WNBA 2026 Draft Lottery odds: Dallas Wings have best chance at No. 1 overall pick

The regular WNBA 2025 season ended, which means that it is officially time for the teams linked to the lottery to turn their attention to next season. This process begins with the Lottery of the WNBA 2026 project, which will determine the selection order for the subsequent project.

The WNBA has not yet set a date for the recovery lottery, the draft or any intersane event due to the current work battle between the League and the National Basketball Players Association on a new collective agreement. We do not know when the Draft lottery will take place. In recent years, it has been at the end of November or early December.

The League has added its first expansion team since 2008 this season – the Golden State Valkyries, which qualified for the playoffs, becoming the first expansion team to do so during its inaugural season – but did not increase the number of teams of elimination series, which remains at eight. Thus, there are now five teams at the lottery.

This year’s lottery crew is Sky, Connecticut Sun, Dallas Wings, Los Angeles Sparks and Washington Mystics, but they will not be the five teams really really written in the lottery.

The sky owes their choice in the first round to the Lynx of Minnesota and the sparks owe their choice of first round to the storm of Seattle. In addition, the sun must exchange rights over their first -round choice in the sky. Because the sky also has the first round of Phoenix Mercury, the sky will become the most favorable of the choice of sun / mercury, while the sun will become the least favorable of these selections. With the sun with the lottery and the mercury in the eliminatory series, the sky is guaranteed to receive the choice of the sun.

The chances of lottery are based on the team which originally has the choice. As a reminder, the WNBA calculates the lottery dimensions based on the combined recordings of the last two seasons.

The Wings won the n ° 1 choice last year and used it to take Paige Bueckers, which will probably be the unanimous recruit of the year. Despite his best efforts, this season has been a disaster in Dallas. Arike Ogunbowale played well below his usual standards and the team was assailed by injuries. The Wings made two trades in mid -season – Nalyssa Smith at Las Vegas Aces for a first round choice in 2027 and Dijonai Carrington at Lynx for Diamond Miller and a second round choice in 2027 – to add assets and future tank. After establishing the losses record for a season with 34, they have the best odds of your choice n ° 1 (40%).

The sky had the choice n ° 3 last year, but exchanged it, as well as a first -round exchange in 2027, towards the Mystics of Ariel Atkins in a victory movement which turned spectacularly. Wounds, a bad game of veterans and drama outside the field have left the sky to the lottery for the second consecutive season – only this time, they owe their choice to the lynx via a previous trade and could give the overall choice n ° 1. their only saving grace is that the sun was forced to reconstruction and that they have rights for the choice of Connecticut, so they will always find themselves with a selection of lottery.

The Sparks obtained the choice n ° 2 in the draft last year, but decided to exchange it to the storm in a successful agreement which brought back Kelsey Plum, guardian of the All-Star and the choice n ° 9 (Sarah Ashlee Barker). Los Angeles Brass hoped that Plum and the new coach Lynne Roberts could bring them back to the playoffs for the first time since 2020. Instead, they took a start of 6-14 due to injuries and a poor defense that turned out to overcome. The storm went 15-9 in the past two months, partly thanks to the return of Cameron Brink, but was eliminated eliminatory series on Tuesday for the fifth consecutive season. They owe the storm their choice as part of the plum trade.

The mystics made the n ° 3, 4 and 6 choices in the 2024 draft and used these selections to add Sonia Citron, Kiki Iriafen and Georgia Amoore. While Moorus missed all the season due to an LCA, Lemon and Iriafen injury were fantastic. They were almost too good, in fact, because the mystics remained in the race for the playoffs much longer than anyone who expected. Finally, after exchanging Brittney Sykes for another choice of first round, the mystics faded in the lottery position for the second consecutive season. Due to a series of trades, they will again have three first round choices: their own selection of lottery, the storm and the New York Liberty’s.

The sun had to press the reset button for the last season after a massive exodus of Uncasville. Among those who left the city were Alyssa Thomas, Brionna Jones, Dewanna Bonner and coach Stephanie White. As expected, the sun has missed the playoffs for the first time since 2016. They do not have their own first round choice this year, because they owe the rights to the sky exchange via the Marina Mabrey agreement. And because the sky also has the first round of mercury, the sky will become the most favorable of the choices of sun / mercury, while the sun will become the least favorable of these selections. The choice of mercury that the sun will receive n ° 12 in total – better than nothing, but not the needs of the lottery that a reconstruction team needs.