Paige Bueckers had a message for the sparse crowd that lingered for the end of the Dallas Wings’ final game of the season, an inspired 97-76 win on Thursday over the playoff bound and No. 4 seeded Phoenix Mercury.
“The results are coming — I promise,” she told the crowd that gave her a standing ovation as she lit a flimsy replica of Reunion Tower from midcourt at Arlington’s College Park Center. “Stick with us.”
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The next day, some results started to follow, albeit in the form of Bueckers’ own personal accolades, when she was named the AP WNBA Rookie of the Year. Well, on Tuesday, the official accolade came in. After cementing herself as a top-five scorer and top-10 dime disher in her first year, Bueckers was named Kia WNBA Rookie of the Year on Tuesday.
The guard out of UConn averaged 19.2 points, 5.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game in her rookie year with the Wings after being taken with the No. 1 overall pick in April’s 2025 WNBA Draft. Bueckers set Wings franchise records for points in a rookie season, points per game, assists, assists per game and had two points-assists double-doubles in 2025. She was the only player in the WNBA to finish in the top nine in scoring (5th), assists (9th) and steals (6th). Her 20.3 efficiency rating was the best in the W among guards and ranked seventh overall in the league.
Her 44-point barrage on Aug. 20, in an 81-80 loss at the Los Angeles Sparks, was the most points scored in a single game by any WNBA player since 2023. In that game, Bueckers became the only woman in WNBA history to score 40-plus points while shooting better than 80% from the field in a game.
She also becomes the only rookie in league history to average 19 or more points per game while shooting at least 47% from the field, and just the second (Candace Parker) to average at least 19 points, five assists and shoot over 47%. Bueckers shot 47.7% from the field in her rookie season and 33.1% from 3-point range. There is little doubt that improved 3-point shooting will be a point of emphasis for Bueckers going into her second season.
In July, she became just the 10th WNBA rookie to start an All-Star game. Bueckers is now just the seventh player in league history to be named an All-Star starter and to win Rookie of the Year in the same season. She was named Rookie of the Month three times in 2025 (June, July, August).
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Bueckers is the second Dallas Wing to win Rookie of the Year since the team’s move to Big D before the 2016 season. WNBA Coach of the Year will be announced on Wednesday, and finalists for the WNBA MVP will be announced on Friday. The MVP announcement will come on Sunday, while the All-WNBA First and Second Teams will be announced on Oct. 7. Keep an eye on that last one.
The 6-foot superstar is a real treat to watch — take it from a guy who had little to no interest in the WNBA until the arrival of Caitlin Clark last year. Clark went on to be named to the All-WNBA First Team last season, the first rookie to get the nod since 2008 (also Candace Parker). Will Bueckers make it two rookies in a row this year?
At one point early on this year, it looked like Washington Mystics’ guard Sonia Citron would give Bueckers a run for her money with regards to the Rookie of the Year award, but over the course of the summer, Bueckers separated herself from the 3-point assassin from Notre Dame with her consistency, her ability to score from anywhere on the court and the big moments she authored along the way. Bueckers also scored 35 points in the team’s first visit to Phoenix on June 11, though the Wings fell in that one, 93-80. She scored 24 points, grabbed eight rebounds and gave out seven assists in the regular season finale.
Are you noticing a theme here? Bueckers does things that haven’t been done since Tungsten Arm O’Doyle, but the Wings lose in a laugher, 95-70. Dallas has a nice little youth movement going with Bueckers and fellow rookie guard Aziaha James, but who else will the team protect in the upcoming expansion draft? Or own Jack Bonin has some thoughts on that, here.
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Now comes the part where Dallas General Manager Curt Miller and his hand-picked head coach Chris Koclanes need to build around Bueckers’ individual brilliance is not wasted on a team that has gone a combined 19-65 the last two seasons. The Wings are once again frontrunners for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, and it will be nothing other than an abject failure on their part if the team is still circling the WNBA drain at this time next year. One big hurdle will be an impending work stoppage if the WNBA Players’ Association and the team owners can’t agree on a new collective bargaining agreement after the players opted out of the current deal last year.
