Sparks get No. 2 pick in the 2024 WNBA draft lottery, GM talks draft strategy – OCRegister

E-Edition
Get the latest news delivered daily!

Get the latest news delivered daily!
E-Edition
Trending:
EL SEGUNDO — The Los Angeles Sparks beat their lottery odds by one spot, to land the No. 2 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, which is scheduled for April 15, 2024, eight days after the NCAA championship game.
The Sparks front office, who went into the draft lottery seeking “foundational talent”, held a watch party at the team’s new office in El Segundo on Sunday afternoon.
“It’s significant,” said Karen Bryant, the Sparks chief administrative officer and general manager who is entering her second offseason in the dual role. “There’s so many question marks around who is going to come out in this draft.
“Well as I’ve said to our staff for the last couple of weeks, now we’re on a recruiting path. There’s an opportunity for us to tell the narrative of the LA Sparks and to talk to all of the prospective draftees, what it could mean if they’re selected at No. 2 so I think to be just behind one other team, behind Indiana and be able to showcase what it could mean for those prospective players to come out and enter the WNBA in 2024 is massive.”
The moment the Los Angeles Sparks knew they were going to improve upon having the No. 3 odds for the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft. @LASparks ended up with the No. 2 pick. pic.twitter.com/ZA8cglfsHi
— John W. Davis (@johnwdavis) December 10, 2023

By the end of the lottery reveal, the Sparks were awarded the No. 2 pick.
“We would have been ecstatic at any pick but just to beat the odds, we’re due for a break out here,” Bryant said.
Meanwhile, the Indiana Fever won the right to have back-to-back No. 1 picks in the lottery after selecting Aliyah Boston with the first overall selection in 2023. The Phoenix Mercury will have the No. 3 pick and the Seattle Storm will have the No. 4 pick.
“We were prepared to be as low as four and what that would be in terms of our contingency plans and there’s just a lot less contingencies sitting right behind No. 1,” Bryant explained.
According to the latest ESPN 2024 WNBA mock draft, Iowa senior point guard Caitlin Clark is projected to be the No. 1 pick and UConn junior point guard Paige Bueckers is projected to go second. Stanford senior forward Cameron Brink is projected to go third. South Carolina senior center Kamilla Cardoso is projected to be the fourth pick.
The Sparks had a 17.8% chance at the No. 1 pick, which was the third-best odds behind Indiana and Phoenix. The organization sent head coach Curt Miller, who is entering his second season at the helm in LA, to be the team’s representative at the draft, which took place at ESPN studios in Bristol, Connecticut.
“Excited about adding an impact player in the locker room, as much as on the court,” Miller said during ESPN’s live broadcast before the lottery results were revealed. “High character, someone that’s coachable and wants to learn from these great veterans in the locker room.”
The Sparks are also excited to have the No. 12 pick in the first round of the 2024 Draft, which they acquired before last season in a trade for All-Star forward Dearica Hamby, and their own No. 28 pick in the third round.
“To have two first-round picks in this draft is phenomenal for us,” Bryant said. “Super excited but I think when we get there it will be more clear by that point because we will have done a tremendous amount of homework and we will have locked in our free agents and have a much better idea what we think that missing piece is.”

However, who the Sparks end up selecting at No. 2 or if they trade one or both of their first-round picks, will depend on how WNBA free agency goes, which will take place before the draft, beginning in January.
“To have two picks in this draft is phenomenal and that’s a huge asset for us,” Bryant shared. “Who knows what we do with it. We’re going to do our homework but I guarantee you we’re going to get some quality players, whether that’s through the draft or trades but we’re going to be open and we have a lot work to do. No answers, we’re going to keep an open mind as we go through this. I think that’s really important. It’s really easy to get tunnel vision around what you think and there’s speculation and there’s rumors and there’s promotion and there’s hype and at the end of the day, that’s well and good but you have to do the work… we’re going to get in the margins to really figure out who the best fits are.”
However, Bryant said the possibility of being able to add a top young talent will be part of the team’s free agent pitch.
“Absolutely, we’re obviously going to go into free agency with a lot of excitement and optimism around our ability to re-sign some of our core players that are free agents and then move very quickly into the draft, just pedal to the metal, in terms of again, talking about where this organization is in it’s transformation and we have every expectation that we’re going to be back at the top and obviously having the No. 2 pick adds a tremendous amount of acceleration to that plan,” Bryant continued.
Meanwhile, two of the Sparks’ key returning players who are under contract are guards Lexie Brown and Zia Cooke. Both are looking forward to seeing how the team’s 2024 lottery pick can help the organization ascend to a championship contender.
“It’s exciting like KB just said, it’s a little uncertainty surrounding it because we’re not sure what players are going to stay and what players are going to go but this is probably the first real wave of NIL players with their big brands and big personalities being able to express that at the collegiate level, so I’m really excited to see how they come in and acclimate and take it all in,” Brown said. “We’re ready to teach them. We’re ready to welcome them with open arms.”
“Me personally, I’ve got a breath of fresh air, a deep breath, because last year I was trying to get here,” added Cooke, who just finished her rookie season with the Sparks in September. “I’m feeling good to know that I’m on the other side of it but definitely excited for whoever we get. I know a lot of them, I don’t know who all is coming out but I do know it’s going to be some talent. It’s definitely going to be something that the Sparks need for us to elevate to the team that we’re going to be.”

The Sparks finished last season with a 17-23 overall record. The three-time WNBA champion franchise missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season, which was the first time that happened in the team’s 27-year history.
“The build started with hiring Curt Miller,” Bryant said. “Curt and I did the recruiting calls last year and the ability to sell his success, his track record. What he’s able to do at the defensive end of the floor and how he wants to play modern basketball. He’s somebody that believes in continuous improvement and I’m so proud of the reflection that he’s done this offseason. We learned a lot last year. Last year was really hard. So much was new and I think about where we were this time a year versus now and we’ve got a high-quality staff that knows each other, who is in the trenches together and we’re just ready to get to work.”
Copyright © 2023 MediaNews Group

source