2024 WNBA draft: How to watch and everything you need to know as Caitlin Clark finds her professional home

CNN
 — 

Not since Sabrina Ionescu in 2020 has there been such pleasure round a participant coming into the WNBA draft than there may be at present towards Caitlin Clark.

After a historic season with the Iowa Hawkeyes – one which finally led to heartbreak with a defeat to South Carolina within the NCAA event nationwide championship recreation – Clark enters the draft because the overwhelming favourite to be chosen first general by the Indiana Fever.

However exterior of Clark, there are many gamers to maintain your eyes on, so right here’s every thing you could know forward of the 2024 WNBA draft.

The 2024 version of the WNBA draft shall be held on Monday on the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.

Protection begins at 7:30 p.m. E.T. on ESPN and might be streamed on the ESPN app or fuboTV.

After final 12 months’s heartbreaking nationwide championship recreation defeat, Clark’s final dance with the Hawkeyes nearly led to fairytale vogue.

Though Iowa finally fell on the closing hurdle once more – this time by the hands of South Carolina – Clark’s 2023-24 marketing campaign highlighted the impression she’s had on girls’s basketball by way of her reputation and distinctive skillset.

Wherever Clark has gone, Iowa has offered out arenas as ‘Clarkmania’ gripped the nation.

She grew to become the all-time main scorer in each males’s and ladies’s Division I faculty basketball in the course of the previous season, was named Naismith Participant of the Yr for the second consecutive season and had been named to the USA Basketball Girls’s Nationwide Group’s 14-player coaching camp roster, maybe paving the way in which for an Olympics look at Paris 2024. Nonetheless, Clark was unable to take part as a result of it was held the identical week because the Ultimate 4.

And now, with Clark confirming her intentions to go to the WNBA, that pleasure has been pushed ahead to what she may obtain within the execs.

Ticket costs to observe the Indiana Fever – the workforce who has the No. 1 decide within the draft and is predicted to pick out Clark – have greater than doubled, such is the anticipation to observe her long-range demolition of opposing defenses.

The Fever had one of many worst information within the league final season, however with final 12 months’s No. 1 general decide Aliyah Boston paired with Clark, it may make for field workplace viewing.

Outdoors of Clark, the 2024 WNBA draft class is loaded with expertise, with some potential franchise cornerstones up for grabs.

The following three predicted picks are a consensus amongst most draft analysts, though the order varies relying on the outlet.

Chief amongst these is Cameron Brink, the ahead out of Stanford.

The 22-year-old has developed into some of the dominant defensive gamers in girls’s faculty basketball over the previous couple of years, being named the 2024 Naismith Defensive Participant of the Yr.

Though her closing season with Stanford led to a disappointing Candy 16 defeat to NC State, Brink was capable of file 32 rebounds and 18 blocks in simply three 2024 NCAA event video games.

Brink is predicted by many mock drafts to be chosen with the No. 2 decide behind Clark, along with her game-changing defensive abilities doubtless to supply a strong basis to construct upon for the workforce that chooses her.

Tennessee ahead Rickea Jackson can be broadly predicted to be a top-five decide, after blossoming right into a dynamic scoring participant for the Volunteers.

One other workforce whose season ended with a shock loss to NC State within the NCAA event, Jackson averaged 20.2 factors and eight.2 rebounds per recreation in her closing season with Tennessee, main the Southeastern Convention in scoring.

Jackson has the mix of offensive firepower, athleticism and dimension, which frequently correlates with successful groups.

One other extremely coveted participant is South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso, whose draft inventory rose after successful the nationwide championship.

The Brazilian performed a key function within the Gamecocks’ unbeaten title-winning facet this season, successful the event’s Ultimate 4 Most Excellent Participant award by way of her dominant performances.

In her sole season beginning for South Carolina, Cardoso averaged 14.4 factors and 9.7 rebounds in addition to racking up 82 blocks all through the season.

Her mixture of energy and delicate footwork made her an nearly unstoppable drive all through the ladies’s NCAA event and ought to be a skillset which interprets to the WNBA.

Right here’s the complete decide order for the primary spherical of the 2024 WNBA draft:

1. Indiana Fever

2. Los Angeles Sparks

3. Chicago Sky

4. Los Angeles Sparks

5. Dallas Wings

6. Washington Mystics

7. Chicago Sky

8. Minnesota Lynx

9. Dallas Wings

10. Connecticut Solar

11. New York Liberty

12. Atlanta Dream