Drafting and holding on to top young talent hasn’t been easy for the Wings. Since 2019, the Wings have drafted fifteen players with first-round picks. Only five of those players were on the team’s 2025 roster. Everyone else either moved on, was waived by the Wings and found a new home, or is out of the league now.
The next season—which will hopefully be soon—is a chance for the Wings to prove that at least one of their top picks that seemed like a bust wasn’t a swing and a miss and that they are capable of setting young players up for bright futures, despite all of their other draft misses. Awak Kuier hasn’t played in the WNBA since 2023, but she is still only 24 years old and is having a fantastic season for Galatasaray Cagdas Factoring Istanbul. GM Curt Miller seems set on bringing her back to Dallas sooner rather than later.
Kuier was the Wings’ second overall pick in 2021. She never put up the kind of numbers you would expect from such a high draft pick, averaging 2.6 points and 2.5 rebounds over 86 games in her first three seasons. Kuier was still very young and inexperienced when she made her debut for the Wings in 2021. If she returns to the W when the next season starts, Kuier will undoubtedly put up better numbers and vindicate the Wings for using such a high draft pick on her.
The Wings had some missteps in the draft
Since moving to Dallas, the franchise has only made it past the first round of the playoffs once and missed the postseason altogether five times. As a result, the team has had a ton of good draft picks. The problem has been picking players who would last in the WNBA and stay in Dallas.
In 2019, the Wings picked Arike Ogunbowale fifth overall. She has stayed with the team ever since—unlike most other top picks. The next year, the Wings drafted Satou Sabally, Bella Alarie, and Ty Harris in the first round. Sabally forced her way out after the 2024 season, and Alarie only played 53 games before announcing her retirement. Ty Harris returned for a second stint with the team this past season after being traded to the Sun in 2023.
In 2021, the Wings had the first, second, and fifth pick. They selected Charli Collier, Awak Kuier, and Chelsea Dungee in that order. Collier and Dungee are out of the league. The latter lasted only 14 games with the Wings, and Collier was waived in 2023. A year later, the Wings picked Veronica Burton. They waived her after two seasons, and now she is a star for the Valkyries.
2023 was a more successful draft for the Wings since at least one of their three first-round picks is still on the roster. Maddy Siegrist joined the Wings as the third overall pick and is still contributing. Lou Lopez Sénéchal played 27 games, but now her contract is suspended. Abby Meyers didn’t even make it past training camp. The Wings also lost their 2024 first-round picks. They traded Jacy Sheldon to the Sun and didn’t protect Carla Leite in the expansion draft.