And with the first pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, the Dallas Wings select…
Well, pump the brakes it turns out Wings general manager Curt Miller isn’t ready to tip his hand to that extent yet, but you can
feel the excitement around the team palpitating from the man, even through a Zoom meeting.
The Wings will select first in the upcoming WNBA Draft for a second year, but in order to suss out the greatest team need going into the 2026 season, we’ll have to see which players the team loses in the upcoming expansion draft, as the league will also expand into Portland and Toronto next year.
The date for the expansion draft has not been set, but the 2026 WNBA Draft is scheduled for April 16.
The Wings sent the recently married Maddy Siegrist to the Draft Lottery for the second straight year, and for the second straight year, the luck of the ping-pong balls was with her. This time, however, the Wings carried the best odds to receive the first pick, and the math worked itself out.
“We couldn’t be more excited,” Miller said in a press conference held immediately following the Draft Lottery. “This is a huge momentum moment for the franchise and our young core. We’re really excited about what this pick will be able to do for the franchise. My message to fans is to go get your season tickets now. We’ve got ticket takers standing by on a Sunday.”
Last year, the Wings carried the second-best odds to win a shot at drafting UConn standout Paige Bueckers, but got there anyway on what might end up being viewed as the most fateful day in franchise history if it all plays out like the visions of sugar plums currently running through Miller’s head. Bueckers’ record-breaking rookie season culminated in an All-WNBA second-team nod, despite the team going just 10-34 due in no small part to a slew of injuries along the way.
Six prospects have separated themselves from the pack, making the 2026 WNBA draft a different beast altogether from the previous two, when the first picks were basically already written on the card when the ping-pong balls settled. Bueckers and Caitlin Clark were the obvious choices. This year, the Wings will have what Miller calls “great optionality.”
“The range of skillsets covers the gamut [in the top six draft prospects,” Miller said. “You have a great passer and leader from the point guard position, you have one of the best shooters with the quickest release that we’ve seen in a long time, you have a transition player that really thrives in the full court, a bona fide big time scorer that has led the nation in that regard, and two amazing post players, including an international phenom who’s still just 19. It’s so spread out talent-wise with the top six players.”
The Las Vegas Aces scored three-straight number one overall picks in 2017-19. the New York Liberty nabbed back-to-back firsts in 2020 and 2021. The Indiana Fever did the same in 2023 and 2024. Both the Aces and the Liberty went on to win a WNBA title within four years of the first number one overall pick. So did the Seattle Storm and the Minnesota Lynx before them.
The magnitude of the opportunity and the moment is not lost on Miller.
“This is just a really special time for this franchise,” he said. “The baptism by fire our young core was exposed to last year will really propel this team into this year, and this pick represents a tremendous opportunity to increase that momentum even more.”
Here’s the kind of player Miller said the team would target with the number one overall pick.
“We’ll continue to lead with [Bueckers] and her jumpshot, but you need bigs to be able to facilitate, with screening and rolling, and to initiate with [dribble-handoffs]. The profile for this pick is a great character piece. The archetype is just an incredible human — someone who, first and foremost, brings a lot of character to the table. What we’re going to hang our hat on under [new head coach Jose Fernandez] is we’re going to play the right way, be committed to preparation, to the day-in-day-out grind, to the monotony, to have the habits and have the necessary preparation in order to win. That’s the kind of player we want.”
