WNBA mock draft: Sunday's lottery to determine which team will win JuJu sweepstakes
Sunday’s WNBA draft lottery will decide which team gets the best odds at the top of a class led by JuJu Watkins, Madison Booker and Hannah Hidalgo.
The lottery does not hand out the players themselves. It sets the order, and that order can reshape a franchise’s future in one night, especially when the board includes three projected top picks.
Watkins sits at the center of the conversation, with Booker and Hidalgo also projected near the top. When a draft class has that kind of headline talent, the lottery becomes more than a procedural event; it becomes a race for leverage, with teams hoping to put themselves in position to land a cornerstone player.
That is why mock drafts can feel fluid before the order is even known. Front offices and fans can sketch out possibilities, but the real shape of the draft often depends on which team comes away with the first selection and how the rest of the lottery slots fall into place.
For teams involved, the stakes are clear. A top pick can accelerate a rebuild, change the tone of an offseason and give a franchise a player around whom it can build. For the players, the lottery simply adds another layer of anticipation to a process that already carries plenty of pressure.
What happens Sunday will not settle every question, but it will narrow the field. Once the lottery is complete, attention will turn quickly to how Watkins, Booker and Hidalgo fit into the top of the draft and which team gets the chance to make the first call.
