Look back at your WNBA fantasy basketball draft. How successful was it?
Chances are, if you have a good fantasy team, you don’t just have the best players – you probably also drafted several players who have outperformed their average draft position (ADP). Doing one’s homework in identifying potential breakout candidates can go a long way, but it can come down to pure luck, too, especially when accounting for how many games someone plays in—players who significantly outpace their ADP are often the healthiest.
There’s not much time left in the WNBA regular season, and most fantasy leagues are probably in their playoffs by now, so the time for talking about hot waiver wire pickups and injury replacements has probably passed. Instead, let’s take a look back at some of the biggest fantasy breakouts of 2025, comparing ESPN’s ADP data to the fantasy score leaderboards on the WNBA website.
Azurá Stevens (Los Angeles Sparks)
- ADP: 43
- Rank (Totals): 12
After many years of playing complementary roles on deep teams, Stevens was finally unleashed in 2025, and the toolsy forward has had the finest season of her career. She’s always been a player who can contribute everywhere in the box score, but in playing a career-high 28.8 minutes per game, Stevens has proven to be a fantasy beast. Averages of 14.1 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.4 defensive stats and 1.8 3-pointers per game make for one of the more well-rounded stat lines in the WNBA, and Stevens has already eclipsed her former highest total fantasy score by over 200 points. Congratulations are in order if you were able to draft her anywhere near her ADP.
Veronica Burton (Golden State Valkyries)
- ADP: 53.2
- Rank (Totals): 22
It’s hard to project what’s going to happen on an expansion team, so the Valkyries had the potential to be a fantasy gold mine in their inaugural season. Burton is a great example of this. With an ADP of 53.2, she wasn’t even drafted in many leagues, but anyone who was paying attention quickly realized that she was playing a big role in Golden State and wasn’t going to let it go. Burton has gone from being a fringe rotation player to a bonafide Most Improved candidate, averaging 11.7 points, 5.4 assists and 1.1 steals per game, so it’s no surprise that she’s absolutely crushed her ADP, too.
Gabby Williams (Seattle Storm)
- ADP: 45.4
- Rank (Totals): 15
Williams is a player who has been trending upward on a per-game basis, but hasn’t played nearly enough to fulfill that potential. 2025 has been different: Williams has played in 37 games, and she’s putting up career highs across the board, averaging 12.2 points, 4.4 assists, 1.2 3-pointers and a massive 2.8 defensive stats per game. As with Stevens, Williams surpassed her previous single-season best for total fantasy score weeks ago, surely making anyone who drafted her to their fantasy team a happy camper.
Kiki Iriafen (Washington Mystics)
- ADP: 50.6
- Rank (Totals): 23
Drafting rookies can be a risky proposition in fantasy basketball, and unlike teammate Sonia Citron, who went in the mid-30s of most drafts, Iriafen was slept on. She showed herself to be a WNBA-ready talent right out of the gate, however, starting all 36 of her games and averaging 12.8 points and 8.2 rebounds, and she’s totaled more fantasy points in standard leagues than some big-name forwards, such as Angel Reese and Breanna Stewart. The per-game fantasy numbers aren’t quite as gaudy, of course, but the bottom line is that Iriafen has blown her ADP out of the water, and is probably on quite a few first-place fantasy teams because of it.
Courtney Williams (Minnesota Lynx)
- ADP: 27.1
- Rank (Totals): 14
This isn’t as big of a discrepancy as that of the of the other players mentioned, since Williams was already being drafted pretty early, but she deserves a shout out nonetheless. Her second season in Minnesota has been even more impressive than her first, increasing her scoring (13.8) and assist averages (6.1) while knocking down a career-best 1.3 3-pointers per game for good measure. She’s also remained remarkably durable, playing in every one of her team’s games for the third-consecutive season. Even though Williams has been one of the most reliable guards in women’s fantasy basketball for years, there can be a big difference between second- and third-round production, and those who were able to draft her with their fourth pick are probably pretty happy with the results.
