WNBA: Five sleeper picks for fantasy women’s basketball in 2024

If you’re playing WNBA fantasy basketball, the first few rounds of your draft are probably a lot of fun. Everyone wants to draft the best players in the league to their fantasy teams, and for many of those players, it’s a matter of just how early they’ll be picked.

Fantasy drafts can get difficult in later rounds, though, especially if you’re in a league with lots of people competing. Once all the stars are off the board, it can be tricky to fill out the rest of your roster with lesser-known players who can still make an impact for your fantasy team. With that in mind, we’ve chosen five players who could be worth late-round picks in deeper fantasy leagues in 2024.

Michaela Onyenwere (Chicago Sky)

2023 statistics: 23.8 minutes per game; 8.9 points and 3.7 rebounds per game

There’s a lot going on in Chicago’s frontcourt. The Sky have made it abundantly clear that they see rookies Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese as the future of the franchise, and unless a trade is made, they’ll have to find playing time for Elizabeth Williams, Isabelle Harrison and Brianna Turner as well.

Don’t let that sour you on Onyenwere. She’s increasingly played on the perimeter as her career has progressed, and for all the depth Chicago has up front, the team still will be trying to establish an offensive hierarchy in terms of who will actually shoot the ball. ESPN is currently projecting Onyenwere to average 15.9 minutes and 5.8 points per game; both of these numbers seem very low.

DiJonai Carrington (Connecticut Sun)

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2023 statistics: 17.2 minutes per game; 8.3 points and 1.3 assists per game

The Sun found an ideal role for Carrington last season as the team’s primary bench scorer, and though her playing time remained roughly the same as what it was in 2022, she did a lot more with the minutes that she got, finishing second in Sixth Player of the Year voting. The loss of Tiffany Hayes to retirement means that Connecticut will be searching for more scoring on the perimeter; that will likely come from some combination of Carrington and the newly-signed Tiffany Mitchell and Rachel Banham, though Carrington has the most complete fantasy game of the group and should play just as much as she did last year, if not more. Even if she continues to come off the bench, Carrington is worth a look in your draft’s later rounds.

Jacy Sheldon (Dallas Wings)

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2023 statistics: N/A

You know about the big names in this rookie class already, and chances are players like Caitlin Clark, Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson will be drafted in whichever league you’re playing in. Sheldon won’t have quite as big of an opportunity to produce as some of her peers, but the Wings liked her enough to draft her at No. 5 overall, and they recently cleared a spot in their backcourt by trading Crystal Dangerfield, who played 27.8 minutes per game for them last season, to Atlanta.

Does this make Sheldon a can’t-miss fantasy target? Not quite, but it certainly makes her more appealing. Dallas lost confidence in Veronica Burton midway through last season, and while she’ll probably be given another chance to prove herself in 2024, Sheldon is a significantly better scorer than Burton, and the Wings could use another offensive threat in the backcourt to pair with Arike Ogunbowale.

Aerial Powers (Atlanta Dream)

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2023 statistics: 9.8 minutes per game; 5.2 points and 1.8 rebounds per game

2023 was a lost season for Powers. She had clearly fallen out of favor with Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve and appeared in just half of the team’s games after averaging double-figure scoring in both 2021 and 2022, making it abundantly obvious that she’d be playing elsewhere in 2024.

Powers is now in Atlanta, and she has a good opportunity to bounce back on a team that could use her scoring ability. Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray are the stars of the show in Atlanta, but the Dream’s bench will need someone to shoot the ball, which is a role Powers is plenty comfortable in. She’s always been a productive per-minute player, so even if Powers isn’t getting starter-level minutes in Atlanta, she’s still worthy of a late-round fantasy draft pick based on what she does in the minutes she gets.

Julie Vanloo (Washington Mystics)

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2023 statistics: N/A

Mystics general manager Mike Thibault has a reputation of being one of the WNBA’s most prolific international scouts, and Vanloo could end up being his latest success story. The Belgian guard will be playing her first season in the WNBA, but at 31 years old, she’s got more than enough experience elsewhere, having most recently won a gold medal in FIBA’s 2023 EuroBasket Women competition and playing her winter ball in Turkey with Galatasaray.

Granted, Washington is rebuilding, and it’s hard to predict how the Mystics will handle their rotations. They don’t have many ball handlers, though, and while Brittney Sykes may play more point guard this season, Washington simply lacks experience at the position. Vanloo is currently competing with DiDi Richards and rookie Kaylynne Truong in training camp, and she was the most productive of the group in the Mystics’ recent preseason game, recording eight assists in 19 minutes against Atlanta. If she survives Washington’s primary round of training camp cuts, Vanloo could end up being a fantasy steal.