Paige Bueckers Predicted to Win 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year in GM Survey

Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers is the overwhelming favorite among WNBA general managers to win the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year Award.

WNBA.com's Michaela Gilmer posted the results Thursday of a survey in which all 13 WNBA general managers were posed with 40 questions to answer anonymously, including their pick for Rookie of the Year.

Only three players received votes, and Bueckers was tops among them with 73 percent. She was followed by Dominique Malonga of the Seattle Storm (18 percent) and Sonia Citron of the Washington Mystics (9 percent).

Bueckers, 23, went first overall to the Wings in the 2025 WNBA draft following a legendary college career at UConn.

She became the first freshman to win the Naismith Women's College Basketball Player of the Year Award in 2021 and battled back from multiple injuries to end her college career on a high note.

Bueckers led the Huskies to a national championship last season, and she was among the best players in women's college basketball, averaging 19.9 points, 4.6 assists, 4.4 rebounds, 2.1 steals and 1.8 three-pointers per game.

Perhaps most impressively, Bueckers shot 53.4 percent from the field, 41.9 percent from three-point range and 88.9 percent from the free-throw line, making her the most efficient player in the nation.

That efficiency is desperately needed on a Wings team that went 9-31 last season and has finished with a winning record only once in the past nine seasons.

Although she is a different type of player, the Wings undoubtedly hope Bueckers can have the same type of immediate impact that Caitlin Clark had on the Indiana Fever last season when she led them to their first playoff berth since 2016.

The No. 1 overall pick has been WNBA Rookie of the Year in each of the past three seasons, so it comes as little surprise that Bueckers is the favorite, but she could have some competition.

Malonga, who went No. 2 overall, is less of a known commodity in the United States than Bueckers since she played in her home country of France rather than collegiately.

Still, there is a great deal of belief within the WNBA that she can develop into a top player, as 60 percent of the GMs polled chose her as the rookie who will be the best player in five years, beating out Bueckers' total of 40 percent.

Most believe Bueckers will make a bigger splash as a rookie, though, which could help make the Wings one of the WNBA's most-improved teams this season.