Mohegan — The Connecticut Sun and Seattle Storm are so similar that they could be twins.

They're both proud WNBA franchises that are used to winning. They’ve both decayed over the past few seasons due to age, player defections and/or coaching changes.

The upside to being bad is that it allows a team to draft high. It’s proven to be the best way to build a successful WNBA team, preferably after stockpiling a few year’s of high picks.

The Sun and the Storm are presently in that process as they face off Saturday at KeyArena in Seattle (10 p.m., WCCT 20).

Both teams are 1-3.

Seattle has been the more fortunate of the two with the draft. It’s won the last two lotteries and acquired two potential franchise players — Jewell Loyd and UConn’s Breanna Stewart. Loyd was the 2015 WNBA Rookie of the Year and, like Stewart, was one of 25 players invited to USA Basketball’s Olympic training camp last February.

Stewart has made an immediate impact. She was sixth in scoring prior to Friday’s games (19 ppg.) while averaged 9.8 rebounds, two steals and 1.8 blocks.

What bodes well for the Storm is that 15 of the 19 players chosen No. 1 prior to this year have played in at least one All-Star Game. Eight of those players have been a part of 14 WNBA championship teams.

The Sun won the 2014 lottery and selected Chiney Ogwumike. She was that season’s rookie of the year, but missed last season after microfracture surgery on her right knee. She’s struggled in the team’s first four games.

Connecticut also acquired Alyssa Thomas the night of the 2014 draft. She was taken fourth overall by the New York Liberty and traded as part of a deal for All-Star Tina Charles, who demanded a trade to New York.

The Sun drafted Elizabeth Williams fourth overall in 2015. They traded her this offseason to the Atlanta Dream for their fourth overall pick in April’s draft.

Connecticut used its third overall pick on Morgan Tuck, drafted Rachel Banham fourth, and then traded to get Jonquel Jones, who was taken sixth by the Los Angeles Sparks.

The Sun and Seattle have both struggled as their youth has been an issue. The Storm lost at home in overtime Thursday to the Washington Mystics, 84-82.

“I think it says we’re a young team by getting down by 16,” Storm coach Jenny Boucek told the Seattle Times. “It shows what we’re capable of. … It just took us a while to get to the level that we needed to.”

Those type of comments have been heard a lot from the Sun. They couldn’t put then-winless and very injured Washington away in last Saturday’s 84-76 overtime loss at home. They led the unbeaten Los Angeles Sparks by as much as 11 points on Thursday before talent won out and the Sparks prevailed, 77-72.

Connecticut is young (nine of its 12 players are 25-and-under), trying to incorporate its rookies and learn the system of first-year coach Curt Miller.

Miller, in turn, has been trying to figure out how to use his personnel.

“The hardest thing for me early in the season is this is a team that has true quality depth, but not necessarily a superstar,” Miller said. “There’s very little difference between some of the starters and some of the players coming off the bench. … The hard thing is trying to figure out the combinations that would be productive on the court and who deserves more minutes.”

n.griffen@theday.com