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2019 WNBA Draft: Big Board 8.0, pre-Final Four edition

By Howard Megdal

PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 31: Mississippi State Bulldogs center Teaira McCowan (15) gets fouled by Oregon Ducks forward Ruthy Hebard (24) during the NCAA Division I Women's Championship Elite Eight round basketball game between the Oregon Ducks and Mississippi State Bulldogs on March 31, 2019 at Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OR - MARCH 31: Mississippi State Bulldogs center Teaira McCowan (15) gets fouled by Oregon Ducks forward Ruthy Hebard (24) during the NCAA Division I Women's Championship Elite Eight round basketball game between the Oregon Ducks and Mississippi State Bulldogs on March 31, 2019 at Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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What we now know? A lot, but not all.

PORTLAND, OR – MARCH 31: Mississippi State Bulldogs center Teaira McCowan (15) gets fouled by Oregon Ducks forward Ruthy Hebard (24) during the NCAA Division I Women’s Championship Elite Eight round basketball game between the Oregon Ducks and Mississippi State Bulldogs on March 31, 2019 at Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
PORTLAND, OR – MARCH 31: Mississippi State Bulldogs center Teaira McCowan (15) gets fouled by Oregon Ducks forward Ruthy Hebard (24) during the NCAA Division I Women’s Championship Elite Eight round basketball game between the Oregon Ducks and Mississippi State Bulldogs on March 31, 2019 at Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. (Photo by Joseph Weiser/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

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Seldom do you hear a general manager get so explicit, publicly, about a pref list the way Bill Laimbeer of the Las Vegas Aces did this week on a conference call with media.

“I’ve got No. 1, so I say, in no particular order, Durr and McCowan and then, yeah, go pick somebody,” Laimbeer said. “There’s about three or four of them that are all in that boat to add on.”

That certainly dovetails with what we’ve been hearing, though it served as a reminder that the Aces aren’t giving up on the idea of adding a guard, either publicly or in conversations with other teams. That obviously impacts what would happen if Sabrina Ionescu decides to leave early, a decision she’ll have to make within 24 hours of her season ending.

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How that works, lineup-wise, is interesting in Las Vegas. Again, McCowan makes a classic Bill Laimbeer setup easy to envision: a rim-protecting five next to A’ja Wilson at the 4, or alternatively some lineups with, say, Isabelle Harrison as a putative five, plus Moriah Jefferson or Kelsey Plum (in a perfect world, both) and Kayla McBride.

Ionescu scrambles it all, the top of the draft and the Aces’ plans alike. So would Liz Cambage, of course, but there are no indications that Cambage is willing to go anywhere but Los Angeles, and the Aces don’t look ready to trade a package to beat L.A.’s two firsts and Maria Vadeeva without a commitment from Cambage.

We also know some more about who isn’t coming out early, from Tiana Mangakahia to Beatrice Mompremier.

So where does that leave us?

TO THE BIG BOARD WE GO!

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