The 2020 WNBA draft will define the Dallas Wings for the next decade
Friday will be an organization-defining day for the Dallas Wings. Our local WNBA franchise has four of the first nine picks in the 2020 draft, including the second overall pick.
It’s impossible to understate the importance of this draft.
“Friday is a very important day for us. If we get it right, it could set the chart for our organization for the next decade and beyond,” said Greg Bibb, the Wings’ president and CEO. “We certainly have tried to point our organization toward this draft and looking forward to executing on our plan on Friday.”
The only downside for Bibb and the Wings is they didn’t win the draft lottery. That distinction went to the New York Liberty, who will be rewarded with what many regard as a generational talent in Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu.
But Bibb believes this is a loaded draft class and should have plenty of intriguing options with pick Nos. 2, 5, 7 and 9.
At No. 2, the Wings could go with Ionescu’s college teammate Satou Sabally or possibly go with North Texas native and Baylor product Lauren Cox. Another intriguing option is Texas A&M’s Chennedy Carter.
Maybe they can land two of the three with picks No. 2 and 5. At the end of the day, the Wings have to get it right and hope for the best. This is a franchise that has never finished with a winning record since coming to Dallas in 2016.
But the team already has one cornerstone player in point guard Arike Ogunbowale and will be searching for more.
As ESPN women’s basketball analyst Rebecca Lobo said, “It’s got to be an exciting time for fans of the Dallas Wings because they’ve got the foundation with Arike Ogunbowale and have an opportunity to build in a big way around her with this draft.”
The Wings have been targeting the 2020 draft as a way to build for the future for a while.
It started in May 2019 when they traded Liz Cambage to Las Vegas in exchange for Moriah Jefferson, Isabelle Harrison and Vegas’ first two picks in 2020 (including No. 9 overall).
Then the Wings sent Skylar Diggins-Smith to the Phoenix Mercury in a sign-and-trade deal last February, acquiring the fifth and seventh overall picks in 2020 (as well as another future first-round pick).
At the time of the Cambage trade, Bibb felt “the draft had the opportunity to be a good one.” By the time of the Diggins-Smith trade, Bibb was all-in on the 2020 draft class.
“I was feeling more confident about the quality of the draft,” Bibb said. “We really decided on getting draft picks in return rather than established players that, candidly at the time of the transactions, I would’ve felt we weren’t getting the value in return that we were giving. We became somewhat speculators at that point. I think it’s a really solid draft class.”
Bibb went on to say that the organization could continue to do some more “unconventional” moves in preparing for the 2020 season, whenever it starts. The traditional mid-May start has been postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic.
An updated schedule has not been announced yet.
For the Wings, though, the most important date on the calendar for now is Friday.
“For us, it’s about the destination, not so much the journey,” Bibb said. “We’ve aggregated the picks to be able to afford ourselves the most margin of error possible and to arrive at the best 12 players by the time we play.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
