Being able to draft a generational talent like Paige Bueckers is a blessing for any franchise. But it also comes with a lot of pressure. Once you have a player like Bueckers, you can only justify losing for a season or two. Fans are desperate to see their favorite team and players succeed, and stars, who often found lots of success in college, don’t want to lose either.
Bueckers just got her first taste of playoff success at the pro level, as the Breeze beat the Rose to punch their ticket to the Unrivaled semifinals in Brooklyn. After that, Bueckers won’t want to go back to playing for a losing team in Dallas. The Wings’ front office already faced a lot of pressure to build a better roster around Bueckers simply because of her success in college and her smooth transition to the pro game. That pressure just increased significantly.
Going through a losing season in Dallas was new for Bueckers
Playing for Geno Auriemma’s UConn team isn’t easy, but it prepares players for the next level and usually guarantees a lot of success. Bueckers played four seasons at UConn and rarely ever lost a game she played in.
In the 2020-21 season, Bueckers lost to Arkansas by three points in late January and to Arizona in the Final Four. The next season, South Carolina got two wins over UConn—once in January and once in the National Championship game. Bueckers lost a lot more in her third season, falling to NC State, UCLA, Texas, Notre Dame, and South Carolina in the regular season and to Iowa in the Final Four. After that, UConn and Bueckers bounced back quickly and won a championship in the 2024-245 season. They only lost three games all season, suffering defeats at the hands of Notre Dame, USC, and Tennessee.
Coming to the Wings was a big change for Bueckers. After losing only 13 games in four seasons of college basketball, she played for a team that accumulated an abysmal 10-34 record in just one season.
Bueckers has found more success in Unrivaled
Bueckers’s Breeze team also didn’t finish the regular season with a winning record. They won six games and lost eight. Nevertheless, the team went to the playoffs and eliminated the defending champions in the first round.
Bueckers, who leads the team in points and assists per game is a big reason why. She recorded 29 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block in her first playoff game as a pro.
The Breeze’s roster is stacked with young talent around Bueckers—Rickea Jackson, Dominique Malonga, and Cameron Brink—offering the Wings a preview of what they could accomplish with Bueckers, Maddy Siegrist, and their next number-one pick.