By DOUG FEINBERG AP Basketball Writer
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% 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.
“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.
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