The Dallas Wings currently have the best odds to win the WNBA Draft lottery next year, potentially setting the franchise up to add a top talent to play with Paige Bueckers. The team is also in a unique spot right now where it's the only team in the current lottery that controls its own destiny.
The other four current lottery picks have already been traded away, but the Wings have their own 2026 first still, which means that if Dallas wants the top lottery odds, it has one simple mission: lose games.
Not that the team needs to be actively tanking. With the second-worst record in the league this year, Dallas really just needs to keep doing what it's been doing. This team lacks the cohesiveness needed to win tough games, so there's not too much reason — beyond the incredible play of Paige Bueckers — to think the Wings will suddenly start reeling off victories.
Below are the current WNBA Draft lottery odds if the season ended today.
Current WNBA Draft lottery odds
Here are the current lottery odds:
2-year combined win percentage | % chance for No. 1 overall pick | |
|---|---|---|
Dallas Wings | .242 | 40.0% |
Los Angeles Sparks (traded to Seattle Storm) | .258 | 25.0% |
Chicago Sky (traded to Minnesota) | .328 | 17.0% |
Connecticut Sun (traded to Chicago) | .500 | 11.0% |
Las Vegas Aces (traded to Seattle) | .607 | 7.0% |
It's a good time to be a Seattle Storm fan.
If the season ended right now, the Storm would get two lottery picks next year despite the fact that the team currently sits at 13-9 on the year, putting Seattle on pace for the No. 4 seed in the playoffs.
The Storm front office deserves major credit for the moves that have helped set the team up not only to win now, but to win going forward. Trading Jewell Loyd this past offseason helped the team land Dominique Malonga, and while her transition to the WNBA has been a bit slow, she's still a potential future star in this league. Now, the team also has the second and fifth-best lottery odds for next season.
How did Seattle get those picks? The better of the two picks came from Los Angeles as part of the Kia Nurse trade, when the Storm traded Nurse and the pick that became Rickea Jackson for a future first. The other pick comes from the same trade that sent Loyd to Vegas. Originally expected to be the worst asset in that deal for Seattle, Vegas' unexpected struggles potentially have the Storm in line to get a lottery pick out of the deal.
Meanwhile, the league's best team, Minnesota, still looks pretty certain to land a lottery pick via the Sky. Chicago has the third-worst record this season and it would be a fairly big surprise to see the team make a late-season playoff push. At this moment, the Lynx have both the league's best record and a 17.0 percent chance to get the No. 1 pick in 2026. That'd be huge, either as a chance to add a blue chip talent to extend the team's competitive window, or to use in a trade to land a top player.
The main thing to watch right now is the battle between the Aces, Valkyries and Mystics for the final two playoff spots. If Vegas gets back in over one of those teams, there would be a fairly tight batle for the fourth-best odds between whichever of the two is out and the Connecticut Sun, whose pick has already been traded to the Chicago Sky.