Duke women's basketball's Leaonna Odom drafted by New York Liberty with 15th pick in WNBA Draft

With the third pick of the second round in the 2020 WNBA draft, Leaonna Odom becomes a Liberty.

Odom joins a team locked and loaded for the future. New York had already drafted Sabrina Ionescu, Megan Walker, Jazmine Jones and Kylee Shook in this year's draft alone, leaving quite a crunch for bench minutes. Mock drafts had Odom's selection spot all over the place, but the potential she flashed and her run to close the 2019-20 season saw her land in the second round.

This has been a historically-loaded draft in terms of available talent, and in most years, Odom likely would’ve heard her name called quite a bit earlier in the evening. Nevertheless, elite interior shooting and wing defense don’t often come in 6-foot-2 packages, and her falling any farther was a proposition New York general manager Jonathan Kolb couldn’t accept.

Given her raw talent and the perceived gulf between her potential and her production, it’s been speculated that Odom may elect to go overseas. Regardless of how she spends the next couple of years, her all-around game should stand out enough to earn her minutes in the pros soon enough. 

For now, Kia Nurse, Rebecca Allen and Walker will likely sit above Odom on the depth chart. But if her time at Duke is any indication, she won’t be sitting behind them for long.