Dallas Wings win the WNBA draft lottery, the Minnesota Lynx will pick second
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The Dallas Wings won the WNBA draft lottery for the second consecutive season on Sunday night.
The Wings, who drafted Paige Bueckers No. 1 last year, had a 42 percent chance to secure the top pick again.
“This is a integral piece, a core piece," Dallas general manager Curt Miller said. "In recent draft classes you see what consecutive No. 1's can do.”
Earlier this month, the Wings hired longtime college coach Jose Fernandez to lead the franchise.
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“Exciting times with our young core and new facilities and new coach,” Miller said. “Great moment.”
Minnesota, which had the best record in the league last year, will pick second. The Lynx possessed the Chicago Sky’s first-round pick after a previous trade. Seattle, Washington and Chicago rounded out the lottery. This marked the fifth time in the history of the lottery that the results matched the order of chances held by the teams — the last came in 2018.
The WNBA is currently negotiating with the players’ union for a new collective bargaining agreement. The two sides agreed to extend an Oct. 31 deadline to Nov. 30. Assuming a new CBA can be negotiated, the draft is normally held in April.
While there's no clear No. 1 pick in the draft like Bueckers last season, there's a host of draft-eligible players in college including UCLA's Lauren Betts, UConn's Azzi Fudd, LSU's Flau'jae Johnson and TCU's Olivia Miles. There's also Spanish player Awa Fam.
“The great things about this draft is there's a lot of optionality coming out,” Miller said.
Miller said he had more nerves this year than last year. He also said he's fielded more calls before the lottery results were announced from other teams interested in potentially trading with Dallas than last year.
The Wings sent player Maddy Siegrist to the lottery for the second year in a row. She recently got married and met the Pope before heading to Los Angeles for the lottery.
The league is expanding to 15 teams this season with the addition of the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo. Details of the expansion draft for those two new franchises hasn't been announced yet. The two teams will also pick sixth and seventh in the draft next April.
The draft the Lynx have been anticipating
Lynx Head Coach and President of Basketball Operations Cheryl Reeve said the team has been planning for this draft since they decided to trade last year's first-round pick with the Chicago Sky.
The talent pool of this draft reminds Reeve of 2019, when there was a wealth of talent without a “consensus number one pick.”
“There’s a wide range of skill sets. I think that’s what’s nice about certainly the top of the draft, you know, the first half of the first round,” Reeve said. “I think that's palpable and that's something that's really interesting for us to look at.”
Reeve said the Lynx have narrowed down their top choices and will spend the college basketball season further deciding.
“We've known a top five for a while. We certainly will see as the season evolves, and that could shift. But I think in general, we've already been at work on the evaluation process, and coaches have been out,” she said.
This draft comes as the team sees a number of their key players and players across the league becoming free agents. For the Lynx: Napheesa Collier, Kayla McBride, DiJonai Carrington, Alanna Smith, Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman all enter free agency. Reeve said the team’s good standing adds to the appeal.
“The position of the franchise to have as many free agents as we do — but I also think free agents externally looking at the Lynx — we’re well positioned for success immediately, and that’s what players want,” Reeve said.
