Wings win WNBA draft lottery for second straight year

Twice is nice for the Dallas Wings, who will pick first overall in the WNBA Draft after landing star Paige Buckers No. 1 a year ago.

The Wings won the WNBA draft lottery Sunday for the second year running. The franchise entered with the best odds of landing the top spot — 420 chances out of 1,000, based on teams' combined records from the 2024 and 2025 seasons.

The second pick belongs to the Minnesota Lynx via the Chicago Sky thanks to an April trade that sent the Sky the 11th overall pick the day before the 2025 draft.

Rounding out the top five will be the Seattle Storm (via the Los Angeles Sparks), the Washington Mystics and the Sky (via the Connecticut Sun).

The Sparks moved their first-round pick to Seattle in a 2024 deal to acquire Kia Nurse. Chicago still gets a lottery pick after it acquired the Phoenix Mercury's first-rounder and swapped it for Connecticut's in a pair of 2024 trades.

The Wings are starting over with Jose Fernandez as their new head coach after dismissing Chris Koclanes after one year. Fernandez enjoyed several years of success as a college head coach at South Florida.

Unlike the previous few drafts featuring Bueckers and Caitlin Clark, it is less clear who will be the first player off the board next spring. A recent ESPN mock draft pegged Spanish center Awa Fam first overall, while college options include UConn's Azzi Fudd, UCLA's Lauren Betts and Notre Dame-turned-TCU guard Olivia Miles.

Following the five lottery selections, the next two picks belong to a pair of expansion franchises, the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire. The WNBA hasn't revealed in what order those teams will pick.

The full draft order is as follows:

1. Dallas

2. Minnesota (from Chicago)

3. Seattle (from Los Angeles)

4. Washington

5. Chicago (from Connecticut)

6-7. Toronto, Portland

8. Golden State

9. Washington (from Seattle)

10. Indiana

11. Washington (from New York)

12. Connecticut (from Phoenix)

13. Atlanta

14. Seattle (from Las Vegas)

15. Connecticut (from Minnesota)