The 2026 WNBA Draft lottery will be held on Nov. 23 at 6:30 p.m. (ET). The lottery will determine the order for the 2026 draft on April 13, 2026.
Five teams are in the draft lottery this season: the Dallas Wings, Minnesota Lynx, Seattle Storm, Washington Mystics and Chicago Sky. Only the Wings and Mystics own their own picks. The Lynx have Chicago’s pick, the Storm have a lottery selection via the Los Angeles Sparks, and the Sky control Connecticut’s first-rounder.
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Lottery odds are based on two-year cumulative win totals, giving Dallas the best chances of securing the top pick for the second consecutive season after drafting Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers out of UConn in 2025. If the Wings receive the No. 1 pick, it would be the fifth time in the past 12 years that a team has won the top pick back-to-back, though the New York Liberty traded the pick in 2021 after winning it in the lottery.
Dallas has a 42 percent chance of selecting No. 1 overall, followed by Minnesota at 26.1 percent, Seattle at 16.7 percent, Washington at 9.7 percent and Chicago at 5.5 percent. The Wings cannot fall any lower than third, and the Lynx cannot fall any lower than fourth out of the five lottery teams.
The lottery expanded to five teams this season after the Golden State Valkyries joined the WNBA in 2025. Expansion teams are not a part of the lottery, and the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo will select in the sixth and seventh spots (though the order has yet to be determined) in the 2026 draft.
The process of conducting the lottery isn’t collectively bargained, which is why the WNBA can hold the event without the completion of a new CBA. The rules of the expansion draft are collectively bargained, however; thus, the Fire and Tempo cannot pick their rosters until a new CBA is reached.
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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Minnesota Lynx, New York Liberty, Seattle Storm, Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Mystics, Atlanta Dream, Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, Dallas Wings, Las Vegas Aces, Phoenix Mercury, Golden State Valkyries, Portland Fire, Toronto Tempo, WNBA
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