2017 WNBA Redraft: Reranking the draft class based on what we know today
How would teams rank Kelsey Plum, Allisha Gray, Brittney Sykes and the rest of the players picked that year?
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While four All-Stars have already come out of the 2018 and 2019 classes, the 2017 class has yet to produce an All-Star. It’s the only class from 2010 to 2019 for which that’s true. Besides Allisha Gray’s Rookie of the Year Award, Brittney Sykes is the only member of the class to earn an award at the end of a season, making the All-Defense Second Team in 2020.
Despite the lack of accolades, several players have showed signs of potential in their short professional careers. Kelsey Plum, Allisha Gray, and Brionna Jones all received guaranteed contracts from the franchises that drafted them, and Plum and Sydney Wiese both received contract extensions before they hit free agency in 2021. Remember, you can check out every player’s contract with our Her Hoop Stats salary tools.
Now that the 2017 class is entering its fifth year in the WNBA and their rookie deals have expired, we can evaluate at how everyone’s careers have shaken out at this point. I looked at all first-round draft picks from 2017, as well as Lindsay Allen, Erica McCall, and Alexis Prince, who all have WNBA playing experience and were drafted in the second or third round. Below, you can see their total minutes and Win Shares to have a sense of how they rate by the numbers.
Win Shares is an advanced statistic that approximates the total number of wins a player produces for their team through their play on the offensive and defensive end of the court. Unsurprisingly, winners of the WNBA MVP award often lead the league in Win Shares, as they are contributing the most to their team’s success by this measure overall. For reference, Breanna Stewart, the 2016 Rookie of the Year and 2018 MVP, has 25.8 career Win Shares entering her sixth season, and A’ja Wilson, the 2018 Rookie of the Year and 2020 MVP, has 13.6 career Win Shares entering her fourth year.
Here’s how the first round actually played out on April 13th, 2017:
First Round:
Kelsey Plum - San Antonio Stars (Las Vegas Aces)
Alaina Coates - Chicago Sky
Evelyn Akathor - Dallas Wings
Allisha Gray - Dallas Wings
Nia Coffey - San Antonio Stars
Shatori Walker-Kimbrough - Washington Mystics
Brittney Sykes - Atlanta Dream
Brionna Jones - Connecticut Sun
Tori Jankoska - Chicago Sky
Kaela Davis - Dallas Wings
Sydney Wiese - Los Angeles Sparks
Alexis Jones - Minnesota Lynx
And here’s how I rank the class today, taking into account their stats and potential heading into the 2021 season.
Allisha Gray (original pick: 4)
Career stats: 11.3 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 1.3 steals per game
Current team: Dallas Wings
2021 salary: $160,000 (protected)
Gray has been a key contributor to Dallas since winning the Rookie of the Year award in 2017, and now serves as one of the more experienced veterans on a very young team. Dallas re-signed her to a protected multiyear deal in February and her production will be a large factor in how far the Wings can go this year.
Brittney Sykes (original pick: 7)
Career stats: 11.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists per game
Current team: Los Angeles Sparks
2021 salary: $110,000 (unprotected)
Sykes may have been the most undervalued player in this class at the time of the draft. She earned All-Rookie honors and even some votes for Rookie of the Year, and spent the first three years of her career in Atlanta. The Dream traded Sykes to the Sparks before the 2020 season. She had a career year in the Wubble averaging 1.5 steals a game, and she improved her shooting efficiency to 48.7% coming off a down year in 2019. She earned All-Defense Second Team honors in 2020 and re-signed a multiyear deal with the Sparks in February.
Kelsey Plum (original pick: 1)
Career stats: 8.9 points, 2.4 rebounds, 3.5 assists per game
Current team: Las Vegas Aces
2021 salary: $175,000 (protected)
Plum signed a massive contract extension in May 2020. She struggled with consistency during the 2019 regular season, but really shined in the playoffs where she improved her production to 15.2 points on 49.2% shooting and 7.8 assists in eight games. She missed last season because of injury, but has a chance this season to prove she can be the type of player she was in the playoffs a couple years ago.
Brionna Jones (original pick: 8)
Career stats: 4.9 points, 2.7 rebounds per game
Current team: Connecticut Sun
2021 salary: $120,000 (protected)
Jones never averaged more than nine minutes a game until last season. She had a breakout year in a starting role while filling in for Jonquel Jones, averaging 11.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.7 steals while shooting 60.5% from the field in 2020. That led to a multiyear protected contract in February. With Jonquel Jones' return and Alyssa Thomas’ injury, Bri Jones will most likely be back in the starting lineup, so this year she will try to continue to build on the potential we saw from her last year.
Shatori Walker-Kimbrough (original pick: 6)
Career stats: 5.6 points, 1.3 rebounds per game
Current team: Atlanta Dream
2021 salary: $85,000 (unprotected)
Walker-Kimbrough signed an unprotected contract with Atlanta during free agency this year, but played in Phoenix last year and for Washington from 2017-2019. She had a good showing her rookie year, earning All-Rookie team honors in 2017, and was part of the Mystics championship team in 2019. She enters this season coming off her best year in 2020 with the Mercury, averaging 7.3 points and 1.5 assists per game and a 43.1% clip from the perimeter.
Sydney Wiese (original pick: 11)
Career stats: 3.9 points, 1,1 rebounds, 1.0 assist per game
Current team: Los Angeles Sparks
2021 salary: $80,000 (unprotected)
Wiese has carved out a valuable role for herself on Derek Fisher’s squad. The Sparks extended her contract in May 2020, and she’s one of only three players who are still on the team from Fisher’s first season in 2019. She made a huge jump in her shooting efficiency in 2020, shooting 50.5% from the floor and 47.2% from three — the fifth best in the league in that category.
Lindsay Allen (original pick: 14)
Career stats: 2.7 points, 1.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists per game
Current team: Indiana Fever
2021 salary: $70,040 (training camp contract)
Allen started in 21 games for the Aces in the regular season last year after missing 2019 with an injury. The Aces traded her to Indiana during the offseason in exchange for the No. 14 pick in the draft, who ended up being Destiny Slocum. Allen is on a training camp contract for the Fever, but could have a good chance to make the final roster based on Tamika Catchings’ glowing statements about her during the offseason.
Erica McCall (original pick: 17)
Career stats: 2.6 points, 2.4 rebounds per game
Current team: Washington Mystics
2021 salary: $72,000 (unprotected)
McCall spent her first three seasons with the Fever before being cut ahead of the 2020 season. She played for the Dream and then Minnesota in the Wubble, and then was sent to Washington in February through a sign-and-trade deal. After the acquisition, Coach Thibault praised McCall’s improvement in Florida and said that she was just beginning to reach her professional potential.
Nia Coffey (original pick: 5)
Career stats: 3.8 points, 2.4 rebounds
Current team: Los Angeles Sparks
2021 salary: $70,040 (training camp contract)
Coffey has struggled to find a role in the league, but was able to sign a training camp contract with Los Angeles this offseason. She’s competing with a few other guards in camp, but made a strong first impression leading the Sparks with 20 points in an unofficial scrimmage, and then scored 11 points, including the game-tying basket, in the final preseason game.
Alaina Coates (original pick: 2)
Career stats: 2.9 points, 2.9 rebounds per game
Current team: Free Agent
Coates most recently played with Washington in the 2020 season, but wasn’t re-signed this year. She’s played with four different teams through four years.
Kaela Davis (original pick: 10)
Career stats: 5.6 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists
Current team: Free Agent
Davis made the All-Rookie team in 2017, but hasn’t made much of an impact since. She signed a 7-day contract with the Dream last season and played two games. The Dream re-signed her to a training camp contract in February, but she was recently waived.
Alexis Jones (original pick: 12)
Career stats: 3.3 points, 1.0 assist per game
Current team: Free Agent
Jones is the only player to not move in the ranking from her original draft position, but she hasn’t had much of an impact in the league thus far. She most recently played for Atlanta last year but was waived midway through the season and replaced by Kaela Davis. She’s spent time on the Lynx, Sparks, and Dream, appearing in 90 career games.
Dropped Out of First Round:
Evelyn Akhator (original pick: 3) - Akhator played 61 total career minutes for Dallas in 2017, but couldn’t make a role for herself on the roster.
Tori Jankoska (original pick: 9) - Jankoska made it to the opening day roster for the Sky, but didn’t play and was waived after the first game.
Honorable Mention:
Alexis Prince (original pick: 29) hasn’t played in many games throughout her career (152 total minutes in 25 games), but she is currently competing for a roster spot in Chicago Sky training camp.
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Add Kelsey plums playoff stats in. Tells a different story