The Seattle Storm may have seen their two best options go first and second in the 2026 WNBA Draft before they picked at No. 3.
No. 1 pick Azzi Fudd would have given them a shooter, a commodity any team would want, but especially a Seattle team losing its three best 3-point shooters from last year in Erica Wheeler, Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins. No. 2 pick Olivia Miles would have given them their point guard of the future; they have been looking for the heir to PG GOAT Sue Bird since her retirement
in 2022.
Either Fudd or Miles would have given them a far different player than Dominique Malonga, which would have been ideal, and Miles and Malonga together could have become a great distributor-scorer duo.
While the Storm instead got a player far more similar to Malonga in Awa Fam, the good news is that Fam was, in many people’s estimations, the best player available.
And it’s not like Malonga and Fam are two traditional bigs who can’t share the court together. Seattle can easily put 6-foot-6 Malonga at the 5 and 6-foot-4 Fam at the 4, and in doing so roll out a starting lineup that features two of the most versatile and highest-upside posts in the entire league.
What completed a successful draft night for the Storm was that they later addressed the two needs they missed out on when Fudd and Miles were taken ahead of them. They took Duke point guard Taina Mair at No. 14, and, after selecting Marta Suárez with their next pick (No. 16), traded Suárez and a 2028 second-round pick to get their shooter in Flau’Jae Johnson, who was selected at No. 8 and projected as high as No. 5 in some mocks throughout the past college season.
Seattle walked away with a 1 in Mair, a 2-3 in Johnson and a 4-5 in Fam for a well-rounded draft. It really was as good of a result for their rebuild as they could have asked for.
Fam combines phenomenal scoring abilities with phenomenal passing abilities for a post. Her footwork is incredible, and she can step out and hit mid-rangers, as well as stretch the floor to the 3-point line. Like Malonga, she is trying to develop a consistent 3-point shot. Both players have all the tools to be WNBA stars and lead a franchise.
Getting Johnson for Suárez and a future second round pick was a steal. Johnson was in the running to be a lottery pick, and for good reason.
Many heard about her as that LSU basketball player who was a rapper before they ever found out how good she happened to be at basketball. But by the time her freshman season was over, she wasn’t just a basketball-playing rapper, but rather known for her basketball talent alone because of the key role she played in winning the 2023 national championship.
Johnson went on to become one of the best players in the country, making the AP All-America Third Team as a junior and senior. Her 3-point clip in college wasn’t as high as Fudd’s and her volume was quite a bit lower, but she did shoot 38 percent or better in each of her final three seasons in Baton Rouge with 132 makes over that stretch. Plus, she is an all-around offensive talent—much more than just a long-range sniper. So she has the potential to be a really big piece of what the Storm do moving forward beyond raising their efficiency from downtown in the case they stumble toward the 28.8 percent they shot in 2024.
Unlike Fam and Johnson, Mair was taken higher than expected in the draft, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have the potential to make an impact. She was projected to go at No. 25 by ESPN, but fantastic performances in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight of the 2026 NCAA Tournament may have been what caught Seattle’s eye.
She had 22 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals in No. 3-seed Duke’s upset of Johnson’s No. 2-seed Tigers in the Sweet 16 before being the only reason the Blue Devils hung with eventual champion UCLA in the Elite Eight with 21 points, seven boards, six helpers and four swipes. She also had eight assists in each of the first two rounds, averaging 5.6 dimes on the season. As a freshman at Boston College, that average was even higher at 6.6. She can distribute and defend (2.5 steals per game as a senior), and stepped up in the biggest games against the top talent. She’s also got a 3-point shot, having gone 77-for-216 (35.6 percent) over her final two seasons.
The overall jury may not be as high on her as they are on Fam and Johnson, but I liked what I saw in the Elite Eight.
Natisha Hiedeman could handle point guard duties, Jade Melbourne has racked up major assist numbers in the WNBL and Jordan Horston could be a point forward, but Mair has the potential to be in the rotation as a PG for Seattle. Who knows? Maybe she’ll even emerge as the PG of the rebuild.
It will take 19-year-old Fam a year to get acclimated to the W. With Ogwumike, Diggins, Wheeler, Gabby Williams and Brittney Sykes gone, and Ezi Magbegor slated to miss at least the next six to eight weeks, Malonga will be asked to be the Storm’s best player at 20 years old. As our Edwin Garcia pointed out: The downside of the Storm’s offseason is that they became a completely different team, perhaps not leaving enough talent to guide the young players into the future. It will be interesting to see how well Malonga handles the pressure in Year 2.
