The Seattle Storm has a 9.3% chance to win the No. 1 pick in the 2027 WNBA draft, and fans can watch the lottery results on ESPN on Sunday, November 15, from 4:30–5 p.m. Pacific. Seattle’s 93 chances out of 1,000 are the fourth-most in the lottery, not a guarantee of the fourth selection.
The details come from the WNBA’s official release, dated October 28, 2026. No individual reporter is named; this is an original Seattle Hoops Insider Staff summary of the league’s announcement.
When Seattle fans can watch
The league lists a 7:30–8 p.m. Eastern broadcast window for ESPN’s 30-minute lottery special, following coverage of the UConn–Louisville women’s basketball game. That translates to a late-afternoon start in Seattle. WNBA head of league operations Bethany Donaphin is scheduled to reveal the results, while TSN will distribute coverage in Canada.
This is the draft-order announcement, not the draft itself. The WNBA has scheduled the player-selection event for Monday, April 12, 2027. November 15 will settle lottery positioning months before those selections are made.
Why Seattle has 93 chances
Seattle’s allocation is based on its combined 31–57 record across the 2025 and 2026 seasons. The league uses two-year cumulative records for Seattle and the other established teams whose selections are in the lottery. Portland and Toronto, which entered as expansion teams in 2026, are evaluated using their records from that season alone.
That distinction matters when comparing the numbers: Seattle’s 88-game record and the expansion teams’ 44-game records are not the same measurement period. The WNBA’s published allocation accounts for those different histories. The 9.3% figure is simply Seattle’s 93 assigned chances divided by the 1,000-chance total, expressed as a percentage.
Who has the better odds
Houston and Toronto each have 329 chances to land No. 1. Washington holds Chicago’s first-round selection, which carries 161 chances. Those three allocations sit above Seattle’s; Portland follows the Storm with 52.
Los Angeles has two entries: 24 chances through its own record and another 12 through the first-round pick acquired from Phoenix. That is why the announcement names six participating franchises but lists seven selections in its odds table. The traded picks also make it important to distinguish the team whose record determines the chances from the franchise that now owns the selection.
What the drawing will decide
The league will draw four balls from a machine containing 14 numbered balls to identify the combination assigned to the No. 1 pick. The balls then go back into the machine for a second drawing to determine No. 2. An Ernst & Young representative will oversee the process.
Seattle’s top-pick percentage should not be treated as its combined chance of landing either of those two selections. Nor does the release identify whom the Storm will draft. For context on the separate coaching and roster questions, see our Storm offseason-priorities coverage. The new development here is specific: Seattle now has an official odds allocation and a scheduled broadcast to learn the result.
Cover photo is illustrative basketball photography, not a photograph of the reported event.