After back-to-back years in which the top pick in the WNBA Draft was a foregone conclusion — Caitlin Clark to the Indiana Fever in 2024, Paige Bueckers to the Dallas Wings in 2025 — who will go No. 1 in the 2026 iteration remains a mystery.
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Most mock drafts have three players who could go first overall to the Dallas (who selected Bueckers first a year ago): Connecticut’s Azzi Fudd, TCU’s Olivia Miles, and Spanish center Awa Fam.
Fudd, 23, averaged 17.3 points per game in her final collegiate season, her best scoring season for the Huskies. She won a championship in 2025 with Bueckers as her teammate, but she struggled in the tournament this year. In her last three games at UConn, Fudd averaged only 10.3 points, scoring only eight in a season-ending loss to South Carolina in the Final Four.
At the next level, Fudd projects to be a great 3-point shooter and a serviceable defender at guard. Adding a layer of intrigue is that Fudd is currently in a romantic relationship with Bueckers, with the two going public in July 2025.
Fam is perhaps the highest-ceiling prospect in the draft, but also the most mysterious. Playing for Valencia in Spain — in the top professional league for women — the 19-year-old Fam is averaging 9.2 points and 5.0 rebounds per game. At 6-foot-6 with interior scoring and passing skills, Fam could become more than just a complementary piece, and maybe a star in her own right. But her age makes her more of a gamble than the college stars who have played against each other for several years.
Miles averaged a career-best 19.6 points per game for the Horned Frogs in 2025-26, her first year with the team after four seasons at Notre Dame. Miles is not quite the shooter Fudd is, but she makes up for her so-so outside game with an ability to get to the rim and the free-throw line. Miles is an especially great playmaker, averaging 6.5 assists in her college career. Her ability to create for others makes her a great pick for a team that doesn’t need a ball-dominant scorer.
It’s been an eventful year for the WNBA already. Following a contentious labor negotiation that dragged on until March, the league has already held an expansion draft earlier this month. Free agency also began before the annual draft, and players signed record contracts in wake of the new collective bargaining agreement.
The 2026 regular season is set to begin on May 8.
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