With Sabrina Ionescu the top prize, the WNBA Draft Lottery will be held on Tuesday with the New York Liberty possessing the top odds.
The New York Liberty have been through a lot to get to this point. On Tuesday, two seasons of a difficult rebuild process could finally pay off.
WNBA Draft Lottery will be held on Tuesday night in Seacaucus, NJ. The Liberty enter the event with the top odds to land the top pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft, leading fellow non-playoff competitors from Indiana, Dallas, and Atlanta.
Drawing for the lottery will be held during halftime of the semifinal playoff matchup between the Connecticut Sun and Los Angeles Sparks (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2). Coverage will be hosted by studio host John Brickley with results revealed by WNBA head of league operations Bethany Donaphin.
Odds for the WNBA’s lottery are determined through the non-playoff squads’ cumulative record over the past two seasons. The Liberty have endured the worst seasons in their otherwise consistent history over the past two campaigns. Their 10-24 tally that wrapped up last week was an improvement from their 7-27 mark in 2018, but they nonetheless put a collaborative effort of 17-51, beating out the Indiana Fever (19-49) by two games.
The Liberty thus have the best odds to land the top overall pick next spring at 44.2%. Indiana holds a 27.6%, while the Dallas Wings (25-43) and Atlanta Dream (31-37) have their odds respectively placed 17.8 and 10.4%.
New York inadvertently “stole” the top odds from the Fever in the penultimate game of the season on Sept. 6 as an 86-81 loss granted the dark silver lining. The consensus top pick is Sabrina Ionescu, a point guard out of Oregon. Ionescu, 21, is the NCAA’s all-time leader in triple-doubles with 18.
As a junior, Ionescu won the John R. Wooden Award, earned annually by the most outstanding player in both the men’s and women’s collegiate level. Ionescu won the award alongside Zion Williamson of Duke. Williamson was named the top overall pick by the New Orleans Pelicans last spring.
The Liberty entered last season’s lottery with the fourth-best odds, but leapfrogged their way into the second slot. They went on to use that second overall pick on Asia Durr. The Louisville point guard dealt with injuries in her debut, but still managed to tally 9.7 points per game.
