November 2, 2010 - 9:13pm
"And with the first pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft, the Minnesota Lynx select ..." Not much mystery there. The odds-on choice still is -- as it has been for several years now -- Connecticut's all-everything, Maya Moore.
Unless, of course, Lynx GM Cheryl Reeve gets a huge shot of courage and goes with Aussie sensation, Liz Cambage. Moore, of course, is the safe choice, but then again, 6-8 with Cambage's raw talent is not something that comes along everyday.
Either way, however, Minnesota, who won the top pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft in today's lottery is due for a significant roster improvement between now and next season. What's more, while the experts may quibble about just how deep this year's draft class will be, Minnesota also has the No. 4 pick, which it bought from Connecticut on Draft Day 2010 in exchange for Kelsey Griffin. The Sun certainly weren't expecting to finish in lottery position, missing the playoffs with a 17-17 regular-season record, and that deal may just go down in history as the worst of Connecticut GM Mike Thibault's otherwise-lofty career.
Moreover, Tulsa, which entered the lottery with the greatest number of chances after a league-worst 6-28 season last year and left with the No. 2 pick, is also due for an upgrade, having landed the rights to whichever superstar the Lynx like less (that is, if the powers that be can simply keep Nolan Richardson from giving her away to one of his competitors in exchange for little or nothing, as he did with the best of the roster he inherited last year from Detroit).
Rounding out the top four picks is the Chicago Sky, whose 14-20 finish last season will give new head coach Pokey Chatman the No. 3 pick in the draft to work with.
The following is the complete order for the 2011 WNBA first round, as determined both by the lottery results and by the regular-season finishes of the remaining teams in the league: