The 2023 WNBA draft lottery will be held Nov. 11 and be broadcast at 5:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2, the league announced Monday.
The 30-minute lottery special will air before that night's 6 p.m. ET women's college basketball game between defending national champion South Carolina and Maryland.
The Indiana Fever, Atlanta Dream, Washington Mystics (via a trade) and Minnesota Lynx have qualified for the 22nd annual lottery. The 2023 draft is scheduled for Monday, April 10, and South Carolina senior forward Aliyah Boston, last season's consensus National Player of the Year, is considered the favorite as the No. 1 pick.
The draft lottery odds are based on the cumulative records of the two most recent regular seasons in the WNBA. With a combined record of 11-57 in 2021 and 2022, the Fever have the most chances to land the No. 1 pick (442 out of 1,000) and are guaranteed at least the third pick. Indiana has never picked first in the WNBA draft.
Atlanta, with a combined record of 22-46, has 276 chances out of 1,000 for the top pick. Washington made the playoffs this past season, but the Mystics are in the lottery with 178 chances after an April trade gained them the right to swap their 2023 first-round pick with Atlanta to get Los Angeles' first-round selection. The Dream acquired that pick from the Sparks (25-43) in a February deal.
Minnesota, which went 36-32, has 104 lottery chances. The Lynx missed the playoffs this year for the first time since 2010.
In the drawing, balls numbered 1 to 14 will be placed in a lottery machine. They will be drawn to determine a four-digit combination, and the team assigned that number receives the top pick. The four balls then will be placed back into the machine and the process will be repeated to determine the second pick.
The team with the lowest cumulative two-year record whose numerical combinations do not come up in the first or second combinations then is awarded the third pick, with the remaining team selecting fourth.
The picking selection for the remainder of the first round (along with the second and third rounds) is determined by inverse order of teams' regular-season records from the 2022 season. The rest of the first-round order: 5. Chicago Sky (from Phoenix Mercury), 6. New York Liberty, 7. Indiana (from Dallas Wings), 8. Atlanta (from Washington), 9. Seattle Storm, 10. Connecticut Sun, 11. Dallas (from Chicago, via Indiana), 12. Minnesota (from Las Vegas Aces).