Dallas Wings weigh options with fifth pick in WNBA Draft

The newest pro franchise in the Metroplex, the WNBA’s Dallas Wings, will host a draft party at UTA’s College Park Center on Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m.

Wings players Odyssey Sims and Skylar Diggins will attend, while the 2016 WNBA Draft will be conducted at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn.

ESPN2 will provide coverage and analysis of the first round beginning at 6 p.m., and ESPNU will air coverage of the second and third rounds starting at 7 p.m.

With 13 players on their current roster, the Wings look to bulk up with the fifth overall pick in the first round, and the sixth picks in the second and third rounds.

Coach Fred Williams and the organization know they have options, depending on how the first four picks go.

Many analysts have said that UConn’s Breanna Stewart will go No. 1 overall. The 6-foot-4 forward is a four-time NCAA national champion, four-time Final Four Most Outstanding Player, three-time Naismith College Player of the Year and a three-time first team All American.

Stewart is expected to go first to Seattle, while UConn’s Moriah Jefferson, a Dallas native, is projected to go No. 2 to San Antonio.

“Well, I think at the fifth pick, there’s multiple players that will be there after the other picks before us,” Williams said. “I think we’ll look at the athletic ability of a player who can score and be an instant scorer coming off the bench or at least help us with some minutes. And then we have the other flip side of that, you always want to look at players with size, that have the length.”

WNBA analysts Carolyn Peck and Rebecca Lobo put in their thoughts, agreeing that Stewart and Jefferson should be drafted with the top two picks.

After Seattle and San Antonio, Connecticut has the third and fourth picks. Both Peck and Lobo believe the Sun has options, among them UConn’s Morgan Tuck, Michigan State’s Aerial Powers and George Washington’s Jonquel Jones.

Then it’s on to Dallas.

“And then you’ve got Dallas, and Fred Williams has got some options there,” Peck said. “Depending on what Connecticut does, and you could go anywhere from the previous players mentioned to also looking at a player like a Tiffany Mitchell (South Carolina), who is athletic, and he likes defensive guards who can score and that she could definitely bring.”

Texas’ Imani Boyette is also on Dallas’ radar.

“You know, I can say that she’s really, really high on our list to look at in that selection of three players that could be there for us, and I can really tell you that she’s a post player that we’re strongly considering,” Williams said.

Dallas might also be guard heavy when looking at draft prospects Thursday night, especially after the Wings traded Riquna Williams to the Los Angeles Sparks in early March for Erin Phillips.

“I think that Dallas would possibly look at some guards, and you have some good options in Powers, we talked about Mitchell and Courtney Williams (Texas A&M), Peck said. “And then you have the versatility, because with the fifth pick, you have the potential to get a player like Jonquel Jones or going with some more size in an anchor to help in the post in Boyette.”

The Wings’ preseason begins May 1, with the first preseason home game May 8 against Connecticut. They open the regular season May 14 at Indianapolis, with the home opener May 21 against San Antonio.

This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 7:20 PM with the headline "Dallas Wings weigh options with fifth pick in WNBA Draft."