Paige Bueckers was chosen by the Dallas Wings with the primary total decide within the 2025 WNBA Draft on Monday.
Bueckers was the consensus No. 1 prospect all through her senior season at UConn, as she helped to guide the Huskies to a twelfth nationwide championship. It was her first with the varsity after a five-year journey that noticed her overcome a number of knee accidents, which held her out of her sophomore season and for all of her junior 12 months.
However Bueckers battled again.
She averaged 19.9 factors and 4.6 assists this previous season. She scored a career-high 40 factors within the Candy 16 of the NCAA Event, as her Huskies dominated the ladies’s area with ease.
She’ll be a part of a lucky Wings group that leapfrogged the Los Angeles Sparks, who had the best odds to land the No. 1 total decide earlier than the lottery.
Bueckers will be a part of a backcourt that options four-time All-Star Arike Ogunbawale, making a duo that’ll be exhausting to defend because the Wings attempt to get again to the postseason. Bueckers has an opportunity to make an instantaneous impression in Dallas, just like that of 2024 first total decide Caitlin Clark, who led the Indiana Fever to the playoffs in her first season.
Dallas is coming off a 9-31 season, its worst since 2011, when the franchise performed in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Wings final had the No. 1 decide in 2021 and chosen Charli Collier, who performed with them for simply two seasons.
The 2025 WNBA season is about to start on Might 16, with the Wings internet hosting the Minnesota Lynx to open the season.
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