WNBA draft position

[Vowelguy]

I don't really follow the W, so I pieced together the information below based on what I could tell from websites. More knowledgeable folk may have more info than I.

I looked at the bottom half of the draft (picks 19-36).

From the 2015 draft, 0 of those players remain in the league.
From the 2016 draft, 4 of them remain (Alleyne, Alston, Fagenbale, Barbee). But none of the 4 seem to have not played last year, so perhaps they only survived because they were injured (?).

This seems to confirm what I had suspected: namely that the 3rd round is almost a throwaway.

 

[bballnut90]

Players selected in the last 10 years who've stuck for a few seasons as 3rd rounders include:
-Vicki Baugh
-Lynetta Kizer
-Krystal Thomas
-Charde Houston


Just about everyone else went by the wayside after year 1 or 2. It is tough when you have a league that only has spots for 144 players and each year you draft 36 players who will only likely be able to take 15-20 slots, and then that number just declines year after year.

 

[UcMiami]

vowelguy - in 2016 there were a total of 21 'rookies' who played at least one game in the WNBA and at least one of those was a 2015 grad (Simmons.) So you can knock out around 16 of the draftees in training camp and another 5-10 are hanging by a thread. It makes the staying power of players like Faris and Swanier, and Jessica Moore even more impressive.

bballnut90 - The actual number of W 'players' in any year is probably closer to 160 with injures and short contracts (Jasmine Lister played on two ten day contracts two years ago as an injury replacement.)

Not sure what the average career length in the W is, but I doubt it is over 5 years, but for players that last at least 2 years it probably quickly rises to around 8 - meaning there is a lot of churn at the beginning. (The average career in the NFL is somewhere around 4 years.)

 

[Striper69]

Unless they're married to someone with a stable, good paying job I imagine it's hard to survive very long trying to play in the WNBA.

They need a few more teams.

 

[UcMiami]

Unless they're married to someone with a stable, good paying job I imagine it's hard to survive very long trying to play in the WNBA.

They need a few more teams.

If you are able to make a WNBA team you are pretty well guaranteed of making at least double the W salary overseas and usually 4x or more. So working 'full time' you're able to earn well over six figures. For the first few years out of college that is not bad money, and the stars are earning a lot more, approaching or passing $1M. Not in the high rent district of male athletes but certainly a living that doesn't require a partner for support.

The ones that don't make W teams can still get decent pro contracts overseas - enough to support themselves for a few years either trying to develop to the point of making a W team, or just as a fun chance to live overseas and do something you love. Gardler did that in Sweden for a few years, Kaili did it in Greece where she starred and still with an eye to maybe cracking a W roster. Considering that a ton of college kids end up living at home or in 'squalor' for the first few years after graduation, it isn't that different and in many ways a lot more interesting.

 

[Orangutan]

This seems to confirm what I had suspected: namely that the 3rd round is almost a throwaway.

One recent exception - Jamierra Faulkner was the Sky's 3rd round pick in 2014 and has been with the team ever since then.

 

[Vowelguy]

2nd rounders S Cooper (#13), J Reynolds (#19), R Williams (#22) waived, though Cooper got picked up by another team

3rd rounders Chidom, Motley, & Tupaea also waived

 

[Vowelguy]

Bottom half of the draft: 7 of the 18 have already been cut