UConn's Paige Bueckers is the presumed number-one pick ahead of the 2025 WNBA Draft and has been all season. The Dallas Wings will make the first pick this May — a fact that moved guard Arike Ogunbowale deeply when she realized who her rookie teammate will be. "I just fell to my knees," Ogunbowale wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "THANK YOU LORD!"
The Wings were in the middle of the pack last season, 5th overall in the league with 9 wins and 31 losses. The addition of Bueckers is needed, but there's one snag: it's not entirely clear that she's interested in playing in Dallas at all.
In November women's basketball expert Howard Megdal suggested Bueckers could pull an Eli Manning and be traded from the Wings the same night she's drafted, the same way Manning told the San Diego Chargers he wouldn't play for them and was traded to the Giants instead. Bueckers, he adds, has "more leverage" than Manning ever did if she wants to make a similar move, which raises the question: should generational players always be drafted to big-market WNBA teams?
And if so... why?
The case for drafting Paige Bueckers to a major market
The idea of a player of Bueckers' caliber to a major market — and especially a major market with a brand new team, like the Golden State Valkyries — is a tantalizing one. After all, who doesn't love the big lights, the bright stars, and the marquee name to set the entire thing off? There is little doubt that Bueckers will bring a devoted fanbase with her, and that she would be embraced by a city like San Francisco.
The Dallas Wings aren't able to offer quite the same experience. Though the team is more established, they've struggled in recent years and that paired with the overall market size of Dallas (much smaller than that of San Francisco, or Los Angeles) likely doesn't appeal to an athlete who has already signed several professional endorsement deals and is an "intern" of Unrivaled. If Bueckers isn't interested in playing in Dallas, the team could draft her and then offer up terms for a trade that would benefit them the most.
The case against drafting Paige Bueckers to a major market
If there is a strong case against the idea of sending Bueckers to a major city, it's ensconced in the experience of Caitlin Clark, the 2024 number one pick who was drafted to the Indiana Fever and promptly sent ticket and merch sales across the league skyrocketing. Clark is proof that a generational talent doesn't have to play in a big city at all, especially if they don't want to, and that their impact on a team that really needs a boost can be enormous.
It remains to be seen if Bueckers will have a similar impact on whichever team she ends up on. She and Clark are two different players and have embraced social media in different ways.
Paige Bueckers also has a less-examined third option
It keeps getting lost in conversation about the upcoming draft, but Bueckers is still very much a college athlete — and she still has one year of eligibility left. While it's a little difficult to imagine her playing for UConn again next season, it's not outside of the realm of possibility. In fact, that idea even becomes a little more probable if she doesn't want to be in Dallas and can't find a way around it.
Before the draft, there are regular season games and the NCAA tournament to get through — and it's likely Bueckers is only focused on the next game in front of her, as she should be.