Dallas Wings Secure No. 1 WNBA Pick Projected to be Paige Bueckers

The Dallas Wings will select No. 1 in the 2025 WNBA Draft after winning Sunday’s draft lottery. 

There was a 45.4% chance for the Wings, who finished 9–31 last season, to walk away with the No. 1 pick, with 22.7% coming from their own pick and another 22.7% coming from the selection of the Chicago Sky, as Dallas owned a pick swap.

The second pick will be made by the Los Angeles Sparks, who would have held the best odds at 44.2%, if not for the pick swap. The Sky secured the third pick, and the Washington Mystics, who had just a 10.4% chance at the top pick, settled for the fourth pick. 

The Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA expansion franchise that debuts next season, hold the fifth overall pick.

The Paige Bueckers Draft

While the WNBA draft won’t take place until April, and follows a full NCAA women’s basketball season, the Wings are expected to select University of Connecticut star Paige Bueckers with the first pick. The 23-year-old can play both guard positions and would provide a needed boost for a Wings squad that has been searching for a backcourt mate for several years to complement star scorer Arike Ogunbowale.

It’s unlikely Bueckers can replicate the fanfare that followed Caitlin Clark, but she still projects as a massive draw for the WNBA and Dallas given her exciting play style, longevity in the spotlight, and the rise of the women’s game. She has already signed NIL deals with Nike and Gatorade, and is also the first college basketball player to secure equity in a professional basketball league after agreeing to a deal with Unrivaled in August.

Bueckers has a $1.4 million NIL valuation, according to On3, which is second among all NCAA women’s basketball players and 30th among all NCAA athletes. She has over five million followers across Instagram, TikTok, and X, more than any men’s football or basketball player.

Bueckers, a redshirt senior, is averaging 21.3 points, 4 assists, and 3 steals through three games to start the 2024–2025 NCAA campaign. She was the No. 1 recruit in the 2020 high school class, ahead of many of the top rookies from the 2024 WNBA draft class, including Clark, Angel Reese, and Cameron Brink. During her freshman year at UConn, Bueckers won the Wooden Award and the AP, Naismith and WSBWA National Player of the Year awards.

In the following years, however, she battled injuries and missed the entire 2022–2023 season due to an ACL tear. She was eligible to enter the 2024 WNBA draft, and was projected to be drafted in the lottery after Clark, but announced in February she would return to UConn.

Bueckers does still have another year of eligibility left due to injuries, and could stay in school through the 2025–26 season. But she is expected to declare for the upcoming draft.