2020 Mock Draft: Big Board 5.0

Donna Orender WNBA President at the 2007 WNBA Draft (Photo by Kelly Kline/Getty Images for Robinson Lerer and Montgomery)
Donna Orender WNBA President at the 2007 WNBA Draft (Photo by Kelly Kline/Getty Images for Robinson Lerer and Montgomery)
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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MARCH 08: Sabrina Ionescu #20 of the Oregon Ducks is introduced before the championship game of the Pac-12 Conference women’s basketball tournament against the Stanford Cardinal at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on March 8, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Ducks defeated the Cardinal 89-56. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MARCH 08: Sabrina Ionescu #20 of the Oregon Ducks is introduced before the championship game of the Pac-12 Conference women’s basketball tournament against the Stanford Cardinal at the Mandalay Bay Events Center on March 8, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Ducks defeated the Cardinal 89-56. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

1. New York Liberty select Sabrina Ionescu

There’s just no universe in which I can see the New York Liberty taking anyone other than Sabrina Ionescu, a player Jonathan Kolb and Walt Hopkins can build the franchise around, a plug-in point guard who makes threes at an elite level and dramatically improved her finishing around the rim, a culture-builder who will get better shots at every turn for shooters on the roster like Kia Nurse, Asia Durr, Rebecca Allen and Amanda Zahui B. If the Liberty deal Tina Charles, still very much an active idea, the new arena with a group of young players on team-friendly deals will become an obvious landing spot for the next big free agent as well. It’s hard to predict the future, especially these days. This isn’t hard to predict, though.