Dallas Wings score No. 1 pick, chance at Paige Bueckers in 2025 WNBA Draft Lottery

The 2025 WNBA Draft will begin with the Dallas Wings.

The Wings won the top pick in the draft lottery Sunday, and with it are set up to draft a potential franchise cornerstone at the annual spring event.

Full 2025 WNBA Draft Lottery results:

1. Dallas Wings
2. Los Angeles Sparks
3. Chicago Sky
4. Washington Mystics

The Wings had 45.4 percent odds to land the top pick after entering the lottery with the rights to swap first-round picks with the Sky because of a trade in the 2023 offseason.

Sunday’s event might come to be referred to as the Paige Bueckers sweepstakes, as the UConn star begins 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 WNBA franchise calls their names.

The draft will be held Monday, April 14.

What this means for Dallas

Curt Miller coached the 2024 season for the Los Angeles Sparks as if the team needed one more rebuilding year before welcoming Bueckers in 2025. Now, Miller gets the franchise-changing guard, 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 selfless superstar rookie, including All-Stars Arike Ogunbowale and Satou Sabally. Dallas has been missing a point guard to organize its offense, and that’s where Bueckers will slot in. She’s a disciplined ball handler who doesn’t commit turnovers and doesn’t hijack the offense for herself despite being a phenomenal scorer.  

The Wings were also the worst defense in the league in 2024, and Bueckers gives them some structural integrity in the backcourt. She’s a big guard who won’t get overwhelmed by WNBA point guards. If Dallas can keep Sabally, adding in Bueckers will get them back to contention very soon. — Sabreena Merchant, women’s basketball writer

How did the rest of the lottery shake out?

Chicago and Washington were projected to land at 3 and 4, respectively, which is where they finished. As a result, the only team to have its fortunes negatively impacted by the lottery is Los Angeles. A year after the Sparks jumped up to nab the No. 2 pick to select Cameron Brink, they fall down a slot, 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 away from where the Sparks play. — Merchant

How were the odds and picks determined?

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 a top-three pick. Dallas and Chicago both had combined 31-49 records over the past two years and entered the draft with 227 combinations each for the top pick. However, because of a February 2023 trade that sent guard Marina Mabrey to the Chicago Sky, Dallas had the right to swap 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 pick was determined, the four lottery balls will then be back into the machine and will again be drawn to determine the second pick. The franchise with the lowest two-year record whose combinations did not come up with the first two drawings was given the third pick and the remaining franchise the fourth selection. — Merchant

Full 2025 WNBA Draft Order

The Golden State Valkyries will make 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 have 12 selections as the Las Vegas Aces pick was rescinded after the WNBA found the franchise violated league rules regarding impermissible player benefits and workplace policies. 

1. Wings
2. Sparks
3. Sky
4. Mystics
5. Valkyries
6. Washington from Atlanta Dream via Dallas
7. New York Liberty from Phoenix Mercury
8. Indiana Fever
9. Seattle Storm
10. Sky from Connecticut Sun
11. Minnesota Lynx
12. Mercury

(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)