On Thursday night, the Atlanta Dream was awarded the fourth overall pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft Lottery.  That pick will be the highest that Atlanta has picked in a draft since they got the No. 1 pick in 2009.  We can expect that whoever Atlanta picks, they’ll be a part of the Dream for at least a few seasons.

Furthermore, the Dream has five picks in the 2016 Draft – two first round, two second round and one third round.  If Atlanta keep all of its picks this will be the greatest number of picks overall that the Dream have ever had.  In no year have the Dream picked more than three times.

But how lucky has Atlanta been in the Draft?  In this week’s Bowman Beat, I take a look at each of Atlanta’s 22 WNBA Draft picks over the franchise’s history.  I’ll ignore the 2008 Expansion Draft, where the Dream stocked its initial roster with castoffs from the other WNBA teams.  I’ll also ignore the dispersal drafts after the 2008 season (Houston) and the 2009 season (Sacramento) and focus on the actual WNBA College Draft.

2008

#8:  Tamera Young, F, James Madison.  The Dream had the #4 overall pick, but they traded that pick to the Seattle Storm.  In return, Atlanta got Seattle’s #8 overall pick and Iziane Castro Marques who would start for the Dream over the next four seasons.  At #8, Atlanta got Tamera Young who struggled her first season in Atlanta and often found herself in the doghouse of Dream head coach Marynell Meadors.

In the middle of 2009, Young was traded to Chicago for Arminite Herrington.  It turned out to be a fairly good trade for both teams.  Young got out of Atlanta and she is still playing for the Chicago Sky.   Herrington became a fixture on the Dream’s roster and her defensive skills were important in getting Atlanta to three Eastern Conference championships.

#24:  Morenike Atunrase, G/F, Texas A&M.  This was initially Indiana’s pick, but in exchange for the Dream not choosing certain Indiana players in the expansion draft, the Fever gave the pick to the Dream.

Atunrase was a Big 12 Sixth Man award winner in her senior season for the Aggies.  She was immediately traded to San Antonio in a package deal that gave Atlanta the 2009 first round pick of the Silver Stars along with Camille Little and the rights to Chioma Nnamaka, who was picked three spots above Atunrase.

Atunrase would only play one season of ball for San Antonio, shooting 27.6 percent.  She is currently a realtor associate in Texas.

#32:  Danielle Hood, F, Hartford.  Hood would only be the second player from the America East Conference ever drafted as a WNBA player.  She would not make the team.  In the off-season she played for CAB Madeira in Portugal for one season.

2009

#1:  Angel McCoughtry, F, Louisville.  With the worst record in the WNBA from the previous season, the Dream qualified for the Draft Lottery where they won the rights to the #1 pick in the 2009 Draft.  Atlanta selected McCoughtry, who has started for the Dream for the last seven seasons.

That pick…seems to have worked out.  The Dream would qualify for the playoffs in 2009 thanks to McCoughtry’s help and she would be named Rookie of the Year.  McCoughtry would be a major part of the Dream’s WNBA Finals teams, win an Olympic gold medal in 2012, two FIBA gold medals in 2010 and 2014, and be a four-time WNBA All-Star.

#25:  Shalee Lehning, PG, Kansas State.  In 2009 there was so much swapping of draft picks by WNBA teams that I’d need to add a diagram for you to make sense of it all.  Picking late in the second round, the Dream got Lehning who would start at point guard for two seasons (2009 and 2010) as Dream fans argued over who should get the starting role at point guard.  (Lehning?  Ivory Latta?  Lindsey Harding?)

She suffered a severe left shoulder separation at the end of the 2009 season and tore her left ACL in the middle of the 2011 season.  Her rehabilitation was slowed and at the beginning of 2012 she decided to retire from the WNBA.  Already a part-time assistant coach at Kansas State, she would serve on coaching staffs both at K-State and in Northern Colorado.  Her last coaching job was at Northern Colorado, where she would resign at the end of the 2015 season.

#27:  Jessica Morrow, G/F, Baylor.  The Dream has always been looking for someone who could shoot the three, and at the time Morrow was the #4 all-time leader at Baylor in career triples.  She did not make the team in 2010.

2010

#9:  Chanel Mokango, F, Mississippi State:  The one that got away.  Mokango was picked by the Dream in the first round but didn’t make the team.  (Meanwhile, #15 pick Allison Hightower would make an All-Star team).  She would be picked up by the Los Angeles Sparks mid-season but only hit three of the seventeen shots she took.  However, she continues to play overseas, playing for teams in Belgium, Spain, and Turkey and will be playing for Ormanspor in 2015-16, a second division Turkish team.

#21:  Brigitte Ardossi, F, Georgia Tech.  Ardossi was definitely familiar with Atlanta, having played with Tech for four years.  She played in some exhibition games but didn’t make the squad.  After the WNBA she played with teams in France and Australia.  According to her LinkedIn profile, she is currently working in Australia outside of basketball.

#33:  Brittainey Raven, G, Texas.  Unlike the two picks above her, Raven did make the final cut in 2010.  She played 23 games for the first Dream team ever to win an Eastern Conference championship but only shot 24.4 percent.

Raven was waived just after the start of the 2011 season.  She would play overseas in France, Puerto Rico, German and Hungary.  There was a possible comeback in 2014 with the Los Angeles Sparks in their training camp but she did not make the cut.

2011

#8:  Ta’Shia Phillips, C, Xavier.   Phillips was picked by Atlanta but she wouldn’t stay long.  That same day, the Dream traded Phillips, Kelly Miller and their first round 2012 pick to the Mystics in exchange for Lindsey Harding and the Dream’s second round 2012 pick.

Atlanta got the better part of that deal. Harding was the starting point guard for the Dream in 2011 and 2012.  Phillips would play for both Washington and New York in 2011 averaging 4.8 minutes a game.  It would be her only year in the WNBA.

#18:  Rachel Jarry, G/F, Australia.  Jarry would be another Draft Day trade.  After being picked by the Dream, she was sent to the Lynx in exchange for Felicia Chester (the Lynx’s #14 overall pick) and Minnesota’s second round pick in 2012.

She would end up coming off the bench for one season in the Lynx in 2013.  Chester was waived but signed by the New York Liberty, playing only four WNBA games.

#32:  Kelsey Bolte, G, Iowa State.  The only member of the 2011 draft that actually ended up trying to make the team.  Bolte would be waived and play overseas for one season in France and Sweden.  She then worked as a Coordinator of Basketball Operations for the Drake Bulldogs women’s basketball team and would later become a real estate agent in Ames, Iowa – the home of Iowa State University.

2012

#14:  Tiffany Hayes, G, Connecticut.  The Dream lucked out in the 2012 draft.  Having traded their first round pick to Washington to get Lindsey Harding, Hayes was still available in the second round.   She was a member of the WNBA All-Rookie team in 2012 and became a full-time starter for Atlanta in 2014.

#32:  Isabelle Yacoubou, C, France. Unfortunately, the Dream’s 2012 draft wasn’t all sunshine and roses.  Yacoubou would not be allowed to join the Dream as Atlanta’s draft pick violated WNBA rules that international players could only be drafted in the year they turned twenty – and Yacoubou was twenty-five on Draft Day.  The Dream didn’t get any compensation for their error.

“Baby Shaq” hasn’t played for a WNBA team yet.  She’s 29, though, so there is still time. She has played for teams in France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Turkey and China and helped her French national team win a silver medal at the 2012 Olympics.

2013

#13:  Alex Bentley, PG, Penn State.   The Dream picked up Jasmine Thomas from the Mystics early in 2013.  In order to get her, Atlanta had to give up the #7 and #19 picks in exchange for Thomas and Washington’s #14 pick.

Bentley would be the next to last player actually invited to the WNBA Draft to be picked, but clearly, she didn’t have to wait long.  She made the team and played in all 34 games in the 2013 season, starting ten of them.  But in 2014, the Dream sent Bentley and their third round pick in 2014 to Washington in exchange for Matee Ajavon and Washington’s second round 2014 pick.

For the last two seasons, Bentley has been the Sun’s starting point guard and it paid off nicely this season when she was named as an All-Star.  In the 2015 All-Star Game, Bentley scored 23 points for the Eastern Conference, leading all East scorers.

#31:  Anne Marie Armstrong, Georgia.  Armstrong, the local player who became Atlanta’s third round pick, made the team.  She played in nine games in 2013 but only averaged 2.8 minutes per game.  She was waived by the Dream in mid-season and later went on to play pro basketball in Brazil and Israel.

2014

#8:  Shoni Schimmel, G, Louisville.  The last time that the Dream had picked in the first round was 2011 and the last time that an Atlanta first-round pick actually made the roster was in 2009.  Schimmel would be the first Dream first round pick since Angel McCoughtry to make the opening day roster – and how!

In her first season with Atlanta, she would end up representing the team at the 2014 All-Star Game, where she scored 29 points and was named the game’s MVP.  That year, she had to fight for playing time with Jasmine Thomas and Céline Dumerc and the following season she’d show up in camp overweight.  During the course of the 2015 season she would fight her way back into playing shape and would be named as a starter in her second consecutive All-Star Game.

#18:  Inga Orekhova, G, South Florida. Orekhova made the Dream’s final roster but was waived in early June of 2014.  She would make the Sun training camp and the final Connecticut roster in 2015, but be waived once again mid-season.  Over two seasons, she has gone 0-for-9 from the field and has played 24 minutes.

#20:  Cassie Harberts, F, Southern California.  New Dream head coach Michael Cooper was certainly familiar with Harberts, one of his players while he was coaching the USC women’s team.  But Harberts would be waived before the season started.  She played in Australia during the 2014-15 season.

2015

#10:  Samantha Logic, PG, Iowa.  The Dream were looking for point guard help in the 2015 Draft and picked up Logic out of Iowa.  However, she soon found herself at the bottom of the rotation, behind players like Matee Ajavon and undrafted player Erica Wheeler.

After playing just 23 minutes for Atlanta, she’d be traded to the San Antonio Stars for the Stars second round 216 pick.  She’d play 23 games for the 8-26 Stars, all of the bench and shooting 24 percent from the field.

#29:  Ariel Massengale, PG, Tennessee.  The Dream then picked Massengale in the third round, with the understanding that she would not be available to play until the 2016 season, spending the 2015 season recovering from knee surgery.  If she makes the roster, she will join her fellow Lady Vol Cierra Burdick who was also drafted in 2015 and was picked up later in the year by the Dream.

#34:  Lauren Okafor, C James Madison. Okafor was only the second player from James Madison to be a WNBA draft pick – and both draft picks were by the Dream, the first with Tamera Young in 2008.  Okafor, however, was waived from training camp one week after camp began and did not make a WNBA roster.