Golden State Valkyries Expansion Draft Speculation Series: Dallas Wings

Expected to build off of their previous season and their playoff series win, the Wings got bad news before the season that one of their stars would miss more than half of the season. Additional injuries left them a big hole that they could not dig their way out of after the Olympic break and they bowed out of the playoff hunt quickly. The team has been active in acquiring early draft picks over the years, but they still struggle for depth outside of their stars. As a result, their protection picks might not end up being too difficult to make while also leaving the Valkyries with no obvious decision on who to pick.

Salary and contract status for 2025 from Her Hoop Stats as sourced by Richard Cohen:
https://herhoopstats.com/salary-cap-sheet/wnba/team/2024/dallas-wings-11eaecc7-3583-13fc-b611-2362f5011b0b/

Hypothetical Protection Priority Order

1. Arike Ogunbowale ($249,032 guaranteed)
2. Satou Sabally (unrestricted free agent)
3. Teaira McCowan ($201,400 guaranteed)
4. Jacy Sheldon ($74,909, 2nd year rookie scale)
5. Maddy Siegrist ($83,371, 3rd year rookie scale)
6. Kalani Brown ($128,750 guaranteed, $132,500 guaranteed in 2026)
7. Sevgi Uzun (reserved)
8. Awak Kuier (exclusive rights, if draftable)
9. Jaelyn Brown (reserved)
10. Stephanie Soares ($78,066, 2nd year rookie scale)
11. Lou Lopez Senechal ($79,999, 3rd year rookie scale)
Unprotectable: Natasha Howard (unrestricted free agent who has reached core limit)

Locks for Protection

If this draft has six protected spots like the last expansion draft, Dallas may have a pretty easy decision-making process compared to other teams. Arike Ogunbowale has been the team’s cornerstone in the backcourt pretty much from the start of her career. Satou Sabally is the second star whose injury helped derail the season and they will presumably use their core designation on her when free agency begins to solidify a forward spot. Jacy Sheldon was their first draft pick this last year and she grew into a bigger role over the course of the season as the other starting guard. Maddy Siegrist has been a contributor either off the bench or as the fifth starter. One question that they may have to ask is whether they want to use two spots on players who pretty much only can play center, but they may want to make sure that they keep both Teaira McCowan and Kalani Brown to keep that position covered for sure. Natasha Howard has already been cored the maximum number of times so she will be a truly unrestricted free agent and she has already announced her plan to depart for another team, leaving a hole in the post.

Tough Team Decisions

Fans often discuss how difficult it is to stick in the WNBA and Dallas’s roster does illustrate that as they have two older undrafted players on the roster, but everyone else was a former top five draft pick except for Kalani Brown, who was picked seventh. One of those undrafted players had the next biggest role on the team as Sevgi Uzun provided a boost to the rotation by starting when needed or bringing energy off the bench. A backup guard that they are comfortable with is certainly going to be something that they hope to retain, although she would probably be outside of the protected spots and Turkey is currently likely to qualify for EuroBasket so she could miss part of next season.

A player who could be of interest, whose exact draft status may not be known until the full expansion rules are decided is Awak Kuier. Her exclusive rights remain with the team after she opted not to play this season, the final year of her rookie scale contract. Due to the rules for drafting international players, she could have completed her fourth season while being the youngest player by nearly a full year, meaning that she could still be expected to have development upside still at the forward spot or situationally as a center.

Jaelyn Brown has had a whirlwind season after nearly retiring at the conclusion of a short first overseas experience. She increased her reputation every season after choosing to keep playing and was set to play for Maccabi Haifa in Israel last fall. After that league was postponed, she signed for Hatay in Turkey, a team that ended up struggling in dealing with the aftermath of a major earthquake and moved on to Antalya, completing a strong season overall. Getting her first chance in the WNBA, she had an incredible preseason game and made the roster only to get injured right after the season started and suffer complications. She returned late in the season and had a few chances to show what she could do as a scoring guard, but everyone would certainly like to see what would happen without any added obstacles.

The team traded what was nearly a disastrously high draft pick for the opportunity to pick Stephanie Soares even though they knew that she would miss all of last season and with her limited history at the highest level in college. She is still clearly not back at her best and the team that she signed with in Poland recently announced that she will stay in Dallas for the immediate future to rehab an injury. With two established centers already, the team did try her in different roles in the lineup and may still believe that she can both stretch the floor and defend the paint, but may leave her unprotected.

Likely Left Unprotected

It feels unlikely that Lou Lopez Senechal will end up with one of the protected spots given her lack of role on the team. Her first season was lost due to an injury and she missed most of this season’s training camp while playing in Spain, getting only a limited amount of playing time even during the team’s tough periods of injuries. Due to how late she started her college career, she is actually on the older end of the inexperienced players so she might be running out of developmental opportunities with this team.

The Valkyries Perspective

Given that Dallas is expected to protect their most experienced players, the Valkyries are going to have a lot of younger and less proven players to choose from, although they would certainly be happy if the Wings leave one of the players in our top six unprotected. Lou Lopez Senechal will return to Spain, so if she can really showcase her shooting ability, she could at least earn some consideration on the wing. Jaelyn Brown, who played collegiately at Cal, would also be an interesting name who would likely sign at the minimum contract amount. Sevgi Uzun could be a good culture pick who might also be signed at the minimum contract amount, but it might be hard to know her availability for next season. Stephanie Soares could be the high upside pick, which was why she was drafted as highly as she was, but lingering health concerns seem to make her selection rather risky.

Awak Kuier is certainly the most intriguing name if she is a selectable player and left unprotected. The draft happening later in the year could be beneficial as early November will be important in revealing whether Awak Kuier might be interested in playing all of next season. Finland is attempting to qualify for EuroBasket for the first time since 1987 and the two games in that month will provide some indication of whether they should make plans for next summer or not. As the youngest available player, she is certainly an intriguing potential pick even though she was still raw in the last WNBA season.