{"id":298044,"date":"2025-11-21T18:56:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/298044\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T18:56:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:56:15","slug":"paige-bueckers-wings-predicted-to-land-overseas-star-in-draft-night-stunner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/298044\/","title":{"rendered":"Paige Bueckers&#8217; Wings predicted to land overseas star in draft night stunner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Dallas Wings have a better chance to pick #1 overall in 2026 than any other team.<\/p>\n<p>And the next draft is absolutely loaded with players who can complement budding superstar Paige Bueckers.<\/p>\n<p>Though the 2026 WNBA Draft is roughly five months away, and the draft board can change significantly in that time, the Wings can pick no worse than third in a stacked draft class.\u00a0Barring a shocking trade, general manager Curt Miller is going to add an elite prospect next to Bueckers, who was the WNBA&#8217;s Rookie of the Year in 2025 and is projected to be a league MVP candidate in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>Awa Fam surpasses Lauren Betts<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/story\/_\/id\/47038300\/wnba-mock-draft-2026-awa-fam-betts-miles-latson-johnson-fudd\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ESPN&#8217;s latest first-round mock<\/a> for the 2026 WNBA Draft predicts that the Wings will take Valencia Basket phenom Awa Fam with the first overall pick.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Assuming for a moment that the lottery balls will bounce Dallas&#8217; way <a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/wnba\/news\/wnba-draft-lottery-odds-will-paige-bueckers-wings-claim-1-pick\/daa6f2f95faa029bab983246\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">on Sunday<\/a>, the Wings would be selecting a player whom many regard as the top prospect available &#8212; a player who is grading out higher than UCLA center <a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/wnba\/news\/paige-bueckers-potential-future-teammate-ranked-2-player-nation\/ab7a311722394e67d584c4c6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lauren Betts<\/a>, UConn guard Azzi Fudd or TCU guard Olivia Miles.<\/p>\n<p>And unlike the situation surrounding the Wings and <a target=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/ca\/wnba\/news\/paige-bueckers-needs-player-unlock-wings-potential\/8bd3ca97b315703a8a2aaacf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Awak Kuier<\/a>, their top pick from 2021, Fam&#8217;s agent has told ESPN that competing in the WNBA is the player&#8217;s &#8220;top priority&#8221; in 2026. Signing Fam to a rookie contract, it seems, would be no issue.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Awa Fam&#8217;s spatial awareness is her superpower. How in the world does she see this?? <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YNcLF3cJDF\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/YNcLF3cJDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Hunter Cruse (@HunterCruse14) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HunterCruse14\/status\/1972689405564407955?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 29, 2025<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Fam, a native of Alicante, is a 6&#8217;4&#8221; center who has been playing professionally in her native Spain since she was 15 years old. Now 19, Fam is a versatile player who can operate inside and outside of the restricted area. She has been lauded for her <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/HunterCruse14\/status\/1959067056017432846?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">passing<\/a> and her <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/alfcorriette\/status\/1983617658949148953?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">shooting ability<\/a>, both of which are uncommon traits for a player of her build.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, new Wings head coach Jose Fernandez has long prioritized scouting internationally; it defined his quarter-century tenure at the University of South Florida. His overseas ties could play a factor in bringing Fam to Dallas &#8212; where she would form a terrific young tandem with Bueckers.<\/p>\n<p>More WNBA news:<\/p>\n<p>                            <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Wings have a better chance to pick #1 overall in 2026 than any other team. And&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":298045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-298044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298044","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=298044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/298045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=298044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=298044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=298044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}