2017 WNBA Draft Lottery Details
The 2017 WNBA Draft Lottery will be televised live on ESPN2 on Wednesday, Sept. 28. Hosted by Doug Kezirian, the lottery will air during halftime of game 1 of the WNBA playoff semifinal between Phoenix and Minnesota.  The lottery winner will secure the top pick in the 2017 WNBA Draft to be conducted next April.
By missing the playoffs, the Connecticut Sun, Dallas Wings, San Antonio Stars and Washington Mystics qualified for the 16th annual lottery drawing. Connecticut’s spot in the lottery, however, belongs to the Los Angeles Sparks, the result of a draft-day trade last April.
Lottery odds are based on the cumulative records of the Sun, Wings, Stars and Mystics over the two most recent regular seasons (2015 and 2016). The lottery will establish the first four picks of the draft. The lottery team with the worst two-year cumulative record is guaranteed at least the third pick.
In the drawing, 14 balls numbered 1-14 will be placed in a lottery machine and mixed. Four balls will be drawn to determine a four-digit combination. The team assigned that four-ball combination will receive the No. 1 pick. The four balls will then be placed back into the machine and the process will be repeated to determine the second pick. The two teams whose numerical combinations do not come up in the lottery will select in the inverse order of their two-year cumulative record.
San Antonio, which finished the past two regular seasons with a combined record of 15-53, will have the most chances to land the top pick (442 out of 1,000).
Connecticut and Dallas each posted a combined record of 29-39. The Wings hold the lottery tiebreaker by virtue of finishing with a worse record in 2016 (11-23) than the Sun (14-20). As a result, while Dallas and Los Angeles (via Connecticut) will both have 227 chances out of 1,000 to win the top pick, the Wings will be slotted ahead of the Sparks if neither team comes up in the draw.
Washington, which has a two-year record of 31-37, has the fourth-most chances of landing the No. 1 pick (104 out of 1,000).
The order of selection for the remainder of the first round as well as the second and third rounds is determined by inverse order of the teams’ respective regular-season records solely from 2016.
A representative from the accounting firm of Ernst & Young will be in attendance to oversee the lottery process.
The following are the number of chances for teams to land the top pick in the 2017 WNBA Draft Lottery:
Lottery teams for the 2017 WNBA Draft
| Team | Combined 2015-2016 Record | Chances (Out of 1,000) | |
| 1. | San Antonio Stars | 15-53 | 442 |
| 2. | Dallas Wings | 29-39 | 227 |
| 3. | Los Angeles Sparks (via Connecticut Sun) | 29-39 | 227 |
| 4. | Washington Mystics | 31-37 | 104 |
