The Minnesota Lynx are having a traditional revenge season.
After falling simply wanting the WNBA title in 2024, dropping in additional time of a do-or-die Sport 5 towards the Liberty, Minnesota has regarded each bit a workforce on a mission this 12 months. For the close to entirety of the season, they’ve sat atop the standings and are virtually definitely going to move into the playoffs because the No. 1 seed.
Napheesa Collier is probably going going to take dwelling regular-season MVP honors and, as issues stand, the Lynx are the present betting favorites to win the 2025 WNBA title. In nearly each sense, it’s your typical bounce-back season from a terrific workforce after narrowly lacking out on their purpose.
The place issues deviate from typical, although, is that the Lynx are additionally within the operating for the No. 1 decide within the 2026 WNBA Draft.
Sure, you learn that proper. Final April, Minnesota traded its 2025 first spherical decide to Chicago, used to pick Hailey Van Lith, in alternate for the Sky’s unprotected 2026 decide. Chicago, who additionally traded the No. 3 decide on this 12 months’s draft — which turned out to be Sonia Citron — for Ariel Atkins, has struggled mightily this season.
With Angel Reese sidelined for big parts of the season, Chicago at present sits at 8-24 and within the second spot within the lottery which suggests, because it stands, Minnesota sits within the No. 2 spot within the lottery and the No. 1 spot within the standings.
There are additionally some particulars that must be ironed out within the CBA to see simply how practical the probabilities are that the Lynx win the title and the No. 1 decide
Final season, the Valkyries, getting into their first 12 months within the league, drafted after the 4 lottery groups. Will the identical factor occur to Toronto and Portland, who will embark on their inaugural seasons in 2026? Equally, the chances for the upcoming draft lottery will differ from earlier years when solely 4 groups took half. That, too, must be finalized heading into subsequent April forward of the draft.
However this nonetheless does deliver within the very practical risk that the Lynx win the WNBA title within the fall, then maintain the No. 1 decide within the draft subsequent spring. Phee might, conceivably, win the MVP, then welcome in a No. 1 decide for subsequent season.
Even setting apart the novelty of profitable a title and the No. 1 decide in the identical season, Minnesota is without doubt one of the league’s finest groups that can have a prime decide subsequent summer season in a reasonably robust draft class. Nearly definitely one among Azzi Fudd, Lauren Betts, Olivia Miles, Flau’Jae Johnson or another prime prospect shall be on the Lynx roster subsequent season.
It’s a terrific situation for Minnesota, who look primed to be a contender within the current and whereas probably welcoming of their future on the similar time.
