WNBA Draft: 2027 Lottery Scheduled for November

The WNBA confirmed on Wednesday that its 2027 Draft Lottery will take place on Sunday, November 15. The event will air on ESPN at 7:30 p.m. ET, immediately following the UConn versus Louisville women's basketball game.

Houston and Toronto have been assigned identical probabilities for the No. 1 overall pick. The league pooled the lottery combinations for both teams and divided them evenly because they finished with the same 11-33 record and .250 winning percentage. Houston, which competed as the Connecticut Sun, also posted a 22-66 mark over the prior two seasons, while Toronto and the Portland Fire, the league's two expansion clubs, are judged solely on their 2026 performance.

Four other teams will participate in the draft: the Chicago Sky, Seattle Storm, Phoenix Mercury, and Los Angeles Sparks. The Sky hold a first-round pick swap with the Washington Mystics, and the Mercury traded their selection to the Sparks. Consequently, the Sparks will hold two lottery selections, though the odds remain tied to the team that originally owned the pick.

The lottery mechanism uses 14 balls numbered one through 14. Four balls are drawn to create a combination that determines the top pick. Once a team is selected, their balls are returned to the machine, and the process repeats for the second selection. The remaining five teams not chosen in the first two draws will select third through seventh based on their worst cumulative winning percentages. Ernst & Young will oversee the drawing as the league's independent accounting firm.

Regular season results established tiebreakers for the top two spots. Houston defeated Toronto in two of their three meetings during the 2026 season. This head-to-head record ensures Houston cannot fall below the third pick, while Toronto is guaranteed at least the fourth selection.

USC wing JuJu Watkins leads the projected draft board. The 6-foot-2 player returns after missing the 2025-26 season due to a torn ACL and is the favorite for the top slot. She remains eligible for a fifth year in 2027-28 because of her medical redshirt. Other candidates include Texas forward Madison Booker, Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo, Kansas guard S'Mya Nichols, LSU guards Mikaylah Williams and MiLaysia Fulwiley, and Kentucky center Clara Strack.

International players also figure prominently in first-round projections. French teenagers Sarah Cissé, who won the 2026 U20 EuroBasket Women MVP, and Aïnhoa Risacher, younger sister of former NBA No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher, are expected to be selected in the first round.