A draft day trade, multiple first-round selections, and head-scratching decisions: A look at the 2023 Dallas Wings Draft
The Dallas Wings brought in six players in Monday's WNBA Draft. But in the process, the organization may have made a head-scratching short-term decision.
The Dallas Wings went into Monday night’s WNBA Draft with three things in mind: finding players that fit the team’s direction, selecting the best player available, and adding shooting.
Following the three-round league tradition, Dallas walked away feeling accomplished, relatively. The Wings selected Maddy Siegrist, Lou Lopez Sénéchal, Abby Meyers, Ashley Joens, and Paige Robinson while trading for Stephanie Soares at pick No. 4.
In post-draft media availability, Wings president and CEO Greg Bibb was particularly excited about landing Siegrist at pick No. 3. Siegrist averaged 29.3 points and 9.2 rebounds per game in her final year at Villanova. When asked by The Wings Bulletin if he was concerned about having too many scorers on a roster full of on-ball threats, Bibb explained that it is better to have “too many” than too few bucket-getters.
So as the dust settles on the draft, the Wings are heading toward preseason and training camp feeling good about the players they selected and the player they traded for.
Lopez Sénéchal, Meyers, and Joens answer the shooting concerns the Wings had. Fair enough. Siegrist is a generational scorer, who, when paired with Arike Ogunbowale, could give Dallas a legitimate one-two punch on the offensive end for seasons to come.
And already, Siegrist has appeared eager to play with Ogunbowale. On ESPN’s draft night coverage, she said she would be ready to rebound when the two share the floor.
“Efficiency and consistency are something I try to pride myself on,” Siegrist said after being drafted. “I’ll bring whatever my team needs… I’ll just rebound.”
All signs genuinely point upward with the Wings’ first selection and the plug-and-play approach with which the organization filled shooting needs with picks No. 5, 11, and 19.
However, the trade for Soares is difficult to rationalize, regardless of the lens through which the move is examined.
The Wings valued Soares. Bibb explained that they view her as a long-term investment, knowing she won’t play this year due to an ACL injury. But, trading for Soares felt like an auxiliary move, more so when a player like Jordan Horston was available throughout most of the first round before eventually being selected at pick No. 9 to Seattle.
Dallas isn’t strapped for frontcourt players. Currently, the Wings have Teaira McCowan, Natasha Howard, Charli Collier, and Satou Sabally as frontcourt players. Even if Soares was healthy, it would be hard to project her playing big minutes over any of the players listed.
But the reality is Soares isn’t healthy. She won’t be for the 2023 season. And Dallas traded significant draft capital in the often lauded 2025 draft class that could possess Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Azzi Fudd, and others.
“Our decision to trade our first-round pick was based on a couple things. Our roster is very close to being set for this season and it would have been tough to keep everyone we liked on the roster,” Mystics General Manager Mike Thibault said.
“The 2025 draft has the potential to be a very significant draft, coming after the end of the extra Covid year that college players were granted the past several years. The depth of [the 2025] draft should be great and we will now have two first-round picks in that draft.”
What the Wings are essentially saying is the following: they like Soares, someone who played 12 Division I basketball games before getting injured, more than they liked their chances in the double draft that will include the senior class and the final year of COVID-19 bonus year super seniors.
It is baffling.
“That was definitely the surprise for most people,” Wings head coach Latricia Trammell said of the trade for Soares to Peter Warren of The Dallas Morning News. “I guarantee it — no one saw that coming.”
For good reason. It’s a trade that was high risk, and the reward isn’t as clear-cut.
Heading into the preseason and training camp, Bibb will live with the draft-day decisions he’s made. He still feels good about the 2023 Wings draft class – for good reason – and he expects intense position battles throughout the WNBA’s truncated preseason. Still, it is hard to shake trading the future for a player the Wings aren’t entirely sure will be a contributor now or down the line.