SPORT NEWS: WNBA Mock Draft 2025: Predictions for Paige Bueckers and Entire 1st Round After Lottery.giang

Have the Paige Bueckers Dallas Wings jerseys started printing yet?

The Wings won the 2025 WNBA draft lottery on Sunday night. While the team can’t outright say it’s using the No. 1 overall pick on the UConn star, the reactions of four-time All-Star Arike Ogunbowale and general manager Curt Miller spoke to the enormity of being first on the board this year:

Bueckers could theoretically return to the Huskies for one more year, and ESPN’s Michael Voepel reported she had the Los Angeles Sparks at the top of her wish list. The opportunity to make the jump to the WNBA might be too good to pass up, though.

Aliyah Boston, Caitlin Clark and Cameron Brink all left some college eligibility on the table when they declared for the draft. In the case of Boston and Clark, they also willingly signed on to join the Indiana Fever, a franchise with little recent success and in a non-marquee market.

Assuming she’s in the class, Bueckers is a lock to land in Dallas. The rest of the first round is tougher to gauge.

2025 WNBA Mock Draft First Round

1. Dallas Wings: Paige Bueckers, G, UConn

2. Los Angeles Sparks: Kiki Iriafen, F, USC

3. Chicago Sky: Olivia Miles, G, Notre Dame

4. Washington Mystics: Azzi Fudd, G, UConn

5. Golden State Valkyries: Dominique Malonga, C, France

6. Washington Mystics (via Atlanta, Dallas): Aneesah Morrow, F, LSU

7. New York Liberty (via Phoenix): Te-Hina Paopao, G, South Carolina

8. Indiana Fever: Ajša Sivka, F, Slovenia

9. Seattle Storm: Georgia Amoore, G, Kentucky

10. Chicago Sky (via Connecticut): Sonia Citron, G, Notre Dame

11. Minnesota Lynx: Janiah Barker, F, UCLA

12. Phoenix Mercury (via New York): Rori Harmon, G, Texas

Azzi Fudd is perhaps the biggest wild card of any draft-eligible player.

Though three seasons at UConn, the 5’11” guard is averaging 13.1 points and shooting 44.9 percent from the field, including 38.6 percent on three-pointers. Unfortunately, she has logged just 42 career appearances for the Huskies thanks to a series of injuries.

Fudd has yet to make her 2024-25 debut as she continues to work her way back from a torn meniscus and ACL, her second ACL tear in her right knee.

If she can stay healthy once she’s back on the court, Fudd could climb up into the lottery and perhaps as high as No. 2 behind Bueckers. But the injury history could have her fall back toward the latter stage of the first round.

Notre Dame star Olivia Miles carries the same kind of questions to some extent thanks to a torn ACL that kept her sidelined for all of 2023-24.

Now that she’s healthy again, her early returns are encouraging. Miles is averaging 18.3 points, 8.0 rebounds and 6.8 assists though Notre Dame’s first four games. She’s also knocking down 47.4 percent of her threes, but that probably isn’t sustainable she hasn’t finished a season with a three-point percentage higher than 27.0.

Even assuming the shooting does regress, Miles has enough in her arsenal to warrant a top-four pick.

The Sparks already have Brink to anchor their frontcourt, with fellow 2024 first-rounder Rickea Jackson operating on the wing. The chance to get USC’s Kiki Iriafen could be tough to ignore, though.

Iriafen put up 19.4 points and 11.0 rebounds in 2023-24 while sharing the floor with Brink at Stanford. Having transferred to USC, her scoring (17.3 points) and rebounding (7.5 boards) have carried over for the most part.

And with Bueckers almost certainly unavailable when the Sparks are on the clock, Brink’s ACL tear creates some need for Los Angeles to strengthen its forward depth.