{"id":311469,"date":"2026-05-27T22:24:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T22:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/311469\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T22:24:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T22:24:22","slug":"its-early-but-this-dallas-wings-team-looks-radically-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/311469\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s early, but this Dallas Wings team looks radically different"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"From<\/p>\n

From the bench, Dallas Wings guard Azzi Fudd (35) reacts to a defensive stop during the second half against the Minnesota Lynx at College Park Center in Arlington, May 14, 2026. The Wings lost, 90-86.<\/p>\n

Tom Fox\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a big game in Arlington Thursday night, and I\u2019m not necessarily referencing the final joust\u00a0between the Rangers and Astros <\/a>as they see which sub-.500 AL West team can best imitate relevance.<\/p>\n

On Sunday afternoon, the Dallas Wings<\/a> went into Brooklyn and took down the New York Liberty 91-76<\/a>. Beat the\u00a0WNBA\u2019s 2024 champs by getting 24 points apiece from their UConn connection, Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd. For Fudd, it was clearly the best game of her rookie season, contributing 17 points in the third quarter alone. The pair combined for 11 3-pointers, which only one WNBA squad (Golden State Valkyries) manages to average as a team.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So much for the 2024 champs. Here come the 2025 champs.<\/p>\n

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The Wings host the Las Vegas Aces and four-time WNBA MVP A\u2019ja Wilson<\/a>, who, in addition to being just one short of a Bill Russell-like run at most valuable player awards, is the rare player named after a Steely Dan song. Thought you should know even if most players in the league have no idea who that is.<\/p>\n

When the Wings had the Aces in town (or the Liberty or the Sky or the Dream or anyone else you can think of) in 2025, it was hardly an event. Other than charting Bueckers\u2019 rise as a Rookie of the Year<\/a>, there wasn\u2019t much to this team. Certainly nothing to celebrate. When the Wings beat New York on Sunday, they got to 4-3. When the Wings won their fourth game last spring, it made them 4-12 en route to 10-34.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s far too early to announce the Wings\u2019 return to the eight-team playoffs in a competitive 15-team league. But new coach Jose Fernandez and a nice gathering of veterans along with another No. 1 overall pick in Fudd has this club looking radically different.<\/p>\n

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\u201cNothing that happened last year can really dictate our record this year and how we go from game to game or practice to practice and try to win every day that\u2019s in front of us,\u2019\u2019 Bueckers said. \u201cWe\u2019ve found our way to fight into every game, and I think we\u2019re learning how to close better.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

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Dallas lost its first two home games to Atlanta and Minnesota after leading entering the fourth quarter each time. But the Wings made their mark in the second half in Brooklyn after losing again to Atlanta, a team that caused considerable matchup problems for Dallas because of its size and ability to score in the paint.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to protect the paint better,\u2019\u2019\u00a0Bueckers said. \u201cWe understand that\u2019s kind of our Kryptonite right now.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Not a great weakness to have with the 6-4 Wilson coming to town, but the Wings don\u2019t really lack size. They have enough depth that it\u2019s been a challenge to find the right combinations to put on the floor. And Fudd still doesn\u2019t start, but after scoring 24 in 32 minutes off the bench against the Liberty, her time might be arriving.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean obviously the third quarter of that game was amazing, but not every game\u2019s gonna be like that,\u2019\u2019 Fudd said after practicing at SMU Wednesday. \u201cIt was definitely a lot of fun. I think it was a great win for us because you know what [the Liberty] have accomplished, the way they do it. We were smart in New York. We showed up, played great, played team basketball.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

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A team that was downright awful on defense last year has made steady improvement on that end, climbing up to sixth (out of 15) in points allowed and sixth in 3-point percentage allowed. The Wings don\u2019t have to be the Thunder when it comes to defense, they have enough scoring options with\u00a0Arike Ogunbowale<\/a> and Jessica Shepard making big contributions alongside Bueckers and Fudd. They\u2019re a more than interesting team to watch in 2026. To see them against the best can be considered more than a useful measuring stick.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to defend,\u2019\u2019 Fernandez said. \u201cThat\u2019s what it\u2019s going to come down to.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

In 2025, there was no chance the Wings were capably defending a league champion. This year? There\u2019s at least a chance of defense and a really good chance of pouring in enough points to compete. The efficient Wings lead the\u00a0WNBA in assists and, despite their up-tempo emphasis, have committed the second fewest turnovers.<\/p>\n

More important, Bueckers \u2014 their unqualified leader even with 30-year-olds in her midst \u2014 comes off as a wise veteran more than a second-year player in assessing where the Wings stand.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMomentum is kind of nonexistent in this league. Every single night, every team can win. This is the W, like teams are amazing and it\u2019s the best players in the world,\u2019\u2019 she said. \u201cYou don\u2019t say, what, we\u2019re on a two-game winning streak or whatever it is. You try to start every game with a clean slate.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Luckily for Wings fans, the team has taken a clean slate to the 10-34 season that landed them in the cellar in 2025. This new slate is a whole lot more interesting.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the bench, Dallas Wings guard Azzi Fudd (35) reacts to a defensive stop during the second half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2353,102,104,103,88877,94507,89478],"class_list":["post-311469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-commentary","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-dallas-wings","tag-tp-wnba","tag-tp-paige-bueckers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}