Three players who would be great fits with picks number 12 and 14
The 2025 WNBA draft is two days away. On April 14th, all eyes will be on Hudson Yards, New York, as the Dallas Wings prepare to make the number one overall selection. It’s a good year to be in this position; Connecticut superstar and recent NCAA champion Paige Bueckers is the projected No. 1 pick, and all indications are that she will join the Wings after hearing her name called.
Though some have speculated that Bueckers may try to force her way elsewhere, cold water has been dumped on that hypothesis as of late. Dallas sports fans, many of whom are still reeling from other basketball-related events of the last couple of months, can find rejuvenation in a new franchise talent joining the metroplex.
But drafting Bueckers isn’t all the Wings will do Monday night. After a flurry of offseason transactions that included moving on from Satou Sabally, the Wings added an additional first-round pick at No. 12 overall. They also have No. 14, the second pick of the second round. Though WNBA drafts are not nearly as deep as their NBA counterparts, this year’s class contains several enticing prospects in this range. There is potential for Dallas to add multiple impact contributors in this draft.
Here is where my big board stands right now. This is for the league at large; some players are better fits with Dallas even if they’re lower on the board:
With this in mind, I want to highlight a handful of players I project to be available when Dallas makes their later selections. Things are fluid on draft night, and since the Wings own two picks close together in the late first/early second round, they could package those selections to move up if there’s someone they really want. For this exercise, we’ll assume that Dallas stays put at the 12 and 14 positions. Here are five prospects who could be great fits.
Sarah Ashlee Barker- wing, Alabama
Very few prospects have seen their stock rise more than Barker throughout the draft evaluation process. Before this season, Barker was hardly on WNBA radars at all. The 6’0” guard/forward began her college career at Georgia, where she was mostly a defensive specialist; offensively, she was objectively bad. She averaged just 6.6 points per game on 35% from the field over two years before transferring to Alabama for her junior season.
Barker’s first year at Alabama was more of the same. But she broke out in a big way in her senior season, upping her scoring average from 6.9 to 16.8 points per game on .491/.353./711 shooting splits. Development is a funny thing, and Barker’s senior leap was completely unexpected. Last year, she returned to Alabama for a fifth season and proved her growth was no fluke. Barker averaged a career-high 18.2 points per game and did it on increased efficiency, boasting a .514/.375/.709 shooting line.
Back-to-back years of great production in a Power 5 conference caught the attention of the WNBA world, but Barker wasn’t done there. Her NCAA tournament run opened a ton of fans’ eyes, culminating in her 45-point masterpiece in Alabama’s heartbreaking second-round loss to Maryland in double overtime. In this game, Barker showcased everything that makes her a solid WNBA draft prospect.
At 6’0”, Barker projects as a jack-of-all-trades wing in the W. Though Alabama often bestowed primary playmaking duties upon her, Barker is best suited as a secondary or tertiary option at the next level. She’s a very good passer but struggled a bit with turnovers alongside increased usage. Still, she’s capable of using her excellent motor and athleticism to create advantages, get downhill, and make plays. Perhaps the most promising offensive attribute for Barker is her prowess at the rim. Barker was 99th percentile in Division 1 in paint points per game and 95th percentile in free-throw rate (per CBB analytics). On the perimeter, Barker is a good, not great, shooter with sound shot mechanics. WNBA teams will guard her out there, and she should be able to knock down threes at a league-average clip.
Defensively, Barker can hold her own. After all, this is where her bread was buttered early in her college career. Her size, athleticism, and tenacity should allow her to defend guards and wings competently in the W. I don’t think she’ll make any All-Defensive teams, but there’s plus potential here. Last year, she averaged nearly three stocks (steals plus blocks) per game, demonstrating a knack for defensive playmaking.
Usually, I like it when draft prospects have one big WNBA skill you can count on. While Barker doesn’t have that, there are almost zero weaknesses to her game. You might worry a bit about her being a bad college basketball player for three years, but some players are just late bloomers. Barker could make the Wings roster in training camp and establish herself as a key rotation player sooner rather than later. She’s my No.1 target at the 12-spot.
Sania Feagin- big, South Carolina
Like Barker, Feagin took a while to break out in college. Stuck behind superstar centers like Aliyah Boston and Kamilla Cardoso, Feagin opted not to transfer and ride it out with Dawn Staley. This past season, that decision paid dividends when Feagin finally earned a starting role and big-time responsibility in South Carolina’s run to the title game.
Feagin is a bit undersized for a true center at 6’3”, but she makes up for that deficiency with good length and athleticism. She’s mobile, allowing her to play a variety of pick-and-roll coverages. Her 6.8% block rate was 92nd percentile in Division 1, per CBB analytics, underscoring her ability to act as an effective primary rim protector. The Wings have been desperate for paint defense for a long while, and Feagin could be a difference-maker in that department on day one.
Offensively, Feagin isn’t going to blow you away with box score numbers or back-to-the-basket scoring. But she has good touch around the rim and is an effective roll big. At times, Feagin flashed incredible passing ability, finding shooters and cutters out of the short roll and making advanced reads. Sometimes, she gets a bit too ambitious with this, leading to a high turnover rate for a big; still, you have to admire the gumption.
There are two big questions I have with Feagin. First, can she become a stretch big? Staley famously doesn’t want her centers to shoot jumpers. Despite that, Feagin has a really nice mid-range shot and made them at a high clip in a small sample. She even hit a buzzer-beating three in the SEC title game. If she can take and make jumpers, her offensive ceiling gets a lot higher.
The second question mark for Feagin concerns her size and rebounding ability. Put simply, she is a bad rebounder right now. Her 4.5 rebounds per game average this past season is just not going to get it done for a five at the WNBA level. Rebounding can be overrated, but you really need your starting center to be able to collect more than what Feagin has done in her career. Along those same lines, it’s easy to envision Feagin getting bullied by bigger, stronger WNBA centers. She could struggle to guard a lot of bigs one-on-one. Like many young bigs, Feagin also fouls too much right now, taking her out of games.
As mentioned before, the Wings are in dire need of defense at the center position. The duo of Teaira McCowan and Kalani Brown was historically poor on that end last year, and Feagin could do a lot to rectify that. With Brown now in Phoenix via the Sabally trade, the backup five position in Dallas is wide open. Feagin could seize it in training camp.
Ajsa Sivka- wing, Slovenia
Since Nico Harrison’s calamitous actions, Dallas has been well below its proper Slovenian athlete quota for the last couple of months. Enter Ajsa Sivka, a 6’4” wing currently playing for Tarbes in the top French league (Lega Basket Femminile).
At 19 years old, Sivka is one of the youngest players in this class. She broke out in a big way at the 2023 FIBA U18 Women’s European Championship, earning MVP honors and leading Slovenia to the title. Her star has faded a bit since then, as she’s struggled to maintain consistent production in France, but there’s a ton of projectability with her tools.
Sivka’s WNBA prospects are largely based on two things: her plus positional size and three-point shooting ability. Though the height of an average WNBA center, Sivka is very much a wing player. She spends most of her time on offense on the perimeter, spotting up for three, attacking closeouts, and occasionally playmaking. The jumper is beautiful, with a high release point and strong mechanics. Though Sivka is just shooting 33% from three on the season, I’d be shocked if she isn’t an above-average three-point shooter in the W.
While Sivka likely won’t earn any “point forward” labels (she’s no Luka Doncic), she is a good passer for her position and can be more than a stationary shooter. It’s doubtful she’ll ever be able to create advantages or get to the rim consistently, but there’s a bit of off-the-bounce juice here. That said, most of her offensive value will be derived from being a sharpshooter with size. In this league, that’s important.
Defensively, Sivka has a decent enough floor because of her size and length. She’s not super quick and could stand to get a bit stronger, but I think she’ll be able to compete against WNBA athletes as she matures. Sivka has often been compared to New York Liberty wing Leonie Fiebich— while that makes a ton of sense on offense, Sivka has a long way to go defensively to get close to Fiebich’s level.
Sivka is not a WNBA-ready player right now. If she does come over in 2025, she likely won’t be able to contribute to a rotation on a good team. But she’s three years younger than most players who enter the league as rookies, and her combination of skills is rare. Dallas needs shooting and size on the wings, and at this point in the draft, Sivka would be a steal if she’s available.
BONUS: Saniya Rivers- wing, NC State
I wrote on Rivers in my “players to watch in the NCAA tournament” piece. She’s a dynamic talent, and I’m including her here because I don’t believe she’ll make it to pick 12. If she does, she may not be the best fit on the board for Dallas, anyway. The Wings need defense, and Rivers is the best defender in this class— but she’s also a complete one-way player right now. Dallas coach Chris Koclanes already has his hands full with figuring out a lineup that can succeed on both ends of the floor, and adding Rivers could complicate that further. Regardless, the 6’1” wing is a blast to watch, and the Wings would love to add her talent late in the first round.
If the Wings can end up with one or two of these players with picks 12 and 14, their draft will be a rip-roaring success. Adding Bueckers alone makes them the winners of the draft, and netting another rotation player or two would be an absolute coup. You can tune in for the 2025 WNBA Draft at ESPN on Monday, April 14th, 6:30 PM CDT.