WNBA Postmortem

I joined a WNBA fantasy league this year, and let me tell you - I am terrible. I panicked during the draft, dropped some of my best players during brief injury periods and mismanged my IR. I’m just glad our league didn’t trade much - one less reason for fantasy self-loathing. With two weeks left I was 2-8 on the year, and our commissioner had to inform me that I was mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

The silver lining here is that now that the season is over (for me, anyway) it’s time for some postmortem data analysis 🔎

The code for this all lives in this repo but we’ll stick to the “highlights” here. Also shoutout to the lovely espn-api package which made pulling this data (relatively) painless 🎉.

What happened during the draft?

ESPN has a pretty good draft UI. It shows projected points, points in the last year, etc. I selected Arike Ogunbowale with my first pick in the draft. I’ve been blaming most of my struggles on her lack of output, but when comparing her drafted position to her total point rank, it’s not that bad - I drafted her #5 and she’s #29 overall. Not exactly what you’d want from your #5, but not terrible. Let’s replay the rest of the draft showing total points rank:

👉 Draft and current player rankings by total points 👈

Image	Player	Team	Overall Pick #	Points Rank	Emoji
	A’ja Wilson	Sonia Satoumayor	1	1	🟰
	Caitlin Clark	Lamdin’s Layups	2	66	⏬
	Napheesa Collier	Derek’s Double Dribblers	3	4	🟰
	Breanna Stewart	Hannah’s Hot Shots	4	21	🔽
	Arike Ogunbowale	Lefrak Attack	5	29	🔽
	Sabrina Ionescu	Renick’s Ringers	6	2	🟰
	Dearica Hamby	Renick’s Ringers	7	5	🟰
	Aliyah Boston	Lefrak Attack	8	8	🟰
	Alyssa Thomas	Hannah’s Hot Shots	9	11	🟰
	Nneka Ogwumike	Derek’s Double Dribblers	10	7	🟰
	Angel Reese	Lamdin’s Layups	11	26	🟰
	Kelsey Plum	Sonia Satoumayor	12	3	🟰
	Satou Sabally	Sonia Satoumayor	13	20	🟰
	Skylar Diggins	Lamdin’s Layups	14	13	🟰
	Rhyne Howard	Derek’s Double Dribblers	15	35	🔽
	Cameron Brink	Hannah’s Hot Shots	16	134	⏬
	Jonquel Jones	Lefrak Attack	17	40	🔽
	Jewell Loyd	Renick’s Ringers	18	34	🔽
	DeWanna Bonner	Renick’s Ringers	19	80	⏬
	Kahleah Copper	Lefrak Attack	20	82	⏬
	Paige Bueckers	Hannah’s Hot Shots	21	16	🟰
	Brionna Jones	Derek’s Double Dribblers	22	17	🟰
	Allisha Gray	Lamdin’s Layups	23	5	🔼
	Jackie Young	Sonia Satoumayor	24	9	🔼
	Ezi Magbegor	Sonia Satoumayor	25	30	🟰
	Alanna Smith	Lamdin’s Layups	26	24	🟰
	Courtney Williams	Derek’s Double Dribblers	27	15	🟰
	Marina Mabrey	Hannah’s Hot Shots	28	43	🟰
	Kelsey Mitchell	Lefrak Attack	29	12	🔼
	Natasha Cloud	Renick’s Ringers	30	31	🟰
	Rickea Jackson	Renick’s Ringers	31	41	🟰
	Brittney Griner	Lefrak Attack	32	54	🔽
	Brittney Sykes	Hannah’s Hot Shots	33	28	🟰
	Ariel Atkins	Derek’s Double Dribblers	34	38	🟰
	Chelsea Gray	Lamdin’s Layups	35	19	🔼
	Natasha Howard	Sonia Satoumayor	36	27	🟰
	Sonia Citron	Sonia Satoumayor	37	18	🔼
	Kayla McBride	Lamdin’s Layups	38	36	🟰
	NaLyssa Smith	Derek’s Double Dribblers	39	50	🟰
	Teaira McCowan	Hannah’s Hot Shots	40	116	⏬
	Leonie Fiebich	Lefrak Attack	41	60	🔽
	DiJonai Carrington	Renick’s Ringers	42	59	🔽
	Kamilla Cardoso	Renick’s Ringers	43	33	🟰
	Aaliyah Edwards	Lefrak Attack	44	107	⏬
	Tina Charles	Hannah’s Hot Shots	45	23	🔼
	Gabby Williams	Derek’s Double Dribblers	46	14	🔼
	Sophie Cunningham	Lamdin’s Layups	47	57	🟰
	Tiffany Hayes	Sonia Satoumayor	48	55	🟰
	Azura Stevens	Sonia Satoumayor	49	10	🔼
	Stefanie Dolson	Lamdin’s Layups	50	95	🔽
	Julie Vanloo	Derek’s Double Dribblers	51	115	⏬
	Kiki Iriafen	Hannah’s Hot Shots	52	25	🔼
	Jordin Canada	Lefrak Attack	53	45	🟰
	Shakira Austin	Renick’s Ringers	54	37	🔼

Undrafted diamonds in the rough

Who was the best undrafted player by points?

Image	Player	Team	Points Rank
	Veronica Burton	Renick’s Ringers	22
	Erica Wheeler	N/A	32
	Naz Hillmon	Renick’s Ringers	39
	Elizabeth Williams	Lamdin’s Layups	42
	Kayla Thornton	N/A	44
	Olivia Nelson-Ododa	Lefrak Attack	46
	Saniya Rivers	N/A	47
	Sami Whitcomb	N/A	48
	Rachel Banham	N/A	49
	Bria Hartley	N/A	51

The Olivia Nelson-Ododa All Stars

There was one name that came across the transactions tracker more than any other this year - Olivia Nelson-Ododa. She went undrafted, but then was picked up five times 🥂

Image	Player	Teams	Times Added
	Olivia Nelson-Ododa	Lefrak Attack;Renick’s Ringers ;Sonia Satoumayor;Sonia Satoumayor;Lefrak Attack	5
	Janelle Salaun	Lefrak Attack;Lamdin’s Layups;Lamdin’s Layups	3
	Iliana Rupert	Lamdin’s Layups;Lamdin’s Layups;Lamdin’s Layups	3
	Saniya Rivers	Derek’s Double Dribblers;Lefrak Attack;Sonia Satoumayor	3
	Sami Whitcomb	Renick’s Ringers ;Sonia Satoumayor;Lamdin’s Layups	3

Drafted and dropped

Many good players were drafted, then dropped, then went on to perform well throughout the season. Here are the top 10 by total points:

Image	Player	Drafting Team	Current Team	Overall Pick #	Total Points
	Natasha Howard	Sonia Satoumayor	Lefrak Attack	36	798
	Jewell Loyd	Renick’s Ringers	Derek’s Double Dribblers	18	731
	Shakira Austin	Renick’s Ringers	Sonia Satoumayor	54	694
	Rickea Jackson	Renick’s Ringers	Renick’s Ringers	31	643
	Jordin Canada	Lefrak Attack	Renick’s Ringers	53	597
	NaLyssa Smith	Derek’s Double Dribblers	∅	39	578
	Tiffany Hayes	Sonia Satoumayor	Lamdin’s Layups	48	535
	Sophie Cunningham	Lamdin’s Layups	Hannah’s Hot Shots	47	512
	DiJonai Carrington	Renick’s Ringers	Lefrak Attack	42	496
	Leonie Fiebich	Lefrak Attack	Lefrak Attack	41	492

👑 Top drafting GM 👑

Finally, let’s look at the GM who drafted the best players based on points scored this year. Hint: it wasn’t me.

Team	Total Points Drafted
Sonia Satoumayor	8316
Derek’s Double Dribblers	7203
Renick’s Ringers	6701
Lamdin’s Layups	6576
Hannah’s Hot Shots	6154
Lefrak Attack	5772

Wait Til Next Year

Was this analysis informative? Will I draft a better team next year? Is there anything worse than drafting poorly and watching your team underperform? I don’t know . . . but very glad I don’t gamble! Until next year 🫡

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