Dallas Wings land No. 3 pick in WNBA draft

After concluding an 11-23 season in their first year in Arlington, the Dallas Wings received the third pick for the 2017 WNBA Draft during Wednesday night’s draft lottery.

“Obviously we would have loved to have the top pick, but at No. 3, that will give us a quality player, if we keep the pick,” general manager Greg Bibb said.

“Never know which way the ball will bounce. It’s a nice pick there at three,” coach Fred Williams added.

Dallas owns three first-round picks for the April draft. Along with the third pick, the Wings also sit at No. 10, which they acquired from New York via trade, and No. 11 from Los Angeles after making a trade for Erin Phillips.

“We also have No. 10 and No. 11 so that gives us a lot of flexibility in our decision-making,” Bibb said.

The Wings entered the draft lottery tied with Los Angeles for the second-best chance at the No. 1 overall pick. Both teams were each given 227 chances out of 1,000 in possible combinations to land the top pick.

San Antonio, which was selected as the No. 1 pick, received the most chances with 442 for their combined 2015-2016 record of 15-53.

Washington will have the No. 2 pick and Los Angeles was No. 4.

“Coming off an 11-win season, we want to be aggressive in the off-season. We moved up last draft to get Aerial Powers and she exceeded expectations,” Bibb said.

Bibb and Williams talked about future package deals with the flexibility the Wings have, but said that it’s way too early for any assumptions.

“... You might have a couple [college] players come in and change the whole process,” Williams said. “It also just depends on what happens in trades and free agency.”

This story was originally published September 28, 2016 at 9:27 PM with the headline "Dallas Wings land No. 3 pick in WNBA draft."