WNBA announces details for 2024 draft lottery
(WISH) — The Indiana Fever will soon be on the clock.
The WNBA announced Tuesday that the 2024 draft lottery will be at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 10.
A half-hour special will air between the final two games of the Basketball Hall of Fame Women’s Showcase tripleheader.
The Fever once again have the best chance at getting the No. 1 overall pick. Indiana’s team has a 44.2% chance, with 442 opportunities out of 1,000. The Phoenix Mercury have the second-best chance with 27.6% — followed by the Los Angeles Sparks (17.8%) and Seattle Storm (10.4%).
The chances are calculated by looking at the team’s record from both this season and last season. The Fever finished those two years with a 18-58 cumulative record. The lowest the Fever can fall in the draft is third.
The lottery works similarly to the NBA lottery. Balls numbered from 1-14 will be mixed in a lottery machine. Four balls are then drawn out to form a four-digit number. Whichever team has been given that combination will have the No. 1 overall pick. The process starts over to decide the No. 2 pick, and so forth.
If the Fever get the first overall pick, it would be the second straight season Indiana’s team will choose first. Last year, the Fever picked Aliyah Boston from South Carolina, who was named Rookie of the Year among an impressive and dominant first season in the WNBA.
Currently, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark is the favorite to be the No. 1 pick if she decides to come into the WNBA and not stay another year with the Hawkeyes. The sharpshooter made 140 three-pointers last season alone, racking up 1,055 total points. Clark dominated for the Hawkeyes on their way to the national championship, which they ultimately lost to LSU, 102-85.
After the 2023 season ended, Fever general manager Lin Dunn didn’t shy away from talking about the possibility of adding Clark to the Fever roster.
“If we were to draft Caitlin Clark with the first pick, there’s no doubt in my mind there’ll be a lot of people in Iowa moving to Indiana, moving to Indianapolis, or they’d be figuring out how to come back and forth so it’s great,” Dunn said.
Even if the Fever have the third overall pick, or if Clark decides to stay at Iowa, Dunn’s confident the Fever will have another big time player coming to Indianapolis with more moves coming in free agency.
“I think we will get a significant player out of next year’s draft,” Dunn said. “I feel confident that we’ll get a significant free agent in next year’s free agency. So that’s adding two players to what we already have.”
The 2024 WNBA draft is scheduled for April 15.