.

Forty-five picks are a whirlwind to process, especially on the heels of a two-day free agency frenzy. Here is our best attempt to sort through the winners and losers of the 2026 WNBA Draft.

Winner: UCLA

This was a given heading into the draft, and the Bruins delivered. Six players were selected among the first 18 picks, as UCLA set a record for first-rounders (five) from one school and total draftees (six) from the same program. It was a banner night for the program just eight days after winning a national championship, another celebration of what the Bruins have accomplished in building their program.

The last two UCLA selections — Gianna Kneepkens and Charlisse Leger-Walker — played only one season in Los Angeles and essentially served as walking advertisements for coach Cori Close as she and her staff work the transfer portal. The Bruins’ glow extends to those who even pass through the program on their way to the WNBA, a useful reminder for rising seniors who are making their decisions about where to play next season.

Loser: Whoever didn’t invite Leger-Walker

The theme of UCLA’s season was the joy the Bruins derived from playing with and for each other. To exclude one of their six players from the experience of being invited to the draft, and all the goodies that come along with that, is a misunderstanding of why UCLA was so good. It’s not as if Leger-Walker’s prospects were significantly worse than her teammates’; she was taken three picks after Gianna Kneepkens and before another green room invitee.

It doesn’t appear that there was room for only 15 tables at The Shed. The WNBA could have easily made room for Leger-Walker, and if the group became too Bruins-heavy, that is an accurate reflection of their season and the caliber of that team.

Winner: Azzi Fudd

The No. 1 pick in the draft is another obvious winner, especially when there was debate about the selection up until commissioner Cathy Engelbert read Fudd’s name. Fudd will earn $500,000 in her rookie season, about $33,000 more than if she had been taken second. The UConn star will always have the caché of being a No. 1 pick and the financial incentives that come with it. It was a beautiful moment — accented by Fudd’s second spectacular dress of the night — to celebrate with her parents and her Huskies teammates, including past and future teammate Paige Bueckers. Playing with Bueckers is a win for anyone, as free agency proved for the Dallas Wings.

Loser: Dallas Wings

Fudd is an excellent player, but she isn’t the best prospect the Wings could have drafted. Dallas signed frontcourt veterans in free agency that led them in Fudd’s direction when the best choice would have been to draft center Awa Fam Thiam and figure out the positional fit later. If things go according to plan, the Wings won’t be drafting this high for as long as Bueckers is in Dallas, and this was their opportunity to land a generational talent. For all of Fudd’s gifts as a shooter, she doesn’t have the upside of Fam Thiam.

Winner: Seattle Storm

The Storm did what Dallas couldn’t, ignoring lineup concerns in the present to take the best possible player. Fam Thiam and Dominique Malonga are an incredibly exciting future pairing. Malonga has excelled as a rim-runner and shot-blocker already, while Fam Thiam reads the floor well in the half court and can play-make for her new frontcourt partner. They can play alongside each other, with Ezi Magbegor — who has also toggled between the four and five positions in her Seattle tenure — and with Stefanie Dolson, who provides some necessary spacing on this roster.

The Storm also picked up Flau’jae Johnson without having to spend a first-round pick. Johnson was pretty clearly one of the top 10 prospects in the draft, and Seattle acquired her for two second-rounders (the 2026 No. 16 pick and a 2028 second). With all due respect to Jordan Horston, the Storm didn’t really have any foundational pieces outside of the frontcourt coming into this draft, and now they get a look at Johnson.

Winner: Flau’jae Johnson’s brother

The video of Aydin joining his big sister in her interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe is already a relic, as they are wearing Golden State Valkyries hats. But of all the family members who came to support their draftees Monday, Johnson’s little brother clearly has the most star power.

Loser: ESPN’s trade announcement

The WNBA Draft hasn’t featured many in-draft trades. Plenty of picks move ahead of time, but rarely are deals announced during the broadcast. ESPN didn’t have any theatrics for when Johnson was traded from Golden State to Seattle — no musical cue or an alert on the ticker. This seems easy to address, considering how well ESPN presents trades during the NBA Draft, or even the NBA trade deadline. As the league continues to expand, and day-of deals become a more regular part of the draft experience, this is something the league’s broadcast partners should look into to add to the drama of the draft.

Winner: Janiah Barker

As ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo said prior to the Aces’ second-round pick, what Las Vegas needed from the draft was a player on a rookie salary. Janiah Barker has a great chance of sticking on the Aces’ roster and learning from perhaps the greatest player in league history at her position. Barker has all of the physical tools to be a WNBA star but hasn’t been able to put them together consistently or fit within a team construct. Las Vegas was the best possible landing spot for Barker. She won’t be relied on to produce and will be surrounded by veterans who expect nothing less than a winning standard. Other teams might have been scared of spending an earlier pick on Barker if she flamed out, but the Aces don’t have those concerns. They believe in their culture and are going to test it on Barker.

Loser: Engelbert’s comments on housing

After saying that she feels good about her relationship with players following a contentious process for the new collective bargaining agreement, the commissioner put her foot in her mouth while discussing some of the issues that dominated the negotiations.

“I would say probably the main moment was housing, quite frankly,” Engelbert said. “I didn’t know how important and emotional that was for them, because I just assume, having two children in their 20s, who pay for their own housing, that once (players) were making these much-increased salaries, that that wasn’t something they would need or want. But they made it very clear, it was very important to them. It was an emotional issue.”

Regardless of how Engelbert felt about the topic, this didn’t feel like the appropriate response. She didn’t have to compare the players to her children when they function more like partners in the WNBA. It would have been so much easier to focus on the progress of the new CBA than inserting this strange interlude.

Loser: Utah, Ohio State and Notre Dame

The portal era is very strange on draft night. Kneepkens, Cotie McMahon and Olivia Miles graduated from Utah, Ohio State and Notre Dame, respectively, and were announced as first-round picks from UCLA, Ole Miss and TCU. Much of the work that went into shaping them as players started earlier in their college careers, and there was little to no acknowledgment of that part of their journey. Some players obviously move on to other schools when their first choice is no longer serving them — McMahon and Miles seem very happy to have finished their college careers where they did. But Kneepkens seemed pretty fulfilled at Utah and mostly wanted a chance at winning once her original college coach Lynne Roberts left for the WNBA; there has to be a better way of recognizing her as a Bruins and a Utes.

Winner: Los Angeles Sparks

The Sparks didn’t have their 2026 first-round pick after trading it away in 2024 to draft Rickea Jackson. But Los Angeles still ended up with a first-round talent in Ta’Niya Latson, a blur of a scoring guard who can get downhill at will. The rim pressure Latson brings fits well in coach Lynne Roberts’ system that prioritizes layups and 3s, and she became a better defender in her time at South Carolina. The Sparks need some defense in the backcourt, and Latson will have an opportunity to make the roster because they have only seven players under contract, not including training camp deals.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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