The Dallas Wings secured the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft lottery on Sunday, setting up the franchise to add UConn superstar Paige Bueckers to its roster next season.
Bueckers was eligible to declare for the WNBA Draft in 2024 but opted to remain for her fifth season at UConn after injuries marred her sophomore and junior years. She entered 2024-25 as a runaway favorite to win National Player of the Year and has immediately lived up to those expectations, averaging 21.3 points, four assists, 3.7 rebounds and three steals across the Huskies’ 3-0 start. Bueckers scored a season-high 27 points in No. 2 UConn’s first ranked victory over No. 14 North Carolina on Friday, and she is one of just two guards in the country averaging 20-plus points on a field goal percentage of 65% or better.
Bueckers, the consensus top prospect for 2025, is no stranger to being No. 1: She was the top-ranked recruit in the Class of 2020 and came to UConn already a four-time gold medalist with USA Basketball’s junior teams. The star point guard transitioned with ease to the college level, becoming the first freshman named Naismith Player of the Year and leading the Huskies to a sixth consecutive Final Four appearance in 2020-21.
But after her stellar rookie campaign, Bueckers suffered a tibial plateau fracture and lateral meniscus tear in her left knee during a game against Notre Dame in Dec. 2021 that caused her to miss 19 games during her sophomore year. She underwent surgery and was cleared to return to play just before the start of the Big East Tournament. Despite having missed most of the season, Bueckers again powered UConn back to the Final Four and its first national championship appearance since 2016.
Bueckers suffered another heartbreak before her junior season, tearing her left ACL during a game of pickup in Aug. 2022. She was sidelined by the recovery process for the entire year, but the superstar made a triumphant return in 2023-24. UConn’s roster was plagued by injuries with five players undergoing season-ending surgery between June and January, and the Huskies spent most of the year with just six players in rotation. Bueckers played the majority of her minutes out of position as a forward, but she still averaged 21.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.2 steals to lead the Huskies on another miracle run to the Final Four.
The Dallas Wings went 9-31 in 2024 to finish 11th in the league, missing the WNBA Playoffs for the first time since 2020. The team parted ways with head coach Latricia Trammel and general manager Gregg Bibb at the end of the season, and former Los Angeles Sparks and Connecticut Sun head coach Curt Miller was hired Nov. 8 as the new general manager. The Wings are headlined by four-time All-Star Arike Ogunbowale, who averaged 22.2 points and 5.1 assists in 2024, but the team is looking at a potential rebuild with two-time All-Star foward Satou Sabally and three-time WNBA champion Natasha Howard set to hit unrestricted free agency this offseason.
The Wings’s recent history with lottery draft picks has been mixed. Former Villanova star Maddy Siegrist, who battled with Bueckers for years in the Big East, was selected No. 3 overall by Dallas in 2023 and looked poised for a breakout season in 2024 before a finger injury limited her for much of the year. The Wings also took former Husky Lou Lopez-Senechal just outside the lottery in that draft at No. 5, and she averaged less than five minutes in just 27 game appearances in 2024. Dallas’s last No. 1 pick, Texas forward Charli Collier in 2021, saw action in 45 games over two years before she was waived during training camp in 2023. She has not played in the WNBA since.
Behind Dallas, the Los Angeles Sparks will pick at No. 2, the Chicago Sky at No. 3 and the Washington Mystics at No. 4. The WNBA Draft will take place in April after the conclusion of the college season, but an official date has not yet been set. Bueckers and sixth-year senior Aubrey Griffin are both expected to declare for the 2025 draft out of UConn. Star guard Azzi Fudd will also be old enough to declare, but the redshirt junior missed the 2023-24 season with an ACL and medial meniscus tear and has another year of college eligibility she could opt to utilize.
