The ugly truth is that Toronto’s late-season slide has made the conversation impossible to ignore. A nine-game losing streak and a 10-22 record do not just look bad in the standings; they drag an expansion team straight into the rough end of the WNBA draft lottery picture, where the margins can be everything.
That is where Brittney Sykes comes into the frame, because this is not a conversation about comfort or polish. It is about a team that has stumbled badly enough to matter in November, when the WNBA draft lottery is scheduled and the No. 1 pick is on the line. Toronto still has 12 games remaining, but the direction is obvious enough: this is now a team in the mix for the top selection, and the stakes are only getting sharper.
The mechanics are straightforward enough. The lottery uses 14 balls, with the team holding the best odds for the No. 1 pick. The top four selections are decided, and the lottery order matters because those two slots can change everything for a franchise trying to build something sustainable. Toronto is already living in that world, because its expansion status and the way the lottery works have put real limits on how high it could climb before even this slide took hold.
Toronto could not select higher than sixth overall after winning the coin flip with the Portland Fire, and it ultimately selected UCLA’s Kiki Rice. That detail matters because it shows how quickly the draft conversation can shift from theoretical to urgent. A team can make one choice, take one step forward, and still find itself staring at a far more consequential decision cycle not long after.
Why the No. 1 pick talk is real
This is not happening in a vacuum. The Dallas Wings won the last two lotteries and selected UConn guards Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, which is a reminder of what a franchise can do when the chips fall its way. The Wings are 19-14 this season and have a comfortable hold on the last post-season berth, which only sharpens the contrast. Some teams are trying to keep their season alive. Others are already thinking about how to turn lottery position into a future centerpiece.
Toronto is clearly in the second group right now. The club’s place in the standings — 10-22, on a nine-game losing streak — is what has forced the issue. It is not glamorous, but it is real. And in a draft conversation that is being framed around a potentially loaded 2027 class, real is enough to matter. JuJu Watkins, the Southern California guard whose name is already being floated as a possible No. 1 pick in the 2027 WNBA draft, is exactly the kind of prospect that changes the tone of an entire franchise conversation.
Watkins suffered a torn ACL in the 2025 NCAA tournament, which adds another layer of uncertainty to a picture that is still too early to settle. That is the point, though: the class is being talked up, the ceiling is high, and Toronto’s current slide has pushed it right into the middle of the debate. The team still has games to play, and the standings can still move. But no one should pretend the direction of travel has not already made the lottery the story.
Brittney Sykes and Toronto can try to frame this as a stretch that needs to be survived one night at a time. Fair enough. But the bigger truth is harder to dodge: a nine-game losing streak has not just wrecked the mood, it has pushed Toronto into the No. 1 pick mix, and that changes the entire temperature of the season.
