Connecticut star Paige Bueckers said Friday she will enter the 2025 WNBA draft, according to ESPN’s Rebecca Lobo.
The move ends one round of speculation—that Bueckers would bypass the WNBA for a year while its collective bargaining agreement is set to expire after the 2025 Finals—and invites another. Now, the question is if Bueckers is willing to play for the Dallas Wings, who hold the No. 1 pick in the April 14 draft.
Even if she enters the draft, she could demand a trade or hold out. Bueckers owns a stake in the fledging women’s winter league Unrivaled. Teams that draft WNBA players hold their rights for one year after they are selected; if the player doesn’t sign a contract after a year, they are eligible for the next draft.
Bueckers is one of the top players in women’s college basketball and arguably the biggest name left playing in the NCAA tournament after USC star Juju Watkins tore her ACL last week against Mississippi State.
The 23-year-old also had another year of college eligibility remaining, but had said for months that this season at UConn would be her last.
The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement expires in November, as the league and its players aim to negotiate a new one. Players will be pushing for far, far higher salaries as an 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal is set to kick in next year. Under the current CBA, the top four picks in next year’s draft would make $78,831 as rookies, on a four-year contract that gradually escalates to $100,510 by the fourth year. If the league and union are able to agree to a new CBA, the 2026 rookie class would likely be in line for contracts double or triple that size, if not more; labor negotiations could also include raises for players under contract. (Most WNBA veterans are set to become free agents after this season, putting the 2024 and ‘25 rookie classes in a unique position.)
Bueckers also has an NIL and equity deal with Unrivaled, making it likely she’ll play there next season. The average salary for the eight-week winter league was more than $200,000, not far from the WNBA’s $250,000 maximum salary for a 44-game season.
Entering the WNBA draft also doesn’t preclude her from demanding a trade, or even holding out entirely while the Wings hold her rights, which would lapse after a year if the two sides did not agree to a contract.
The Wings went 9–31 in 2024 and won the draft lottery in November. The 2025 roster will be almost completely remade as heavy free agent departures left just four players from the 2024 roster. The Wings do have All-Star guard Arike Ogunbowale. Though Ogunbowale, like nearly every WNBA veteran, is set to be a free agent after 2025, she welcomed Friday’s move. “I thought the plan was to travel the world & make tik toks?!,” she tweeted, mocking speculation that Bueckers would rather hold out or play abroad than be a Wing.
The Wings are valued at over $200 million after a pair of investors bought a 1% stake for $2.08 million in August 2024.
Bueckers is taking a different approach than her teammate Azzi Fudd, another pro prospect, who decided to stay an additional year in Storrs after losing a year to a torn ACL, just like Bueckers. Fudd will benefit from both the revenue sharing allowed by the upcoming House v. NCAA settlement in 2025 and, possibly, a lucrative new WNBA CBA in 2026.
This breaking news story has been updated.
