No one can accuse future Hall of Famer Diana Taurasi of a failure to know ball, so when she speaks on a basketball player, it’s probably time to listen. Taurasi made a bold prediction while speaking to the Athletic, saying of 2025’s first-overall pick, Paige Bueckers, that the Dallas Wings’ guard will someday become “the best player in the league, for sure.”
Taurasi, in a discussion about what it’s like to be drafted first-overall and end up on a rebuilding team, praised Bueckers for already improving from game to game. “The WNBA, it’s a different beast. There’s different challenges, you know, as an individual, as a team. When you get drafted number one, you usually go to a team that’s rebuilding, that’s starting to try something new. There’s a lot of challenges when you get to a team and a franchise that’s rebuilding, and you know you kind of have to change your outlook on wins and losses. You take the wins as far as getting better every single game, and as you can tell already Paige, from game one to game two she was a different player. And from game two to game 10 she’s going to be a different player.”
Bueckers, four games in, is averaging 13 points per game, and 6.3 assists, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.8 steals. The Wings are currently 0-4, but you can already see hints of the player that Bueckers will become, such as when she scored 19 points in her second pro game and logged 10 assists in her third.
Taurasi was the first pick in the 2004 WNBA Draft, when the Phoenix Mercury selected her out of UConn. The Mercury had gone 8-26 in 2003 to earn that first pick – WNBA seasons were shorter then – then slowly improved as Taurasi did, until they won their first-ever championship in 2007 after a 23-11 campaign. Taurasi would go on to play 20 seasons in the WNBA (despite sitting out 2015), securing Rookie of the Year honors, 10 All-WNBA first team selections, an MVP, 11 All-Star nods, and three championships in total. Bueckers finds herself in a similar starting point, at least, coming from UConn’s program to a rebuilding team that she could very well be the leader of with just a few seasons under her belt.
Like with Taurasi, it’s possible that she’ll end up the best player in the league at some point, such as when she won MVP honors in 2009. Taurasi certainly believes it’s possible. “The one thing I know about Paige is she’s so grounded, she’s so patient, she’s so prepared. And I think she’s learned that in the last four or five years and all those things that she learned at Connecticut, they’re going to change the way you look at that team. One day she’s going to end up being the best player in the league, for sure.”
The WNBA is loaded with exceptionally talented players, of course, and Bueckers is merely a handful of games into her own pro career, so a lot could happen between now and “one day.” She was already one of the top players at the college level, though, and UConn certainly has a proven track record of sending WNBA-ready players to the draft – players who then end up thriving, as Taurasi did. It’s entirely possible that Bueckers will be the next such case.
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Paige Bueckers
Dallas Wings
Women’s National Basketball Association
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