The 2026 WNBA season hasn’t even started yet, but some teams may already be playing for 2027. According to Sabreena Merchant, a quiet but calculated strategy is beginning to take shape across the league. That is, a situation where certain teams have already conceded hope of making the playoffs and are instead banking on a rebuild in the 2027 season, with their eyes firmly on the 2027 WNBA Draft.
Speaking on the April 17 episode of The Athletic Women’s Basketball Show, Merchant revealed that multiple franchises could already be positioning themselves for a shot at JuJu Watkins, who is already projected as the top pick in the 2027 WNBA Draft. And if that means enduring a rough 2026 campaign, some organizations appear more than willing to make that trade. In Merchant’s exact words, she is even “impressed with the teams that are holding out for the 2027 Draft Class, saying we’re not going to be good this year, but Juju Watkins could be coming next year, so that’s okay.”
JuJu Watkins, who is a 6’2″ guard for USC, completed her sophomore year with the Trojans and will be a junior next season. And what an amazing college basketball career she’s had so far. As a freshman, she set the NCAA Division I freshman scoring record with 920 points, surpassing a 40-year-old record held by Tina Hutchinson. And at the end of the last college basketball season, her sophomore year, she had reached 1,684 career points. That surpassed Caitlin Clark’s total for the most points through a player’s first two college seasons. She also became the first Division I player in 20 years to record at least 35 points, 5 blocks, and 5 assists in a single game.
In terms of accolades, JuJu Watkins was the 2025 Naismith National Player of the Year. She won the Best Breakthrough Athlete in 2024 and Best College Athlete at the 2025 ESPYS. She is also a two-time winner of the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award and was the unanimous 2024 national freshman of the year. If this resume is any indication, she is certainly a player capable of changing the dynamics of a team for the better. And of course, missing out on the playoffs this season, for a chance to secure that kind of player, is definitely understandable.
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Of the 15 teams playing in the WNBA this season, seven are going to miss the playoffs. Sabreena Merchant has, in fact, identified four of those seven. And according to her, those four have come to terms with that realization. “So, like Portland, Washington, Seattle, and Connecticut… and I think they’ve sort of identified themselves as four of the seven,” Merchant said. And for her, this seems to be a not-so-bad idea. As she puts it, “there is a very nice pot of gold at the end of this rainbow if they choose to just suck for the 2026 season.”
For sure, neither of these teams has or will ever openly admit to a strategy like this. That is, intentionally having a bad 2026 season to improve their chances of securing a better lottery pick next year. Sabreena Merchant and Chantel Jennings obviously have reasons to think that’s what they are doing. And of course, it’s a strategy that teams, even in the NBA, have adopted before, and it has worked. So perhaps it’s also true for these teams. Or maybe it’s not. If it is, hopefully it works for them.
Is Juju Watkins Eligible For The 2027 WNBA Draft?
Having only concluded her sophomore year, JuJu Watkins’ draft eligibility is a fair question. Under the WNBA’s current CBA, domestic players usually have to stay in college longer than their NBA counterparts. This explains why JuJu wasn’t eligible to leave after her standout freshman year. Also, a player must have graduated from high school at least four years ago.
As it appears, JuJu Watkins has cleared these requirements. She graduated from Sierra Canyon in 2023, so the 2027 draft marks exactly four years since she finished high school. Also, while she only completed her sophomore year, she actually did that in the 2024/25 season. She redshirted the just-concluded 2025/26 season to recover from her ACL injury. So, by the time the April 2027 draft arrives, she will have been in college for four academic years.
Another requirement for draft eligibility is age, and JuJu Watkins clears that as well. A domestic player is eligible if they turn 22 years old during the calendar year of the draft. Since JuJu Watkins was born on July 15, 2005, she will turn 22 in July 2027. And so, that also makes her eligible for the draft.
For the franchises at the bottom, the 2026 season may become a painful but necessary sacrifice for a chance at a franchise-altering superstar.
