The Dallas Wings have revamped their roster by hiring a new head coach and signing key players, including Azzi Fudd as the first overall pick in the rookie draft. This strategic overhaul aims to improve their performance after a disappointing season.
How Azzi Fudd's arrival impacts revamped Wings' starting lineup ranking originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Few teams have been quite as busy this WNBA offseason as the Dallas Wings.
After Paige Bueckers' rookie season ended with a 10-34 record, the Wings took action to ensure their rebuild around Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale wouldn't go awry. Dallas fired first-year head coach Chris Koclanes and replaced him with Jose Fernandez, the longtime coach at the University of South Florida.
When free agency opened, the Wings signed Ogunbowale to a max contract extension and pulled off a coup in acquiring Alanna Smith, the reigning co-Defensive Player of the Year. The frontcourt revamp -- which also included signing Jessica Shepard away from the Minnesota Lynx -- paved the way for Dallas to pick Azzi Fudd first overall in Monday night's rookie draft.
So where do the Wings stack up after all these moves?
According to The Sporting News' ranking, Dallas now has the WNBA's seventh-best starting lineup. That is quite the jump for a team that won only 10 games a season ago.
In Fudd, Bueckers and Ogunbowale, the Wings have assembled an explosive trio that can get buckets at a rate few other guard rotations can match on paper. Bueckers, the near-unanimous Rookie of the Year in 2025, can do it all on the offensive end: she's efficient, she makes plays for others and she's a winner. Ogunbowale has inconsistent streaks, but she can put up points at an exceptional rate when she's feeling it. Fudd has generational potential as a shooter with clean mechanics, and her 5'11'' frame will allow her to take bigger defensive assignments.
In the frontcourt, the Wings will rely heavily on Smith's daunting interior presence to improve the WNBA's third-worst defense. Maddy Siegrist is the wild card; the former third overall pick broke out as a scorer last season with a career-high 12.7 points per game, but injuries have limited her to 53 games over the past two seasons.
Overall, the Dallas roster looks much-improved. A jump from 10 wins to 22 -- and a .500 record -- isn't difficult to envision. True title contention may be another couple of years away, but the Wings are poised to make a leap in 2026 after bringing in Fudd and Smith.
The Dallas Wings fired first-year head coach Chris Koclanes and hired Jose Fernandez, previously the longtime coach at the University of South Florida.
The Wings signed Arike Ogunbowale to a max contract extension and acquired Alanna Smith, the reigning co-Defensive Player of the Year, along with Jessica Shepard from the Minnesota Lynx.
As the first overall pick in the rookie draft, Azzi Fudd is expected to significantly enhance the Wings' starting lineup and contribute to their rebuilding efforts.
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