Fam, Flau'jae Highlight Storm's 2026 Draft
Talisa Rhea worked some magic on draft night.
With Azzi Fudd and Olivia Miles off the board, the Seattle Storm selected Awa Fam Thiam with the 3rd pick in the WNBA Draft. Fam was considered the player with the highest upside entering this draft because of her skillset, combined with her size and athleticism.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Awa to Seattle,” said Storm General Manager Talisa Rhea. “We’ve been watching Awa emerge as one of the most dynamic young talents in the world. She's already gained valuable experience competing professionally internationally and has tremendous upside. Awa will be an important part of our future and what we’re building in Seattle.”
A year after Seattle selected 6’6” Center Dominique Malonga out of France, the Storm went the International route again, selecting 6’4” PF/C Awa Fam. Fam will be 19 years old at the start of the WNBA season and turns 20 in June. Malonga will be 20 years old for the entire 2026 season and won’t turn 21 until November. They join Australians Ezi Magbegor and Lauren Jackson as 19-year-olds selected by the Seattle Storm in previous drafts. Both Jackson and Magbegor have combined to be a part of three of the franchise’s four WNBA championships. And now the hope is that Fam and Malonga will bring the team their 5th title.
It will be fascinating to see what new Storm coach Sonia Raman cooks up with potential lineups of 6’4” Awa Fam, 6’4” Ezi Magbegor, and 6’6” Dominique Malonga. Coach Raman was asked about that during the post-draft media conference call.
“We’re really excited for her (Awa). She’s a big that’s shown she can play anywhere with anyone. I think she’s going to complement the existing talent we have in our front court. And you know, we have this young, dynamic, exciting front court that is highly skilled, a lot of length there, two-way players. And I think that that combination out there is going to be really, really exciting kind of building and going forward with that group,” Coach Raman stated.
Fam is averaging around 9.0 PPG and 5.0 RPG in her Spanish league this year. At 19, she is certainly a work in progress. The Storm are entering a rebuild after they opted to move in a different direction as Nneka Ogwumike, Skylar Diggins, and Gabby Williams all left the team during the Free Agency period. She will have time to develop and grow alongside the rest of Seattle’s young core.
You can watch some of Fam’s highlights from the recent 2026 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers in the video below.
The fact that Fam Thiam dropped to the third pick was a bit of a surprise, but not nearly the surprise of what took place at the beginning of the 2nd round of the draft.
Shocking Trade!
I’m going to be honest, the Storm’s Draft Watch Party at Rough & Tumble felt like it was lacking a little energy. I think the fans were pretty excited that the team selected Awa Fam, but they were also disappointed after the Minnesota Lynx took Olivia Miles one selection ahead of Seattle. The pick of Marta Suarez was positive, but not super enthusiastic. A few moments later, ESPN and WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced that a trade had been made. On several television screens across the bar, the Storm’s logo showed up again, and the graphic read that Seattle had traded Marta Suarez and the team’s 2028 2nd round pick for Flau’jae Johnson. The patrons at the bar erupted into cheers. It was the loudest the bar had been all night. The fans were thrilled with the acquisition.
“Flau’jae is one of the most dynamic, creative, and explosive players in this draft, and we’re excited to get another first-round pick to select her,” said Storm General Manager Talisa Rhea. “Her playmaking, ability to score in multiple ways, and energy on both ends of the court will impact our team immediately. We can’t wait for Flau’jae to get to Seattle.”
Even though Seattle entered Monday’s WNBA Draft with three picks in the first 16 selections, I don’t think anyone could have predicted that they’d end up with Awa Fam and Flau’jae Johnson. At least not without trading away a player like Ezi Magbegor to get back into the Top 8. The fact that they were able to pull the trade off without giving up a premier piece or a future first-round pick is a major credit to Storm General Manager, Talisa Rhea.
Johnson averaged 14.2 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 2.5 APG, and 1.3 SPG during her senior season. Flau’jae is a dynamic athlete who can score at all three levels. My initial reaction is that she may have a better chance than Fam to get into the starting lineup early on. I could see something like Natisha Hiedeman (PG), Flau’jae Johnson (SG), Jordan Horston (SF), Ezi Magbegor (PF), and Dominique Malonga (C). But I’m sure I’ll learn a lot more after I get to watch the team in action during training camp.
In the meantime, you can watch some of Flau’jae’s highlights below.
Additional Picks
The Storm selected Duke point guard Taina Mair 14th overall and Michigan State power forward Grace VanSlooten with the 39th pick in the 3rd round.
Mair averaged 11.6 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 5.6 APG, and 2.5 SPG. I believe they said on the ESPN draft broadcast that Mair was the first Duke Blue Devil guard to average 10, 5, and 5 since Chelsea Gray.
I have to believe that Mair was the Storm’s top remaining point guard prospect on their draft board when they selected 14th. Several playmakers had already been drafted at that point. Olivia Miles went #2, Kiki Rice #6, Iyana Martín #7, and Raven Johnson at #10.
You can watch some of her 2025-26 season highlights here. I think Mair will have the opportunity to compete for the backup point guard spot with Jade Melbourne, depending on whether the team sees Jade more as a PG or SG.
Grace VanSlooten averaged 15.1 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 2.3 APG, and 1.9 SPG during her senior season at Michigan State. Coach Raman talked about liking her hustle and high energy, and how that would be good to have in training camp. You can watch some of her season highlights below. VanSlooten will probably compete for one of the development spots, but it’s too early to say with certainty.
Storm Post-Draft Press Conference
You can watch Seattle’s post-draft press conference media call below. Unfortunately, I had tickets to the Kraken game at the same time, so I was unable to ask any questions, but I think those who did participate covered most of the questions I would have asked.
Let me know in the comments section how you’re feeling after the moves the Storm made in Monday’s WNBA Draft.
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I love how the draft turned out (and I've been really optimistic about this team through free agency and see the mass exodus as a good thing for a rebuild). This will sound blasphemous in certain parts of Reddit or Facebook but I kinda think the Brittney Sykes trade played an underrated role in this. Hear me out:
When the Storm made the Sykes/AC trade, the Storm were in kind of a free fall and AC wanted out. More than anything, though, the Storm needed to make the playoffs because it turned out it was zero-sum with LA. If the Storm made the playoffs, LA didn't and vice versa. With having LA's pick from the Kia Nurse trade, the lottery odds were much more in LA's favor because they weren't a playoff team in 2024. If the Sykes trade was a desperate move to try to make a playoff run and save Quinn's job (hahahahahaha), it would've been a mistake but it did stop the bleeding and the Storm squeaked into the playoffs and kept LA out.
With the Storm's lottery odds, it was never going to be picks 3, 9, and 14 without the trade because of the way the Storm's season was going and all of the losses to beatable teams. Plus, IIRC, LA had some momentum after beating the Storm at home in double OT. It probably would've been more like 5, 8 or 9, and 14 (from Vegas in the Jewell Loyd/Kelsey Plum trade). So with Fam's enormous ceiling, they got the player that was the consensus #1 until Dallas started signing a bunch of centers. It was probably a good idea to lose the 8th or 9th pick to pick at 3 instead of 5 because there's zero chance Fam would've still been available then. It was just a nice bonus that they were able to trade for the 8th pick for two second round picks, one in 2028.
Free agency was tough this year. With the coach’s firing and the optics of Social Media, I had concluded we were moving on from Sky & Nneka. I did not see us moving on from Gabby and truly envisioned her as part of our rebuild. I was pretty sore about it because every tiny bit of detail about Free Agency with the Storm was subtraction and no additions…and then the murmurings of Ezi wanting out/trade and I was downright in my feelings(oh the dramatics). Our signings comparatively were not splashy…and I thought “well, at least they’re two of the most fun vets”. Then I started seeing the details of the contracts as they came through via Spotrac & HerHoopsStats… two people I had hoped we’d target in FA- Gabby and Allana Miles are the two top paid players currently on contract—-and while I love both of their games—-that’s too high IMO for players not named Aja Wilson/Alyssa Thomas etc.