7. Dallas Wings select Bella Alarie
Both a reason for teams above the Wings to trade down and a reason for the Wings to keep these picks is present in the level of talent available here at seven, and if it’s Bella Alarie, the Wings may have found another Brian Agler-type versatile big to help them. Imagining the Wings deploying Sabally, Walker and Alarie, for instance, would mean three plus-sized for their position figures who can all shoot it from deep and enforce the Agler defensive scheme at the same time. Alarie at seven is going to look silly in the same way Jonquel Jones at six back in 2016 will have WNBA historians shaking their heads for decades to come. Don’t just look at what Alarie is now — a prototype stretch-four who can shoot it from deep, operate in the midrange and finish at the rim, block shots with her plus-plus wingspan and grab rebounds — but consider how much her game has grown. Her shot, for instance, is both better than it was earlier in her collegiate career and, based on her free throw accuracy, would seem to have room to grow. The kind of defensive attention she faced while at Princeton won’t accompany her to the pros, so she’ll get the chance to get her shot off in single coverage on a regular basis. Alarie is a future all star, wherever she lands.