\t\t\t\t www.thenexthoops.com<\/p>\n The most detailed 2026 WNBA draft resource available outside a team\u2019s actual war room<\/p>\n Our prospect rankings aren\u2019t reflective of how teams will draft, of course; the WNBA is still run through the frontcourt, and having at least a borderline All-W-caliber center has effectively been a requirement for title contention in the League Pass era (since 2015). Teams outside contention need 5s, so they\u2019ll take ill-advised swings in the draft. Even in 2017, when there was only one 40+ FV prospect at least 6\u20193 (Brionna Jones<\/a>), three centers were drafted in the top eight.3<\/a><\/p>\n So if Ashlyn Watkins<\/a> is healthy and doesn\u2019t recidivate the alleged behavior that led to her arrest on assault charges \u2014 charges that were dropped \u2014 she\u2019ll almost certainly be a first-round pick in 2027. Clara Strack would need significant offensive development to crack a 45 grade and make our top 12 in that class, but if history is any indication, she\u2019s likely to be drafted there just because she\u2019s the next-best center. The same goes for Toby Fournier<\/a>, who is the top center in the 2028 class but has not played up to a draftable grade yet.<\/p>\n It\u2019s hard to pin down the cause of this shift. Most likely, it\u2019s a confluence of natural variations in talent and a deeper shift in the women\u2019s game. Regarding the former, there was a similar dearth in center prospects in the mid-2010s, with only one center in each of the 2015-18 classes at least a 45, and only two above a 50. This was immediately followed by a 2019 class that included Alanna Smith<\/a>, Jessica Shepard<\/a>, Brianna Turner<\/a> and Teaira McCowan<\/a>. The net effect of that stretch was that there was a disproportionate number of centers over 30 in the W the past few years.<\/p>\n Want even more women\u2019s sports in your inbox?<\/strong><\/p>\n Subscribe now to The IX Sports<\/a> and receive our daily women\u2019s sports newsletter covering soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, hockey and gymnastics from our incredible team of writers. That includes Basketball Wednesday from founder and editor Howard Megdal.<\/p>\n Readers of The IX Basketball now save 50% on their subscription to The IX.<\/p>\n Regarding the deeper shift in the game, it\u2019s not surprising that as women\u2019s basketball moves toward a heavier focus on guards and wings, centers\u2019 jobs become easier, and the emphasis on star play in the post is lessened at the youth levels. In ESPN\u2019s recruiting rankings, the number of posts within their top 100 has halved over the past decade, even as the number of players at least 6\u20194 has slightly increased. <\/p>\n Those taller players are now listed as forwards (or, in some cases that look silly in hindsight, guards). As centers\u2019 jobs become easier, it\u2019s harder to stand out as a post player, and the centers of yesteryear are trying to diversify their games. Sometimes that leads to Cameron Brink<\/a> and Awa Fam<\/a>. Sometimes that leads to Alissa Pili<\/a> and Lorela Cubaj<\/a>.<\/p>\n It will take several years before we can figure out for sure whether this is going to be more of a long-term shift or a continuing trend briefly accentuated by a few down years at the position. Until then, it\u2019s up to WNBA teams what they\u2019re going to do about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That trend is about to change. The 2027 and 2028 classes together feature just one center among their…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":367041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[67442,7232,145399,13576,62,67,132,68,232,21829,177472],"class_list":{"0":"post-367040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-2026-wnba-draft","9":"tag-draft","10":"tag-ncaaw","11":"tag-recruiting","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us","16":"tag-wnba","17":"tag-wnba-draft","18":"tag-wnba-draft-prospects"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Awa-Fam-Olivia-Miles-FIBA-Matt-Cashore-Imagn-scaled.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n