The Dallas Wings will be selecting first overall in the 2026 WNBA Draft after winning the draft lottery for the second consecutive year. Last year, the Wings used the top pick to select All-Star Paige Bueckers, who has become their franchise cornerstone early in her career. After a disappointing 9-31 season, Dallas entered the lottery with a 42% chance to land the number one pick. With the draft set to take place in April, the Wings are set to do their due diligence in choosing another franchise building block.

Dallas is entering the second offseason under General Manager Curt Miller, who has more of a decision to make in this draft. The three previous drafts had a clear number one selection like Bueckers, Caitlin Clark, and Aliyah Boston. Although there is no consensus top selection, the Wings have many intriguing options. In a draft headlined by Lauren Betts, Awa Fam, and Flau’jae Johnson, Dallas’ top area of improvement will be clear amongst their pick. Upon securing the top pick, Miller spoke about the importance of having different options to choose from.

“The great thing about this draft is [there is] a lot of optionality,” Miller said in a post-lottery media availability. “The optionality that we’re gonna have as we approach [the draft] is going to be really, really important for us.”

The Wings will add another piece to the roster, who will have a new leader as head coach this season. Dallas hired former college coach Jose Fernandez as head coach after 25 years at South Florida. With another chance to select from the top spot, Dallas could build around their franchise star and new head coach in more ways than one. While the Wings will likely make a selection at number one, they could also trade the pick for a current star in the league. Although trading last year's top pick was out of the question for Dallas, they are open to picking up the phone this year and listening to different trade offers.

“We received very, very few phone calls about the number one pick last year, the last couple years have been consensus, and probably pretty obvious teams weren’t going to trade their number one pick,” Miller said. “I’ve received more pre-[lottery] phone calls before people even knew where we would be drafting about this year’s draft than I did all of last year.”

The Wings have more choices at their disposal in this year’s draft, but they will also be planning around more obstacles. With ongoing CBA negotiations, over 100 players out of 156 are free agents. Dallas is fortunate to have a young team with the core of their team still under contract. While their core may still be intact, the Wings will have a decision to make on who to protect in the upcoming expansion draft. The league will be adding the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire, who will be selecting different players on rosters across the league. Although the number of players Dallas can protect is still unclear, receiving the number one pick could make the process of selecting players to protect more difficult. With the Wings having more options at their disposal this offseason, including the top pick and protecting players from the expansion draft, Miller has more excitement about the impending decision-making process.

“I think league-wide we have a difficult decision on our protections [and] I’m not the only GM that’s gonna have sleepless nights,” Miller said. “Nearly every day we talk about our protections and what potentially that could look like in the expansion draft ....I think it’s an exciting time, and I believe more trade phone calls are gonna come across our desk for this number one than have for number one picks in multiple years, now. It will be interesting and makes our job fun to listen to those phone calls that come in for the number one pick, and we’ll do what’s best for our franchise and the best way we think [of] building towards a championship.”