{"id":115643,"date":"2025-09-03T02:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/115643\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T02:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T02:11:08","slug":"cheryl-reeve-gets-honest-about-paige-bueckers-wnba-rookie-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/115643\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheryl Reeve Gets Honest About Paige Bueckers&#8217; WNBA Rookie Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5c\">With their 96-71 loss to the Minnesota Lynx on September 1, the Dallas Wings are now 9-32 on the 2024 WNBA regular season, have lost eight straight games, and have come up short in 13 of their past 14 contests. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5f\">While there was some hope that Chris Koclanes&#8217; squad would continue to improve as the season progressed after starting the year 1-11, that hasn&#8217;t been the case. However, it&#8217;s worth noting that star guard Arike Ogunbowale has had an uncharacteristic down year (her points per game are over 3 points less than any other season in her WNBA career), the team traded away veteran pieces NaLyssa Smith and DiJonai Carrington, and Dallas has dealt with an absurd amount of injuries. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5i\">If there&#8217;s any good news for the Wings&#8217; franchise, it&#8217;s that rookie Paige Bueckers has been everything they were hoping for and then some when they drafted her with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/01k46e6xzrm24sswmj3k.jpg\" alt=\"Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers (5) gestures on September 1, 2025\" title=\"Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers (5) gestures on September 1, 2025\" width=\"1921\" height=\"1921\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"5r\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sep 1, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers (5) gestures while awaiting introductions before the game against the Minnesota Lynx at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images | Matt Blewett-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>Cheryl Reeve Speaks About Paige Bueckers After Wings vs. Lynx Game<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5y\">Bueckers finished Monday&#8217;s game with 17 points in 29 minutes. Lynx legendary head coach Cheryl Reeve spoke with the media after the game and shared some kind words about Bueckers, in what will be the last time they play each other in Bueckers&#8217; rookie season.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"61\">\u201cShe\u2019s very much improved from the first time we saw her in terms of how she gets her scoring attempts,\u201d Reeve said, per <a href=\"https:\/\/dallashoopsjournal.com\/p\/cheryl-reeve-praises-paige-bueckers-dallas-wings-loss-minnesota-lynx\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a September 1 article<\/a> from Grant Afseth of Dallas Hoops Journal. \u201cShe learned how much the team needs her to take shots. It\u2019s almost like [Napheesa Collier] in 2023 when we were like, \u2018You\u2019re gonna have to take 20 shots and you gotta figure out how to get \u2019em off.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"64\">Reeve later added, \u201c[Bueckers has] gotten really shifty, getting defenders up and getting to her sweet spot. It\u2019s not just make one move, you stop her. She\u2019s terrific in that space.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Cheryl Reeve on Paige Bueckers: \u201cShe\u2019s very much improved \u2026 she\u2019s gotten really shifty, getting defenders up and getting to her sweet spot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bueckers scored 17 points vs. Minnesota, moving to No. 6 on the WNBA\u2019s all-time rookie scoring list.<\/p>\n<p>Read more: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ZBwgflZIEW\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/ZBwgflZIEW<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Grant Afseth (@GrantAfseth) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GrantAfseth\/status\/1962723320962388436?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 2, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6a\">Given that Bueckers is from Minnesota, hearing Reeve praise her in this way must mean a lot. And it speaks volumes about how highly Reeve views her, considering that she doesn&#8217;t go out of her way to share kind words about many WNBA superstars. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6d\">While this season has been a disappointment for Dallas, they now have the best chances of securing the No. 1 pick of the 2026 WNBA Draft, which should mean they can get another great piece to pair with Bueckers.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">Will they decide to select Azzi Fudd with that pick? Only time will tell.<\/p>\n<p>Recommended Reading:<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With their 96-71 loss to the Minnesota Lynx on September 1, the Dallas Wings are now 9-32 on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-115643","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}