A New Storm approaches: Seattle’s 2023 WNBA Draft recap
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – With franchise legend Breanna Stewart scooting to form a Super team in New York and the Greatest Of All Time Sue Bird hanging the sneakers up, the Seattle Storm are entering a new age. Guards Jewell Loyd and Sami Whitcomb will seemingly assume the leadership roles, while young bigs Ezi Magbegor and Mercedes Russell look to hold things down in the paint and flourish. Outside of those four, not too much is guaranteed outside of perhaps Kia Nurse. After not having a rookie on the opening night roster the past two seasons, Seattle will most certainly have one in Storm colors when the season opens against the Aces on May 20th. We got a better idea of who it may be with tonight’s draft, where Seattle drafted four players.
Tennessee guard Jordan Horston during the Seattle Regional, held inside Climate Pledge Arena (Photo by Steph Chambers)
1st round, #9 overall pick: Jordan Horston, Tennessee
It is really easy to get very excited about this selection by the Storm, as Horston can make an immediate impact on the team from game one. Seattle and Horston didn’t even have a pre-draft visit together because the Storm didn’t believe that she’d fall to their pick at number nine, yet here we are. General manager Talisa Rhea was more than happy to call in the pick for the guard that can produce in numerous ways on the court. Horston can play off the ball but can also run the offense herself in what could be a big help in finding out who will play the point guard spot for the Storm. Her defense is an obvious highlight, as the athletic and long wing will look to lock down the perimeter alongside the Gold Mamba, Jewell Loyd. It’s an exciting pick for the Storm as they move towards a new era, one that Horston very well could lead.
The 6-2 guard finished her UT career with 1,445 points, 731 rebounds, 455 assists, 163 steals and 109 blocks in 114 games. She averaged 15.6 ppg, 71, rpg and 3.3 apg in 2022-23.
Oklahoma forward Madi Williams (Photo by Ty Russell)
2nd round, #18 overall pick: Madi Williams, Oklahoma
Madi Williams is an interesting selection, a solid scorer at the forward spot who filled the entire stat sheet during her time as an Oklahoma Sooner. Williams ended her time at Oklahoma having tallied the second most points in program history, while ranking in the top five all-time for rebounds, assists, and steals. Those numbers pushed her to All-American honorable mention honors in her last two years in red, and her versatile play matched her statistics up with all-world player Caitlin Clark as the only two in the country to post 24.5 points, 8.0 rebounds and 4.2 assists per 40 minutes.
Williams, an All-Big 12 First Team pick, led OU with 18.0 ppg & 7.6 rpg. She joins former Storm player Courtney Paris as the only Sooners to lead team in rebounds in four straight seasons.
USF Bulls forward Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu (Photo by Will Turner)
2nd round, #21 overall pick: Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu, USF
Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu is a fun pick here, although some wanted to see Brea Beal selected with this pick, as she’s considered a “late bloomer” for her surge towards the end of her collegiate career. The forward from Cameroon became a double-double machine in her final season at USF and displayed great rebounding ability despite being viewed as a “smaller” center. That’s part of the initial knock on her, in addition to the fact that the Storm already have Ezi Magbegor and Mercedes Russell under contract at the center spot. It may be difficult for the former Bull but considering that rebounding was an issue for this Storm team, maybe Fankam Mendjiadeu can carve out a spot on this roster. After all, there will be plenty of minutes to go around.
Mendjiadeu posted averages of 16.5 ppg and a conference-best 12.3 rebounds per game en route to earning American Athletic Conference Co-Player of the Year honors.
Guard Jade Loville in her time at Arizona (Photo by Brandon Wade)
3rd round, #33 overall pick: Jade Loville, Arizona
While it’s fun that Loville is a pick that spent her high school years in the state of Washington, she bounced around a bit in college from Boise State to Arizona State to Arizona where she finished things up. The criticism of Loville is that she’s primarily a sharpshooter that failed to hit her shots to the end of her collegiate career, which isn’t incorrect as she did see some shooting trouble in her final season. Providing only scoring (that we know of, that can change of course) to this Storm team may be difficult, considering the other guards that will be in camp for Seattle, but since this is an immediate reaction to the draft, I wouldn’t write Loville off yet.
The Sammamish native and Skyline HS grad, averaged 9.8 points over 32 games for the Wildcats, scoring in double-figures 18 times and shooting 36.1% from three point-range.
Initial draft thoughts
The early returns from this draft are solid, and you could say that about Horston on her own. While it is always hard to judge any sort of draft on the night of it having taken place, because there is so much that will happen in the year and years following it that will look different than the initial thoughts, there are some signs to take note of. It seemed impossible that Horston was ever going to get near Seattle’s pick at nine, but she fell to that spot and general manager Talisha Rhea happily called in the selection. The picks of Williams and Fankam Mendjiadeu at the forward spots are interesting, with both players finishing up the last few seasons of their collegiate careers with excellent production. Loville is a fun pick, bringing her back to the Pacific Northwest after she bounced around in college but was productive the whole way. Overall, it’s a solid class upon initial reaction and there are plenty of minutes to go around to see them potentially flourish in a new age of Storm basketball.
Initial report card
ESPN: B
The Athletic: B+
Charles, CSS: B
What’s ahead for the rookies?
The next steps for the rookies will be to get to Seattle and begin working with the team and their new teammates at the Seattle Pacific University courts (Before next year, when the teams standalone practice facility opens) before the two preseason games that the team will be playing. The two preseason contests that Seattle will participate in are on May 9th at home against the Phoenix Mercury and then a closed-door scrimmage in Los Angeles against the Sparks on May 14th.