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Dallas Wings Acquire 2021 No. 1 Pick After Multiple League-Altering Trades

The Dallas Wings have acquired the No. 1 pick in the 2021 WNBA draft as part of a series of trades that will have major ramifications throughout the league.

Dallas has acquired the pick from the Seattle Storm in exchange for forward Katie Lou Samuelson and Dallas’s second-round pick in 2022. As a result, the Wings become the first team in WNBA history to hold the first and second overall picks in the same draft.

The Storm first acquired the pick, along with a 2022 first-round pick and a 2022 second-pick, on Wednesday from the New York Liberty. New York is acquiring former Defensive Player of the Year Natasha Howard in a sign-and-trade from the reigning WNBA champions, the teams confirmed Wednesday.

The trade, which was first reported by Winsidr's Rachel Galligan, comes shortly after the Liberty traded Kia Nurse and Megan Walker to the Phoenix Mercury in exchange for the No. 6 pick in this year's draft and a 2022 first-round pick.

As part of the chain of transactions, the Storm are trading the 2022 first-round pick that originally belonged to Phoenix and that they acquired from New York to the Minnesota Lynx for forward Mikiah Herbert Harrigan. 

The Liberty have also acquired guard Sami Whitcomb from Seattle in exchange for the rights to forward Stephanie Talbot.

Howard, according to Winsidr, is signing a new four-year deal with New York, worth $215,000 in 2021, $221,450 in 2022, $227,900 in 2023 and $234,350 in 2024. 

Last season, Howard, 28, played 21 minutes per game, her lowest since 2017, and averaged just 9.5 points per game. In 2019, though, she made her first All-Star team, averaging 18.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, while also winning the Defensive Player of the Year award.

“We have the privilege of welcoming multiple-time WNBA champions Natasha Howard and Sami Whitcomb to Brooklyn,” Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb said in a statement. “The magnitude of Natasha choosing to be in New York cannot be overstated. She is an All-WNBA talent who has worked for and earned everything that she has achieved, who has contributed to championship runs on multiple teams, and who will fit seamlessly into Walt Hopkins’ system.”

With the Liberty, Howard will pair with former top-pick Sabrina Ionescu, who missed most of her rookie season after suffering a Grade 3 ankle sprain.

Ionescu averaged 18.3 points, 4.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists in two-plus games before she was hurt.

The Liberty finished with the league's worst record in 2020, going just 2-20. 

Seattle was the league's No. 2 seed in the playoffs but went on to beat the Las Vegas Aces in the 2020 WNBA finals. This offseason, they recently signed seven-time All-Star Candice Dupree and re-signed four-time champion Sue Bird, but lost guard Alysha Clark in free agency.

This season, the Wings will be lead by head coach Vickie Johnson, who was hired this past December. Johnson, who is now the league's only Black female coach, been an assistant for the Las Vegas Aces after serving as the team’s head coach for the franchise’s final season in San Antonio in 2017.

The top two picks in this year's draft will join a team that went just 8-14 last year but is led by Arike Ogunbowale, who was the WNBA's leading scorer this past season at 22.8 points per game.