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WNBA Mock Draft: Big Board 6.0, with all the players

By Howard Megdal

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) /
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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. And let’s not lose sight of something that many seem to be ignoring, mostly because Ionescu was so elite as a freshman: she got better every single season. She was dramatically improved as a senior of a year in which she’d led Oregon to the Final Four. Her assist percentage jumped, as did her rebounding percentage. A thing to look at with prospects isn’t just their current talent level, but how much they improve, and how quickly, to estimate a trajectory. Expect that Ionescu, for all her strengths, is anything but a finished product.

I also want to note that, per Synergy, Tina Charles averaged 0.582 points per possession on pick-and-roll plays where she played the roll man, which is just astoundingly low. Among the 16 WNBA players with 50 such PnR possessions, it is 16th by a huge margin. And it’s worth noting that her teammate, Amanda Zahui B., averaged 1.078 points per game in those sets, good for third among the 16. Just another data point pointing to a likely departure for Charles, given Ionescu’s reliance on PnR to get looks for teammates. Alternatively, if Charles stays, it could be a huge boost to her career. But the BBQ is good in Dallas, Tina!

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