Throughout the college basketball offseason, spotting the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft wasn’t hard. As UConn star Paige Bueckers awaited the chance to step on the hardwood this fall, she bounced between coasts, from one high-profile event to another celebrity showcase, popping up at the ESPYs, New York Fashion Week, the U.S Open and several WNBA games. She even captioned one of her Instagram posts capturing her jet-setting offseason: “I still hoop, I swear.”
The Dallas Wings will be glad that Bueckers does still play — and plays well — as the Wings won the 2025 WNBA Draft lottery on Sunday, allowing them to select Bueckers with the top pick in April. Hope has sprung in Dallas, but it might not take until May for Bueckers’ impact to be felt.
The likelihood of Bueckers’ arrival will influence Dallas’ coaching search, its marketability and the direction of their franchise.
Unique to this year’s lottery was the uncertainty around three of the four franchises involved in the drawing. The Wings, along with the Los Angeles Sparks and Washington Mystics, fired their coach this offseason. None has hired a replacement. Bueckers’ draw — a career 19.9 point per game scorer, a National Player of the Year and two-time All-American — can potentially improve a candidate’s calculus.
“The coaching search has already generated a tremendous amount of interest,” new Wings general manager Curt Miller said. “This is only going to increase it.”
Players like Bueckers have the potential to reorient a franchise. They make jobs more appealing for prospective coaches and create more interest for fans. (Look no further than the Fever hiring Stephanie White to coach Caitlin Clark, and the Chicago Sky hiring Tyler Marsh to coach Angel Reese.) The Wings hired Miller as their general manager earlier this month not knowing exactly where Dallas would land on Sunday. But his task of hiring a coach seems easier now. If one were to ask which remaining opening around the league (Dallas, Los Angeles, Washington or Connecticut) is most appealing, the thought of coaching Bueckers might vault the Wings to No.1.
Among the Wings’ central questions entering this offseason was which of their last two seasons under former coach Latricia Trammell was an anomaly. Was their 2023 campaign, in which they went 22-18 and finished No. 4, a fluke? Or was their injury-riddled 2024 season that resulted in a 9-31 record and coaching change the deviation?
How Dallas answers will chart their offseason path, but retaining unrestricted free agent star Satou Sabally and adding depth around star guard Arike Ogunbowale will remain priorities. Though Bueckers, a redshirt senior, has an additional year of college eligibility, add her to that pair of Wings cornerstones and the goal to become a top contender is more attainable. She is a versatile playmaker who affects the game whether playing on-ball or spacing the floor as a career 42.7 percent 3-point shooter. At 6-foot, she can also slide between positions on defense. From his time with the Connecticut Sun, Miller knows the importance of strong cores and he said whoever the franchise selects has the opportunity to fit right into that group.
For the Wings, the benefits of Sunday’s lottery also extend beyond the court. Clark, last year’s No. 1 pick, proved to be a dynamic player and an economy unto herself. The Fever led the WNBA in attendance for the first time, played in record-setting television matchups across six networks and sparked explosions in local businesses. Bueckers’ presence will surely be a boon for a franchise that is targeting a move from Arlington to downtown Dallas by the start of the 2026 season, planning to open a new practice facility that year and undergoing broader business transformations. The Wings rebudgeted their ticket revenue three times last season, added more national partners than ever, and sold two half-percent ownership stakes this summer at a league-record $208 million valuation.
“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, what a great time to be a Wing,” Miller said.
Bueckers’ college career has not followed a perfect script. She arrived in Storrs, Conn., in the fall of 2020 knowing that a season with COVID-19 protocols would make her first year different than what she had imagined in the recruiting process. Though she won National Player of the Year honors that season, the Huskies lost in the Final Four to Arizona. She played only 17 games as a sophomore due to injury, and she missed the entirety of the 2022-23 campaign with an ACL tear. Last season was only her second healthy college season, though it ended in a Final Four defeat — her third loss at that stage.
Bueckers entered this season with a different mindset. No more ‘Passive Paige,’” she told said this summer. In an effort to seize every moment left in college, she is playing a variety of different roles and positions. Helping UConn win its first national championship since 2016 is her No. 1 goal. “This is my last year to get what I came here for,” she said, clarifying her intention to turn pro this spring.
Sunday was a cause for celebration in Dallas, though Miller wasn’t physically present for any festivities. His flight from Los Angeles (he coached the Sparks last season and was fired in September) was delayed and eventually canceled, though his luggage was still en route. “We talked about if this is the only bad thing to happen, today would be a great day,” Miller said.
The flight snafu was the only snag. Though Bueckers still has to officially declare for the draft, the Wings hope that next summer she will be flying coast-to-coast with them. Of course, it might not take until then for her to be a difference-maker.
“We know what No. 1 draft picks have done to franchises,” Miller said, “and in recent years how they’ve changed the trajectory of teams.”
(Photo of Paige Bueckers: Joe Buglewicz / Getty Images)
