WNBA Draft Takeaways: Did Seattle Storm Land Pair of Steals?
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Former Kansas State point guard Serena Sundell (No. 4) may have been the steal of the 2025 WNBA Draft by the Seattle Storm. Credit: Serena Sundell/Instagram [/caption]
The Seattle Storm may have found the future face of the franchise on Monday, selecting 19-year-old France phenom Dominique Malonga No. 2 overall in the 2025 WNBA Draft. She wasn’t a consensus projected second pick, but Malonga may have the highest ceiling of any player in this year’s draft.
Seattle also drafted three guards in the third round, adding training camp competition and potential regular season backcourt depth it desperately needed. The backup point guard and shooting guard positions just got much more interesting.
In case you missed it, here are each of the Storm’s four 2025 draft selections.
- No. 2: F/C Dominique Malonga, France
- No. 26: PG Serena Sundell, Kansas State
- No. 29: SG Madison Conner, TCU
- No. 34: G/F Jordan Hobbs, Michigan
The group of picks includes everything from surprises to potential steals, to players that may not be on the team’s final roster when Seattle begins its season on the road against the Phoenix Mercury on May 17.
With the draft complete, here are three rapid reactions to the Storm’s selections.
From a long-term lens, Seattle may have landed the best player in the draft.
Paige Bueckers is an exceptional athlete and basketball player. She is going to be a Day 1 starter who could immediately shift the Dallas Wings’ fate from nine wins in 2024 to playoff contention in 2025 if she can adjust to the WNBA pace quickly enough.
But Malonga is more than four years younger than Bueckers and might have a higher ceiling. Malonga already has ample professional experience at just 19 years old and has potentially only scratched the surface of her overall skill set. If she plays a significant role in 2025 next to or behind Ezi Magbegor, Malonga will be way ahead of most WNBA players by her age and could be a staple in Seattle for a decade or longer.
“Dominique is a rising global star and we are thrilled to welcome her to Seattle,” Seattle Storm general manager Talisa Rhea said via a post-draft press release. “She brings versatility, skill and a high level of efficiency. We know she’ll be an integral part of our team, now and for years to come.”
Fans have weighted Malonga's shoulders with expectations of beginning a new era of Storm basketball now that Jewell Loyd is in Las Vegas. That could either propel her to greatness or be her downfall.
How did Olivia Miles forgoing the draft affect the Storm’s draft plans?
Seattle needed to fill guard spots in this draft. Until Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles withdrew her name, she was essentially the consensus projected No. 2 pick. But there’s no way to know if the Storm even would have picked Miles should she have been available, or whether Malonga was the plan all along.
Either way, it was thought Seattle could make a run on post depth in the third round. That flipped to a flurry of backcourt picks — illustrating the team feels good about the post positions after selecting Malonga. The team essentially got an extra rookie at one of those spots by signing 2024 third-round pick Mackenzie Holmes this offseason as well.
Second-year point guard Nika Mühl and small forward Jordan Horston are expected to be suspended due to injury, so it makes sense the team is looking for competition at those spots. The two to watch will be the final picks — Conner and Hobbs — as they will likely need to edge out a player already signed to make the final roster.
Was Serena Sundell the steal of the draft?
Sundell was projected by some as a first-round pick, but instead, she slid to the first pick of the third round — an easy selection for Seattle which is trying to future-proof its point guard position. Skylar Diggins-Smith is entering her 11th WNBA season and will turn 35 during the 2025 season. Even if Diggins-Smith does continue to play beyond this season, there’s no guarantee she will re-sign with the Storm for a third consecutive season.
There is a potential reality in a few years where Sundell is frequently distributing to Malonga on the inside night-in and night-out. Sundell’s NCAA-leading 262 assists (7.3 per game) made her possibly the best pure point guard in the draft, and the Storm have to be thrilled she was available that late.
It’s a plus she also averaged 14 points per game on 50 percent shooting in her final season at TCU, and it appears to be fate considering her brother (Jalen Sundell) is already playing for the Seattle Seahawks.
