DALLAS, TEXAS — After playing their regular season in a bubble environment this past season the Dallas Wings are ready to return back to the College Park Center for the first time since 2019. Yesterday the WNBA and all 12 teams announced that the 2021 regular season will start May 14th and the opening weekend will highlight star-studded match ups. Dallas will play their first game of the season on the road against the Los Angeles Sparks and the following week they will play the Seattle Storm for their home opener.
Before the excitement begins, the first line of business for the Wings will be tomorrow during the WNBA’s draft and currently hold the top two picks and also hold the 5th and 7th picks.
It’s the first time in franchise history that the team has held both top picks acquiring the top pick by way of the draft lottery, which has provided some sense of ease to the Wings draft plans.
A few seasons ago this team was built around stars in the WNBA like Skylar Diggs and Liz Cambage, but the Wings traded the two players and found a way to aggregate draft picks ever since. The Wings drafted Arike Ogunbowale in 2019, who won a national championship at Notre Dame and became an instant star and cornerstone player in Dallas leading the WNBA in scoring last season. Last year the Wings used their first round draft picks on Satou Sabally, Bella Alarie, and Tyasha Harris. Sabally made an instant impact averaging 14 points per game and was named to the 2020 All Rookie Team.
The Wings rebuild has gotten off to a solid start by acquiring the right players to build around their starting 5 and assure depth. It will be interesting to see which direction the team will go in tomorrow with several top tier prospects that will be available. Most mock drafts have the Wings selecting Charli Collier with the first overall pick who helped lead the Texas Women’s Basketball team to the Elite 8 this past March and Awak Kuier with the second overall pick who played professionally in Italy this past season.
Either way it goes, the Wings will add two of the top players the draft has to offer tomorrow and that can only enhance their efforts to turn the franchise around under first year head coach and 2 time WNBA All Star Vickie Johnson.
The WNBA draft begins tonight at 7PM ET on ESPN.
