The Dallas Wings will have the No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA draft -- widely expected to be UConn star Paige Bueckers -- after winning the league's draft lottery Sunday.
The Los Angeles Sparks will select second, followed by the Chicago Sky and Washington Mystics.
The Wings had a combined 45.4% chance of earning the top pick, including both their odds and those of the Sky, as Dallas had the rights to swap first-round picks with Chicago. The odds were based on the two-year cumulative records for the four teams that missed the 2024 postseason. The Sparks' probability to win the lottery was 44.2% and the Mystics' 10.4%.
With their No. 1 pick in tow, the Wings will seek to return to the playoffs after an injury-plagued 9-31 run in 2024. It will be the franchise's first No. 1 overall pick since 2021, when Dallas selected Charli Collier, but marks the first time the organization won the lottery.
"We know what No. 1 draft picks have done to franchises and in recent years how they've changed the trajectory of teams," said Curt Miller, who was announced as the Wings' new general manager on Nov. 8. "So super excited to earn the No. 1 pick in 2025 draft."
"I just fell to my knees," star Arike Ogunbowale posted on X. "THANK YOU LORD!"
I just fell to my knees. THANK YOU LORD! ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
— Arike Ogunbowale (@Arike_O) November 17, 2024
First name greatest, last name ever.
— Dallas Wings (@DallasWings) November 17, 2024
We officially have the No. 1 pick in the 2025 @WNBA Draft. pic.twitter.com/qPHb3bqT4D
ESPN's most recent mock draft projects Kiki Iriafen, Azzi Fudd and Olivia Miles to also be picked in the lottery.
"You can just see the talent continue to rise in the game, getting better and better," Miller said of the group of prospects.
Earlier this offseason, Dallas fired coach Latricia Trammell after two seasons, which included a semifinals appearance in 2023. The Wings have yet to announce their new head coach.
The team has Ogunbowale, Teaira McCowan and Kalani Brown on protected veteran contracts, while All-Star Satou Sabally is set to hit free agency. Natasha Howard, another free agent, previously posted on X that she won't be returning to the team.
Between the returning players and those the Wings hope to re-sign, Miller said the No. 1 pick will have "an opportunity to immediately be a part of a very important group."
"I can't begin to tell you how much this just injects energy, enthusiasm as we head into the '25 season, and with other great news about Dallas with two facilities coming on board here soon," Miller said. "What a great time to be a Wing."
Bueckers, a 6-foot guard from Hopkins, Minnesota, has dazzled since she arrived at UConn, when she was the first freshman to win all the major national player of the year awards for which she was eligible. She missed the majority of her sophomore season with a knee injury and tore an ACL heading into her junior season.
The 2021 national player of the year has led the Huskies to the Final Four each year she has been on the floor for them, including the national championship game in 2022.
Bueckers' career scoring average (19.9 points per game) is on track to be a program record -- surpassing Maya Moore (19.7 PPG, 2007-11) -- and she has done it on stunningly efficient 53% shooting from the field with a 43% clip from 3.
Though Bueckers has one more year of eligibility -- in addition to her COVID-19 year, she redshirted her junior season due to injury -- she has said publicly this will be her last season at UConn.
"I hope she goes to a team that she is exactly what they need, whatever that team is," UConn coach Geno Auriemma said last month. "Paige is going to be all right wherever she goes."
Miller said the Wings will look to draft, "a culture piece -- someone that's going to add to the locker room is going to be such a big deal. And then it's the partnership with the head coach. I have a new role to really support the head coach, listen to the new head coach on the style and the qualities that they are looking for in players on both sides of the ball and put together the best roster to help that head coach be successful."
The 2025 campaign will welcome the Golden State Valkyries, the league's first expansion team since 2008. The Valkyries will pick fifth in each round of the 2025 draft after holding their expansion draft Dec. 6.
The order of selection for the remainder of the first round, as well as the second and third rounds, is determined by inverse order of the teams' respective 2024 regular-season records. For the first round that is: Washington (acquired via trade), New York Liberty (from Phoenix), Indiana Fever, Seattle Storm, Sky (acquired via trade), Minnesota Lynx, Phoenix Mercury (from New York).
The Las Vegas Aces' first-round pick was rescinded due to violations of league rules.
The 2025 WNBA draft is scheduled for April 14.