Dallas Wings Score No. 1 Pick, Odds on Paige Bueckers in 2025 WNBA Draft Lottery

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Dallas Wings Score No. 1 Pick, Odds on Paige Bueckers in 2025 WNBA Draft Lottery

The 2025 WNBA Draft starts with the Dallas Wings.

The Wings won the top pick in the draft lottery on Sunday, setting themselves up to draft a potential cornerstone for the franchise at the annual spring event.

Complete 2025 WNBA Draft Lottery Results:

1. Dallas wings
2. Los Angeles sparks
3. Chicago heaven
4. Washington Mystics

The Wings had a 45.4 percent chance of landing the top pick after entering the lottery, with the right to trade first-round picks with the Sky due to a trade in the 2023 offseason.

Sunday’s event could be called the Paige Bueckers sweepstakes, as the UConn star enters this year’s college season as the presumptive No. 1 pick. But Bueckers is far from the only talented player who could hear her name called early in the draft. USC forward Kiki Iriafen, Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles and French forward Dominique Malonga highlight a list of potential players who could all make significant contributions to whatever the WNBA franchise calls their name.

The design will take place on Monday, April 14.

What this means for Dallas

Curt Miller coached the 2024 season for the Los Angeles Sparks as if the team needed another rebuilding year before welcoming Bueckers in 2025. Now Miller will be on rotational duty, but in Dallas, where he is the new general manager. The Wings had an injury-riddled 2024 but are loaded with talent to surround the unselfish superstar rookie, including All-Stars Arike Ogunbowale and Satou Sabally. Dallas has been missing a point guard to run the offense, and that’s where Bueckers will fit in. She is a disciplined ball handler who doesn’t commit turnovers or hijack the offense for herself despite being a phenomenal scorer.

The Wings also had the worst defense in the league in 2024, and Bueckers gives them some structural integrity in the backcourt. She is a big guard who doesn’t get overwhelmed by WNBA point guards. If Dallas can keep Sabally, the addition of Bueckers will get them back into contention quickly. — Sabreena Merchant, women’s basketball writer

How did the rest of the lottery go?

Chicago and Washington would land at 3 and 4 respectively, where they finished. As a result, Los Angeles is the only team whose fortunes are negatively affected by the lottery. A year after the Sparks jumped up to take the No. 2 pick and select Cameron Brink, they fell into a spot where they could also draft another former Stanford forward in Kiki Iriafen. Iriafen is spending her final college season in Los Angeles at USC, about three miles from where the Sparks play. — Trader

How were the odds and picks determined?

The lottery odds are determined by the two-year cumulative records of the four teams that did not make the playoffs in 2024. With the 25-55 record, the Sparks had the most assigned combinations (442 out of 1,000) and were guaranteed at least one shot. top three choice. Dallas and Chicago both had combined 31-49 records over the past two years and entered the draft with 227 top pick combinations each. However, due to a February 2023 trade that sent guard Marina Mabrey to the Chicago Sky, Dallas had the right to trade first-round picks with the Sky. Washington had a 33-47 record over the past two seasons and had 104 combinations to win the top pick.

After the first choice is determined, the four lottery balls are placed back into the machine and drawn again to determine the second choice. The franchise with the lowest two-year record whose combinations did not produce the first two drafts received the third pick, and the remaining franchise received the fourth selection. — Trader

Complete 2025 WNBA draft order

The Golden State Valkyries will select the fifth pick in each of the three rounds of the 2025 WNBA Draft. However, the first round of this year’s draft will still only feature 12 selections, as the Las Vegas Aces pick was withdrawn after the WNBA determined the franchise was in violation of league rules regarding impermissible player benefits and workplace policies.