The 2025 WNBA Draft Lottery will be held on Sunday, Nov. 17, commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced on Thursday during a press conference ahead of the Minnesota Lynx's dramatic overtime victory over the New York Liberty in Game 1 of the 2024 WNBA Finals.
The 30-minute TV special will take place after the conclusion of the women's basketball game between TCU and North Carolina State.
This year's event involves the Los Angeles Sparks, Dallas Wings, Chicago Sky and Washington Mystics, though the Sky cannot end up with the No. 1 pick due to the 2023 trade in which they acquired Marina Mabrey from the Wings in exchange for all sorts of draft capitol, including a first-round pick swap in the 2025 draft.
The other three teams, though, will have their fingers crossed that the ping pong balls bounce their way and grant them the opportunity to select UConn guard Paige Bueckers, the presumptive top pick. Ahead of the big event, here's everything you need to know:
2025 WNBA Draft Lottery
Date: Sunday, Nov. 17 | Time: 5 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN | Stream: fuboTV (try for free)
Lottery odds
Note: The Wings and Sky finished with identical 31-49 records over the past two seasons. When the WNBA announced the two-year lottery system in 2015, the league said the tiebreaker would be the worse record in the "immediately preceding season." The Wings finished 9-31 this season, while the Sky were 13-27. However, the team that wins the tiebreaker is not automatically bumped up to the better odds.
In this case, the Wings are not given the second-best odds of 27.6% and the the Sky given the third-best odds of 17.8%. Rather, the two probabilities (276 out of 1,000 and 178 out of 1,000) were added together and divided by two to get 227. Thus, each team gets a 22.7% chance at the top pick. If the chances had added up to an odd number, the extra chance would have gone to the Wings. Instead, the Wings are simply seeded above the Sky.
| Team | Combined 2023 and 2024 record | Odds of winning No. 1 pick |
|---|---|---|
Los Angeles Sparks | 25-55 | 44.20% |
Dallas Wings | 31-49 | 22.70% |
Chicago Sky | 31-49 | 22.70% |
Washington Mystics | 33-47 | 10.40% |
While the Sparks have the best individual odds at winning the No. 1 overall pick, the Wings have swap rights with the Sky's first-round pick this year via the Mabrey trade. Therefore, if either the Wings or the Sky win the lottery, the Wings will get the No. 1 pick. The combined odds of that happening (45.4%), are actually slightly higher than the Sparks' odds (44.2%).
Previous No. 1 overall picks in each franchise's history
Sparks
- 2012: Nneka Ogwumike
- 2008: Candace Parker
Wings
- 2021: Charli Collier
Mystics
- 1999: Chamique Holdsclaw
Top prospects in the 2025 class
The 2025 class will not match the group that entered the league last season. That would be an unrealistic expectation, though there are still some very good players set to turn pro next spring. Bueckers is an extremely high-level prospect who should make an immediate impact at the next level, and it would be a major surprise if she were not the presumed No. 1 and overall first pick.
After that, you're looking at the likes of USC forward Kiki Iriafen, LSU forward Aneesah Morrow, UConn guard Azzi Fudd and Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles as potential lottery picks.
Looking further down the board, UCLA forward Janiah Barker, Texas guard Rori Harmon, Maryland guard Shyanne Sellers, South Carolina guard Te-Hina Paopao and Notre Dame forward Sonia Citron are all early candidates to be late first-round selections.
