Will Caitlin Clark be an immediate star as a WNBA rookie? - ESPN

Seeking to capitalize on the unprecedented excitement around this year's women's NCAA tournament, the WNBA launched a new marketing campaign this spring: «Welcome to the W.» Featuring veteran stars Arike Ogunbowale and Breanna Stewart, the TV ads (accompanied by billboards featuring other players) jokingly welcome this year's crop of rookies with a message that life as a pro won't be so easy.

That will be the case for most players selected in Monday's WNBA draft (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN). Many of the top players in women's college basketball will struggle to make rosters in the 12-team WNBA, let alone get regular minutes or play the kind of role they enjoyed in college.

Then there's Caitlin Clark, the primary reason for record-breaking college ratings. Clark will enter the league as perhaps the WNBA's most recognizable star. The presumptive No. 1 pick will be highlighted frequently on TV as a rookie, with the Indiana Fever making eight appearances across the ESPN family of networks, tied with the Las Vegas Aces for most of any team.

Will Clark also immediately be one of the WNBA's best players? Let's break down the cases for and against that possibility.

The WNBA's age limit — which prevents American players from entering the draft until after four years in college unless they are turning 22 the year of the draft and on track to graduate — has the effect of ensuring prospects enter the league far more developed than their one-and-done NBA counterparts.

Back in 2021, after Clark's freshman campaign at Iowa, I wrote about the WNBA age limit and quoted Diana Taurasi saying that UConn's Paige Bueckers and Clark would have been the top two picks at age 19 because of their potential, as we see on the NBA side. Since then, Clark has