Las Vegas-based Stars win No. 1 pick in WNBA draft lottery

APD NEWS

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For the second year in a row, the former San Antonio Stars organization -- now based in Las Vegas -- will have the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft.

The WNBA held its draft lottery Monday night, and the Stars -- as they are still named, at least for now -- came out on top.

The Stars franchise was recently purchased by MGM Resorts International and will relocate to Las Vegas for next season. Las Vegas will announce a new logo later this month.

The Indiana Fever will select second in the draft. The Chicago Sky, who had both their pick and that of the Atlanta Dream, obtained via trade, will pick third and fourth.

The draft lottery involved the four teams that didn't make the playoffs in 2017. The Stars had the greatest odds to get the top pick at 44.2 percent. As the team with the worst combined record over the previous two seasons, the Stars also were guaranteed to pick no lower than third.

Indiana's odds for the No. 1 selection were 27.6 percent, and Chicago's were a combined 28.2 percent. The draft order for the rest of the first round and for the second and third rounds will be determined by inverse order of the WNBA teams' 2017 regular-season records.

The 2018 draft will be held in April.

In the 2017 draft, the Stars chose Washington guard Kelsey Plum with the No. 1 selection. Among the candidates to go No. 1 in 2018 are South Carolina forward A'ja Wilson, UConn forward Gabby Williams, former Tennessee guard Diamond DeShields (who bypassed her final year of eligibility and is playing overseas), Ohio State guard Kelsey Mitchell and Russian star center Maria Vadeeva.

(ESPN)