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2. Anna Leigh Waters, New Jersey. I did not love the pick when made, but I was wrong. Waters has been terrific. GRADE: A+
3. Anna Bright, St. Louis. Solid pick then, solid pick now. GRADE: A
4. Riley Newman, Columbus. Newman was coming off an MLP championship and this looked like a decent pick at the time. Newman is sill good, especially at mixed, but today he would be a second round pick. GRADE: C-
5. Andrei Daescu, Phoenix. A fine pick. Daescu would go about here if we drafted again today. GRADE: A-
6. Jack Sock, New York. A horrible pick then, which has only looked worse with time. Sock remains fun to watch, but talent-wise is not even a Premier-level starter. GRADE: Is there something worse than F-?
7. Christian Alshon, Texas. A good pick at the time, which has only gotten better.
GRADE: A
8. James Ignatowich, DC. I questioned the pick then, and it has proven to be worse than I thought. He would be a third round pick in a redraft. GRADE: D
9. Catherine Parenteau, Los Angeles. At the time of the draft, Parenteau was considered the second or third best female player. She has faded a little bit and is likely to fade a bit more. Still a good player, but more like a second round pick than a first round pick. GRADE: B-
10. Thomas Wilson, Los Angeles. One of the nicest people in pickleball, Wilson has been sidelined by a health condition. GRADE: Incomplete
11. Federico Staksrud, Orlando. He has never had much MLP success, and his team has always been just so-so. Orlando is off to a good 2025 start, but is likely to fade some. He was picked in about the right spot. GRADE: B
12. JW Johnson, Dallas. A perfect example of someone who dropped because he was not perceived as a good MLP player. I liked the pick at the time, and it was one reason I correctly picked Dallas to win it all in 2024. GRADE: A
13. Dylan Frazier, Phoenix. Frazier got picked a couple spots too high and has performed about as expected. GRADE: B-
14. Rachel Rohrabacher, DC. Pretty much the same as Frazier. GRADE: B
15. Etta Tuionetoa, Texas. Has had some personal issues and dipped a little in 2024. Seems to be regaining her form. GRADE: B
16. Jackie Kawamoto, New York. Always a solid player. The only critique on the pick is that there are a couple of better women available here. GRADE: B
17. Jorja Johnson, Dallas. I said it was a great pick at the time and it has proven to be even better than that. A first round pick if there was a redraft. GRADE: A+
18. Meghan Dizon, Columbus. Went downhill in 2024 after the draft. Has started regaining some of her form now in 2025, but is more like a fourth round pick than a second round pick. GRADE: D
19. Tyson McGuffin, Utah. McGuffin is always underrated. There were better players available here, but he was picked close to the right spot. GRADE: B-
20. Viv David, Orlando. She has struggled ever since Thomas Wilson stopped playing. She shows some signs of recovering her form, but just is too limited in the new power style game. GRADE: D+
21. Hayden Patriquin, St. Louis. Continues to just get better and better. One lesson from the 2024 MLP Draft is that younger players were better picks overall, as they had more room to improve. GRADE: A
22. Zane Navratil, New Jersey. Brings extra value to an MLP team from a leadership standpoint, but he was overdrafted from a talent standpoint. GRADE: B-
23. Tyra Black, Dallas. Yet another great pick by Dallas. Another improving player. GRADE: A
24. Gabe Tardio, St. Louis. Seems hard to believe now that Tardio would have been the last pick in round 2, just 14 months ago. St. Louis and Dallas drafted the best overall. GRADE: A
25. Parris Todd, Orlando. A very solid pick. Needs to play right side though, and teams don’t seem to clearly recognize this. GRADE: B+
26. Jade Kawamoto, Los Angeles. Like her sister, a solid pick, nothing flashy. GRADE: B
27. Callie Smith, Utah. The reverse of the lesson that picking younger players is a good idea; try to stay away from players over 30, as they tend to fall off over time. Premier level player, just not good value high in round 3. GRADE: C
28. Lea Jansen, New York. Talent always seems better than results. GRADE: C+
29. Dekel Bar, DC. Always underrated, always solid, great teammate. GRADE: A
30. Tina Pisnik, Texas. Age is an issue, but she is hanging in there. Good player. GRADE:B+
31. Connor Garnett, Columbus. Columbus was just a dysfunctional team. Every player has been better somewhere else. GRADE: B
32. Jay Devilliers, Orlando. Was injured much of 2024, is now starting to look good again. GRADE: C
33. Mari Humberg, New Jersey. Looked very good with New Jersey in 2024. They droped her in the 2025 redraft and she has not looked as good as she did in 2024. Perhaps players have adjusted to her somewhat unusual style. Would have had a much higher grade if we just looked at 2024. GRADE: C+
34. Lacy Schneemann, Phoenix. Up and down player, needs good teammates. She is miscast when she is expected to be the #1 female on a team. GRADE: B-
35. Kaitlyn Christian, Phoenix. Another player who needs the right situation, teammates her game fits with. Has not been in a good situation in 2024 or 2025. Her grade suffers by being placed in poor situations. GRADE: C-
36. Tyler Loong, Utah. Another solid if unspectacular player. Another example of a player who would pair in MLP with Ben Johns much better than Collin Johns does. GRADE: C+
37. Will Howells. New Jersey. The single best pick of the draft. ‘Nuff said. GRADE: A++
38. Augie Ge, Dallas. A player I had hyped before the draft. A great example of a player who can fit super well with so many different players, styles, teams. GRADE: A
39. Hunter Johnson, Los Angeles. Great singles player, but has not yet made as much progress as you might think in doubles. He is just around #25 as a doubles player, which is borderline Premier starter. GRADE: B-
40. Allyce Jones, DC. Always somewhat underrated. Kind of a poor man’s Kawamoto. Will always give it her all, but age and size is against her. GRADE: C
41. Pablo Tellez, Texas. Not sure why Tellez is so underrated. He’s not a top 10 player, but he is solidly in the top 20. Good teammate as a lefty, lets the team play a lot of good combos. GRADE: B+
42. Kate Fahey, St. Louis. Everyone acts like she was some total unknown in this draft. Kaitlyn Kerr and I had her on our Challenger draft board. We did not think she would go Premier, but we were ready to pick her quickly if she made it to Challenger. She did not progress as fast as expected in doubles in 2024, but is starting to do so now in 2025. Again, St. Louis and Dallas had the best overall drafts, each with four very solid picks, all of whom would go where picked or higher in a redraft. No other team can say that. That is why they are the two best teams. GRADE: A
43. Andrea Koop, Carolina. Never seemed to fit in with her team. Sort of a limited player, fit-wise. Glozman or Wang were clearly better picks at the time. GRADE: D
44. Jessie Irvine, Carolina. Continually underrated. Not a great player, but steady. Has to play in a specific situation, only right side with an active left side player. GRADE: C+
45. Brooke Buckner, Columbus. The fourth member of what proved to be a disastrously dysfunctional Columbus team. Great singles player who needs to improve in doubles. GRADE: C
46. CJ Klinger, New York. Looking back, it almost seems impossible that Klinger went this late. Proof again that drafting younger players should be the priority. Would be at least a second round pick in a redraft. GRADE: A
47. Collin Johns, Carolina. Just never seems to care about MLP or perform well. Drags his teammates down. Is clearly not a Premier level player, and that was true at the time of the draft. GRADE: F
48. Alix Truong, Utah. Started slow in 2024, but improved as the year went along. Other women available would have been better picks, but she did ok. GRADE: C
So, looking back, what lessons can we learn from the 2024 MLP Draft? St. Louis and Dallas drafted young, enthusiastic players who fit together. Their GMs did a good job and they deserve their places as top teams. New Jersey is the third best team, and had two great picks in Waters and Howells that are carrying them. The underperforming teams tended to pick older players and assembled teams seemingly without thought as to whether the players fit together. The underperforming teams often picked two left or right side players, who just do not fit together.
Let’s Look Back And Regrade The 2024 Mlp Draft
There is a saying in the NFL that you cannot grade a team’s draft for at least three years, as we have to wait to see how the players really perform. In pickleball, we can do it a little bit faster.
It has now been over a year since the 2024 MLP Draft in which the initial 12 Premier teams drafted their four starters. The rosters were expanded for the 2025 season to six players, and four teams from Challenger were moved up to Premier.
Despite the changes, the core of the 12 Premier teams who participated in the April 2024 draft remains those players initially drafted. The teams that did well in 2024 and the ones who are doing well in 2025 are all teams that drafted well in 2024.
Let’s take a look back at each of the 48 picks from April 2024 and see where each team went right and wrong.
1. Ben Johns, Carolina. This pick has been criticized a lot by the public, but it was still a pretty good pick, even at a high price. Johns has been (rightly) criticized for some effort issues, but his on-court performance has usually been good. The real problem is that he has been surrounded by poor picks at the other spots. Kaitlyn Kerr and I drafted the Las Vegas Challenger team in this same draft. We had Jaume Martinez Vich rated as the #1 male available and we had Vivian Glozman and Zoey Wang rated 1-2 among women. How would you like a Premier team of Johns, Martinez Vich, Glozman and Wang? That’s a pretty good team. The problem with Carolina is not Ben Johns. GRADE: B+
2. Anna Leigh Waters, New Jersey. I did not love the pick when made, but I was wrong. Waters has been terrific. GRADE: A+
3. Anna Bright, St. Louis. Solid pick then, solid pick now. GRADE: A
4. Riley Newman, Columbus. Newman was coming off an MLP championship and this looked like a decent pick at the time. Newman is sill good, especially at mixed, but today he would be a second round pick. GRADE: C-
5. Andrei Daescu, Phoenix. A fine pick. Daescu would go about here if we drafted again today. GRADE: A-
6. Jack Sock, New York. A horrible pick then, which has only looked worse with time. Sock remains fun to watch, but talent-wise is not even a Premier-level starter. GRADE: Is there something worse than F-?
7. Christian Alshon, Texas. A good pick at the time, which has only gotten better.
GRADE: A
8. James Ignatowich, DC. I questioned the pick then, and it has proven to be worse than I thought. He would be a third round pick in a redraft. GRADE: D
9. Catherine Parenteau, Los Angeles. At the time of the draft, Parenteau was considered the second or third best female player. She has faded a little bit and is likely to fade a bit more. Still a good player, but more like a second round pick than a first round pick. GRADE: B-
10. Thomas Wilson, Los Angeles. One of the nicest people in pickleball, Wilson has been sidelined by a health condition. GRADE: Incomplete
11. Federico Staksrud, Orlando. He has never had much MLP success, and his team has always been just so-so. Orlando is off to a good 2025 start, but is likely to fade some. He was picked in about the right spot. GRADE: B
12. JW Johnson, Dallas. A perfect example of someone who dropped because he was not perceived as a good MLP player. I liked the pick at the time, and it was one reason I correctly picked Dallas to win it all in 2024. GRADE: A
13. Dylan Frazier, Phoenix. Frazier got picked a couple spots too high and has performed about as expected. GRADE: B-
14. Rachel Rohrabacher, DC. Pretty much the same as Frazier. GRADE: B
15. Etta Tuionetoa, Texas. Has had some personal issues and dipped a little in 2024. Seems to be regaining her form. GRADE: B
16. Jackie Kawamoto, New York. Always a solid player. The only critique on the pick is that there are a couple of better women available here. GRADE: B
17. Jorja Johnson, Dallas. I said it was a great pick at the time and it has proven to be even better than that. A first round pick if there was a redraft. GRADE: A+
18. Meghan Dizon, Columbus. Went downhill in 2024 after the draft. Has started regaining some of her form now in 2025, but is more like a fourth round pick than a second round pick. GRADE: D
19. Tyson McGuffin, Utah. McGuffin is always underrated. There were better players available here, but he was picked close to the right spot. GRADE: B-
20. Viv David, Orlando. She has struggled ever since Thomas Wilson stopped playing. She shows some signs of recovering her form, but just is too limited in the new power style game. GRADE: D+
21. Hayden Patriquin, St. Louis. Continues to just get better and better. One lesson from the 2024 MLP Draft is that younger players were better picks overall, as they had more room to improve. GRADE: A
22. Zane Navratil, New Jersey. Brings extra value to an MLP team from a leadership standpoint, but he was overdrafted from a talent standpoint. GRADE: B-
23. Tyra Black, Dallas. Yet another great pick by Dallas. Another improving player. GRADE: A
24. Gabe Tardio, St. Louis. Seems hard to believe now that Tardio would have been the last pick in round 2, just 14 months ago. St. Louis and Dallas drafted the best overall. GRADE: A
25. Parris Todd, Orlando. A very solid pick. Needs to play right side though, and teams don’t seem to clearly recognize this. GRADE: B+
26. Jade Kawamoto, Los Angeles. Like her sister, a solid pick, nothing flashy. GRADE: B
27. Callie Smith, Utah. The reverse of the lesson that picking younger players is a good idea; try to stay away from players over 30, as they tend to fall off over time. Premier level player, just not good value high in round 3. GRADE: C
28. Lea Jansen, New York. Talent always seems better than results. GRADE: C+
29. Dekel Bar, DC. Always underrated, always solid, great teammate. GRADE: A
30. Tina Pisnik, Texas. Age is an issue, but she is hanging in there. Good player. GRADE:B+
31. Connor Garnett, Columbus. Columbus was just a dysfunctional team. Every player has been better somewhere else. GRADE: B
32. Jay Devilliers, Orlando. Was injured much of 2024, is now starting to look good again. GRADE: C
33. Mari Humberg, New Jersey. Looked very good with New Jersey in 2024. They droped her in the 2025 redraft and she has not looked as good as she did in 2024. Perhaps players have adjusted to her somewhat unusual style. Would have had a much higher grade if we just looked at 2024. GRADE: C+
34. Lacy Schneemann, Phoenix. Up and down player, needs good teammates. She is miscast when she is expected to be the #1 female on a team. GRADE: B-
35. Kaitlyn Christian, Phoenix. Another player who needs the right situation, teammates her game fits with. Has not been in a good situation in 2024 or 2025. Her grade suffers by being placed in poor situations. GRADE: C-
36. Tyler Loong, Utah. Another solid if unspectacular player. Another example of a player who would pair in MLP with Ben Johns much better than Collin Johns does. GRADE: C+
37. Will Howells. New Jersey. The single best pick of the draft. ‘Nuff said. GRADE: A++
38. Augie Ge, Dallas. A player I had hyped before the draft. A great example of a player who can fit super well with so many different players, styles, teams. GRADE: A
39. Hunter Johnson, Los Angeles. Great singles player, but has not yet made as much progress as you might think in doubles. He is just around #25 as a doubles player, which is borderline Premier starter. GRADE: B-
40. Allyce Jones, DC. Always somewhat underrated. Kind of a poor man’s Kawamoto. Will always give it her all, but age and size is against her. GRADE: C
41. Pablo Tellez, Texas. Not sure why Tellez is so underrated. He’s not a top 10 player, but he is solidly in the top 20. Good teammate as a lefty, lets the team play a lot of good combos. GRADE: B+
42. Kate Fahey, St. Louis. Everyone acts like she was some total unknown in this draft. Kaitlyn Kerr and I had her on our Challenger draft board. We did not think she would go Premier, but we were ready to pick her quickly if she made it to Challenger. She did not progress as fast as expected in doubles in 2024, but is starting to do so now in 2025. Again, St. Louis and Dallas had the best overall drafts, each with four very solid picks, all of whom would go where picked or higher in a redraft. No other team can say that. That is why they are the two best teams. GRADE: A
43. Andrea Koop, Carolina. Never seemed to fit in with her team. Sort of a limited player, fit-wise. Glozman or Wang were clearly better picks at the time. GRADE: D
44. Jessie Irvine, Carolina. Continually underrated. Not a great player, but steady. Has to play in a specific situation, only right side with an active left side player. GRADE: C+
45. Brooke Buckner, Columbus. The fourth member of what proved to be a disastrously dysfunctional Columbus team. Great singles player who needs to improve in doubles. GRADE: C
46. CJ Klinger, New York. Looking back, it almost seems impossible that Klinger went this late. Proof again that drafting younger players should be the priority. Would be at least a second round pick in a redraft. GRADE: A
47. Collin Johns, Carolina. Just never seems to care about MLP or perform well. Drags his teammates down. Is clearly not a Premier level player, and that was true at the time of the draft. GRADE: F
48. Alix Truong, Utah. Started slow in 2024, but improved as the year went along. Other women available would have been better picks, but she did ok. GRADE: C
So, looking back, what lessons can we learn from the 2024 MLP Draft? St. Louis and Dallas drafted young, enthusiastic players who fit together. Their GMs did a good job and they deserve their places as top teams. New Jersey is the third best team, and had two great picks in Waters and Howells that are carrying them. The underperforming teams tended to pick older players and assembled teams seemingly without thought as to whether the players fit together. The underperforming teams often picked two left or right side players, who just do not fit together.
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