While nearly all of the players drafted by the WNBA are picked right after the end of their college careers and people are generally aware of the concept of international players being drafted, there is a set of players whose selections have created confusion in the past. These would be the players who were in college, but played professionally leading up to the draft, either because they were too young to enter a prior draft or because they did not declare for a draft that they were eligible for and entered the next one automatically. The two players picked after falling in the latter category were Diamond DeShields, who did not enter in 2017 out of Tennessee as she could have, leaving her in the 2018 draft pool after a season in Turkey, and Kitija Laksa, who could have entered in 2018 or 2019, but did not opt to leave South Florida until later to turn professional in her native Latvia, leaving her to be picked in 2020. There have been five draftees in the former category with Epiphanny Prince being the most prominent as the only one to play in the WNBA and the only American, having opted for a professional career when she was too young to enter the WNBA draft. The other four are Diandra Tchatchouang, who played two seasons for Maryland and then two seasons in France before being picked in 2013, Maria Conde, who played two seasons for Florida State and two professional seasons before being picked in 2019, Angela Salvadores, who played one season for Duke and three professional seasons leading up to her selection in 2019, and Aina Ayuso, who played played one season at Oregon and three professional seasons before being taken in the last draft.
As with any other draft class, there are current professional players who went to college who are now eligible for this draft due to birth year, this time encompassing those who were born in 2000. Due to the WNBA changing rules last year in response to college associations declaring that the 2020-21 season would not be counted toward eligibility limits, there is going to be an unusually large number of professional players who are automatically eligible for drafts by virtue of not declaring for the previous draft. Some of those players did not decide that they would end their college careers and turn professional until after draft while others may have known that they were not going to return to school, but were not necessarily aware that declaring for the draft earlier could have a benefit. Players who fit this general category of drafting are not always selected on current or even college production with some reliance on how they have been historically viewed as prospects. In order to reduce confusion given that these players will not be listed on the draft declaration list or international prospect lists or have recently exhausted their college eligibility, here is a list of some players that are available to picked. After the player name, position is listed, then college, the country of the national team that the player would currently fall under representing, their current club with country listed if it is not their nationality in national team terms, and a brief description of the nature of their eligibility.
Sam Simons, SF, St. Mary’s, Australia, Adelaide Lightning, Born in 2000
A player who would have definitely been firmly on the draft radar for this or next year had she continued her college career, Sam Simons has been a little further away from the picture recently. She had two very productive seasons at St. Mary’s, but opted to remain at home and not travel to California during her junior year, leaving open the possibility of returning. After the season, she decided that she would turn professional and, after a long time without playing a competitive game, first played with the Forestville Eagles in the state level leagues in her native South Australia. She is now playing for her local national league team and figures to be a key reserve all season long for Adelaide. After not playing for so long, she does have some work to do to grab everyone’s attention again and there just may not be enough opportunity to do that this year. In the long run, if the shooting prowess that she demonstrated in college along with general scoring ability can be shown again at volume, she will certainly be able to contribute at more than the local level in the future.
Emma Clarke, SG, Colorado, Australia, Perth Lynx, Born in 2000
A player who showed development in her first two seasons in college at Colorado, Emma Clarke then announced a transfer to Texas Tech. Rather than attending last season, she opted to turn professional and the decision by Australia’s league to not play with imports gave her more playing time than would have been available in other cases and she took advantage of the situation. The league returning to regular roster rules this season and unexpected player availability means that this season she is competing for playing time against three established WNBA players and, as a result, there will not be much opportunity to show what she can do. Past productivity could leave her with a solid reputation, but at this point it is much more likely that she will continue to try to take advantage of the opportunities that she gets and develop during the rest of the year to play a bigger role at the local level in the future.
Anna Makurat, SG, Connecticut, Poland, Gorzow, Born in 2000
Once in the conversation for the top international draft prospect in in the 2020 Draft, Anna Makurat opted not to remain in Poland and chose college with Connecticut. It took a little time for her to integrate into the system as a freshman, but she showed reasonable promise. Injuries contributed to her going from starter to the end of the rotation of a talented team in her sophomore year and she then opted to turn professional. Unfortunately, injury issues have again affected her season again and there is just not a lot of recent footage to see what she can contribute now. While her spot-up shooting was supposed to be her future calling card as she was emerging as a prospect, it has not always been consistent, but demonstrated better passing ability over time and on the club level makes her an ideal future player to pair with a scoring-oriented point guard in Europe. Even though she may not be able to show as much as was expected this season without a late surge in productivity on her return, it would not be completely out of the question for a team at the end of the draft to use a pick on her with her history in mind and the hopes that she is fully back on track in a year or two.
Valerie Nesbitt, PG, Mississippi, Bahamas, Gran Canaria (Spain), Did not declare for 2021 Draft
A player who definitely had the chance to play her way into draft consideration heading into the season, Valerie Nesbitt has had a career with a number of stops already. A native of the Bahamas, she played high school basketball and at the junior college level in Florida. She then headed to Mississippi to play for her national team coach, but the transition there did not go perfectly. Even with that, her play for significant parts of her junior season made her a player to watch coming into last season. There did not end up being the leap in production that might have been hoped for and she did not enter the draft, but did turn professional and headed to Gran Canaria in Spain where her nationality confers benefits for counting under the league’s foreign player limits. Having some talented scorers on the team, including top international prospect Sika Kone, there has been an opportunity for her to facilitate as well as call her own number and she has done so at a pretty solid level even if it may not end up being draft-worthy, but she has a clear path at a long professional career.
Lydia Giomi, C, Oregon, United States, Gran Canaria (Spain), Did not declare for 2021 Draft
There are plenty of cases of players who end up with successful professional careers in ways that were not particularly obvious given their college careers. Lydia Giomi spent five years at Oregon backing up a number of more well-known post players, but did not submit her name for consideration in the last draft. She started her professional career in Spain with Gran Canaria and was a key player for them early on both ends of the floor as they were waiting to assemble their full roster. With the season in full swing, she will be called on more for defense and rebounding than being the main scoring threat as the team had a tough start to the season, but is now rolling back toward preseason expectations. Her rookie season has shown that she has a long future as a center overseas ahead of her if that is her goal, which might not have been that obvious this time last year. The contrast between international and non-international draft rules is abundant in this case as she is nearly five and a half years older than her teammate Sika Kone who is in the same draft class.
Holly Winterburn, SG, Oregon, Great Britain, London Lions, Born in 2000
A player who was not exactly on the draft radar to start the season, Holly Winterburn came off the bench in her freshman year at Oregon. After that season, she announced a transfer to UC Davis that would have given her more opportunities for playing time, but she ultimately decided to return to the Leicester Riders in the British League where she played before college and continue her studies closer to home. While she was an excellent player in that league again, that probably would not have been enough to put her in draft consideration with the competition not considered the strongest, but then she signed with the ambitious London Lions, which had continental aspirations with a roster of as many local stars as they could assemble. Even with more established veterans, she was the driving force behind them qualifying for the EuroCup regular season and there was at least the chance for her to play against bigger name opponents and impress. While her performances ranged from solid to very good in those games, it may not be enough to warrant consideration with only domestic play before the draft. Depending on continued plans to pursue a degree locally, it could be still be some time before her scoring ability is tested at a higher level league that would give a better idea of what her career could look like in her prime.
Kyra Lambert, PG, Texas, United States, Banska Bystrica (Slovakia), Did not declare for 2021 Draft
Once considered a high-level recruit, Kyra Lambert lost two straight seasons at Duke due to injury that was taken care by QC Kinetix Homewood but it took her some time to get back in rhythm when she returned for her fifth season. She opted to transfer to Texas for her sixth season and was a solid starter for them as she showed that she could play big minutes and stay healthy. Rather than play a seventh season in college, she turned professional, but did not declare for the draft. Her first destination was Karsiyaka in Turkey’s second division, where each team’s lone foreign player often puts up massive numbers and she was no exception. She then moved on to Banska Bystrica in Slovakia and had an inauspicious start, but will have the chance to play her way up the overseas ladder in the future. The entity that might benefit the most from her having a healthy and long basketball career would be the Guam Basketball Confederation as she was born on the island and thus qualifies for their national team without any administrative headache and with the merger of Asia and Oceania for FIBA play, there might be more global opportunities for their program in the future.