It’s a little early, I know, but with the 2025 WNBA season dwindling, Toronto fans can’t help but look ahead to 2026, when the Tempo will finally enter the league. There is still a lot to do before that, with an upcoming expansion draft to plan for, what will be a historic free agency, oh and of course, signing a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and hopefully avoiding a strike or lockout. Still, the crispness in the air is making it feel like college basketball season, and that just means we are
closer to the Draft.
Toronto will likely have the No. 6 pick in the WNBA Draft’s first round. I say “likely” because it hasn’t been set in stone, but there is precedent. It’s common practice in the WNBA and NBA for expansion teams not to have lottery picks in their first year in the league. In the WNBA, it likely would have only been the first year, but the Golden State Valkyries won’t get a lottery pick this year simply because they made the playoffs. In 2025, the Valkryies got the No. 5 pick for their first draft (the first pick after the lottery). In 2026, there will be five lottery teams (eight WNBA playoff teams, which leaves five remaining teams that won’t make it), meaning the No. 6 and No. 7 teams would logically go to the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire. Since Toronto was announced first, it makes sense they’d get No. 6, and Portland would be given No. 7.
With all of that explained, let’s get to the draft prospects themselves. Unlike 2025, there isn’t (yet) a clear No. 1 pick, and we will get a clearer picture of what the potential order of these picks will be as the college season develops. Still, there is a ton of exciting talent on the board, even as you get down to the No. 6 pick in the draft. For now, let’s just get introduced to some general talent, and as the potential order becomes clearer in a few months, we can analyze who may still be available at No. 6.
Also, before you yell at me, Juju Watkins isn’t draft eligible until 2027.
Azzi Fudd (G) UConn
Azzi Fudd is coming off her National Championship run to play one last season at the University of Connecticut, poised to be a top pick in the 2026 Draft. After suffering with injury for a lot of her college career, including missing over a year recovering from ACL surgery, Fudd had a great redshirt junior year in 2024-2025, ultimately ending in a Championship. She is using her redshirt year to come back as a 5th-year senior for the upcoming college season.
While we haven’t seen Fudd play to her full potential for an entire season during her tenure at UConn, she has a way of stepping up when the team needs her most. She was a huge part of crucial games last season, including UConn’s big regular-season win against South Carolina and again when they played South Carolina for the championship. Finally fully back from ACL recovery, Fudd seems to be getting more and more comfortable back on the court as time goes on, and her postseason run this spring proved that. There is a ton of excitement for her potential this season.
Fudd is a sharpshooter, known for her clean shooting form and fast clip — often getting her shot up before the defence even notices she has the ball. She’s also become more aggressive on the drive in recent years, and her physicality has improved as she has increased her strength. If she plays like she did at the end of the 2025 season, she will be a top pick in the 2026 draft.
Lauren Betts (C) UCLA
When you’re a 6-foot-7-inch post-player in women’s college basketball, you’re a little inevitable, which is a great way to describe Betts. After starting her college career at Stanford, Betts transferred to UCLA, and she’s thrived. Her team spent most of last season undefeated, finally meeting their match when faced with cross-city rivals USC. They went on to win the Big-10 Tournament and then made it all the way to the Final Four at the NCAA Tournament as a No. 1-seed.
Betts herself is a traditional center who can put the ball into the hoop, defend the rim, block, rebound, and has a high motor for her height. It’s hard to pass up on a prospect like her, given her size and ability to be a mismatch in the post, but Betts performs in a way that boosts her potential beyond just being tall.
While she was draft eligible this past season, Betts was vocal about wanting to use her final year of eligibility at UCLA. After her sister Sienna Betts committed to the school as well, the older Betts knew she wanted to play one year of college together with her younger sister. The two will be a dynamic duo for the Bruins, who are returning a good portion of their core next season.
Olivia Miles (G) TCU
Olivia Miles provided the women’s college basketball world with the shock of the year when she decided not only to skip the 2025 WNBA Draft and stay in college one more year, but also to transfer schools. Miles was a prospective No.2-No.3 pick in this year’s draft, and had played 4 years at Notre Dame along with phenom rising junior Hannah Hidalgo and now WNBA rookie phenom Sonia Citron. After missing a year of college with an ACL injury, Miles committed to coming back to Notre Dame for last season. It was expected she’d play this year and then enter the draft, beginning her WNBA career as a top prospect.
Then she dropped the news: she wasn’t entering the draft, but she also wasn’t staying at Notre Dame. In what would be the beginning of a mass exodus of transfers out of Notre Dame, Miles entered the transfer portal. Eventually, she landed at TCU, where Hailey Van Lith had just graduated from the program and become the Chicago Sky’s first-round draft pick.
Miles brings a playmaking IQ to the court, able to pass the ball but also get her own when it comes to scoring ability. While she wasn’t the No. 1 perimeter defender at Notre Dame, since Hidalgo locks up that title pretty easily, Miles can still get it done on both ends of the court. She is a solid point guard option who can score, shoot, defend, and pass at a high level. It will be interesting to see if her draft stock stays on par through her year at TCU, or if the decision to stay in college costs her that top-3 pick status.
Flau’Jae Johnson (G) LSU
Another player who could have gone pro this year, but opted to stay in college, is Flau’Jae Johnson. I’ve said for years that Johnson would be a great player for the Tempo to draft in their first year. She is not only an incredible player, but her personality is just what you’d want from the young star of a brand-new franchise.
Looking back on that infamous game between Caitlin Clark’s Iowa Hawkeyes and the Van Lith/Angel Reese/Johnson-led LSU Tigers in the 2024 NCAA tournament, Johnson was the only player who really figured out how to defend Clark. To this day, I don’t understand why Coach Mulkey continuously went back to assigning Van Lith to Clark when Johnson was shutting her down more effectively.
So, Johnson can defend, and that’s as much proof as any of that fact. When it comes to offence, Johnson’s height and wingspan make her an automatic mismatch on smaller guards at her position. She can shoot, and her one-legged fadeaway jumper is just as pretty as it is effective. When it comes to players on the board, Johnson is the beginning of the group that the Tempo could actually take at the No. 6 pick.
Ta’Niya Latson (G) South Carolina
Ta’Niya Latson was the top scorer in the country last season, consistently upsetting various ACC teams with her Florida State team. In a conference that thrives on guard play, Latson was the diamond of the season last year, breaking through from fringe star to full-on national treasure. It was clear she had outgrown what Florida State could offer in terms of championship potential, and when she transferred to South Carolina in the portal, the match made perfect sense.
Now, Latson will play her final season of college on a championship-calibre team that is known for pumping out long-lasting WNBA prospects. She is reunited with her high-school teammate in Raven Johnson and will be coached by Dawn Staley. South Carolina is a Final Four stalwart, continuously making it back to the end of the tournament and rarely dropping more than a few games every season. It’s a great chance for her to raise her game to the next level.
Latson can score, averaging over 30 points per game last season while also dishing it out at a high volume. Those numbers may decrease a little this year, given the change from the ACC to the post-player dominant SEC, but having Latson when going up against perimeter offence teams like UConn, USC, and more will be helpful. She is also someone (currently) in range for the Tempo to potentially grab at No. 6.
