On Sunday, November 15, the WNBA Draft Lottery will take place. This event will be pivotal to the future of the Toronto Tempo. For folks needing a primer on what the WNBA Draft Lottery is, how it works, and what its implications are for the Tempo, this piece is for you!
What is the WNBA Draft Lottery?
The WNBA Draft Lottery helps determine the order in which teams select players in the upcoming rookie draft. The lottery promotes competitive balance by giving struggling teams a better chance to draft talented young players. The hope is that these teams will eventually become competitive and successful again.
A great recent example is the Indiana Fever, who endured several losing seasons before drafting Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark in back-to-back years. Now, Indiana has become a regular playoff contender
This system helps distribute talent across the league, preventing the best players from becoming concentrated on just a handful of teams. Ultimately, this creates a more competitive and entertaining league for everyone.
How does it work?
Unlike other leagues (such as the MNBA), the WNBA takes the combined win-loss records of each team’s past two seasons to determine the lottery odds. For expansion teams with only one season under their belt (such as the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fore), lottery odds are based solely on the past season.
At the Draft Lottery, 14 lottery balls numbered 1 – 14 will be mixed in a lottery machine. Four balls will then be selected to create a unique four-number combination.
The six teams with the worst cumulative two-year records are given a series of four-number combinations. The team that possesses that unique four-number combination will receive the number 1 pick. The process will then repeat itself to determine the second overall pick.
Here are the combined win-loss records for the six teams and their respective odds:
Source: WNBA
No lottery balls are used for the third overall pick. Rather, this pick will be awarded to the remaining team with the worst record. The remaining picks will then all be decided by teams’ records.
What does this mean for the Toronto Tempo?
As mentioned above, this draft lottery could be pivotal to the future direction for the Toronto Tempo. Thanks to injuries and a disappointing second half to their inaugural season, the Tempo currently share the best odds to land the number one overall pick with the Houston Comets (formerly the Connecticut Sun).
The projected number 1 overall pick is Juju Watkins from USC. Juju is an athletic three-level scorer who can also get to the free throw line. Juju is a versatile defender with good length and strength. Many regard Juju Watkins as a generational talent who can elevate a team’s performance singlehandedly.
Although Juju is the crown jewel for this draft, the second and third pick would also be helpful to this Tempo team. Currently, Madison Booker (a mid-range sniper who has great size and can also defend) and Hannah Hidalgo (a smaller guard but wreaks havoc with her perimeter defense and speedy drives to the basket) are slated to be the next picks in the draft.
Based on the current odds,the Tempo are guaranteed a top-four pick in the 2027 WNBA Draft.
Remember, Sunday’s lottery only determines the draft order. The teams won’t actually select their players until the WNBA Draft in April 2027.
It goes without saying that Tempo fans will be hoping and praying for the number one overall pick!
Importantly, because the Draft Lottery will be on during the Grey Cup, it will only be aired on TSN Premium on Sunday at 7:30 PM ET.