Tennessee's Parker and LSU's Fowles lead talent-laden WNBA draft

Candace Parker is a two-time All-American who has led Tennessee to the women's NCAA championship game in pursuit of back-to-back titles.

Sylvia Fowles, also an All-American and the Southeastern Conference player of the year, brought LSU to its fifth straight Final Four.

The two are expected to be the top selections in the WNBA draft on Wednesday, with Parker the presumptive favorite to be taken No. 1 by Los Angeles.

"Candace is definitely an impact player," Sparks coach Michael Cooper said. "Already she has changed the interest in the WNBA because here in L.A. we're hearing a lot of people talk about how they would come see her no matter what team she's on."

However, Cooper isn't publicly committing to selecting Parker.

"We're evaluating at least the top five players, and Fowles and Parker are definitely up there," he said. "We're not going to take the best player, we're going to take the best player for our organization."

Parker, a 6-foot-4 forward from Naperville with dunking prowess, has averaged 19.5 points and 8.8 rebounds in three seasons for the Lady Vols, while the 6-6 Fowles has averaged 15.3 points, 10.8 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in four years at LSU.

The Chicago Sky has the second pick and coach Steven Key said the Sky will take the player Los Angeles doesn't.

"(Cooper) is sitting in the catbird's seat and I have to wait to see what he does," Key said. "Both players would be No. 1 if they came out separately in individual drafts. Either way, we're going to end up with a very, very fine quality player."

Perennial all-star and three-time Olympic gold medalist Lisa Leslie sat out last season after giving birth to a daughter in June, and Los Angeles was a franchise-worst 10-24 in her absence. The Sparks then won the lottery for the top pick.

Leslie, who will turn 36 in July, has played some with the U.S. national team in recent months and will be back with the Sparks this year.

"With Lisa Leslie at this stage where she probably has a year or two left, we have to pick a player that's going to be able to fill her shoes and someone we can build our team around and still be successful in the years to come," Cooper said.

After Parker and Fowles, there are still many top players available in what is considered one of the deepest drafts in the history of the league entering its 12th season.

Other players expected to be taken in the first round include Stanford's Candice Wiggins, Maryland's Crystal Langhorne and Laura Harper, Tennessee's Alexis Hornbuckle, Georgia's Tasha Humphrey, North Carolina's Erlana Larkins, and Matee Ajavon and Essence Carson of Rutgers.

"These are players we're going to see three, four, five, six years down the road and likely several of them will probably be All-Stars," Key said.

Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer, whose team has three picks in the top 18, agreed.

"There's going to be some players out there, from great impact players that Coop and Chicago are going to get, to pretty good players and I'm going to get one of them, to some role players," he said.

All the talk about the depth in this draft isn't new to the players, who have heard the compliments for several years.

"Ever since high school we've had a sense of how deep our class was," Humphrey said. "There are so many talented athletes and so many smart basketball players and we all have that common goal to come into the WNBA and make a difference."

Carson agreed.

"The same question was posed when we were coming into college on how the (high school) Class of '04 would change the face of women's college basketball," she said. "We seemed to live up to what they expected and I believe that we will continue to do so (in the WNBA)."

The Shock, who won the WNBA championship in 2006 before losing to Phoenix last year, have the fourth and 11th picks in the first round. Laimbeer expected to take a guard with his first selection, narrowing his choice to Wiggins, Hornbuckle and Ajavon.

"It's one of those situations of who will be available at No. 4," Laimbeer said.

They all might be, as Minnesota coach Don Zierden indicated the Lynx, who pick third, would be looking to improve their interior defense after finishing last in the league in blocks and field-goal percentage defense, and second-to-last in steals.

Minnesota is set in the backcourt with Seimone Augustus and Lindsey Harding, the top overall picks in the last two drafts, so they appear to be focusing on the forwards available this year. Zierden mentioned Langhorne, Harper, Larkins and North Carolina's LaToya Pringle among the top frontcourt candidates.

Houston has the fifth pick, followed by Washington, New York, expansion Atlanta, Connecticut and Sacramento. After Detroit's second pick, it's Connecticut again, Phoenix and then New York closes the first round with its second selection.

None of the coaches expected the NCAA Tournament or the league's predraft camp, held in Tampa, Fla., on Friday and Saturday, to have much influence in the early part of the draft.

"I think the top six, seven picks are going to be pretty locked in, just a matter of what order they go in," Laimbeer said. "It's hard to make dramatic jumps."