<\/p>\n
Dallas Wings guards Azzi Fudd (left) and Paige Bueckers talk practice on the team\u2019s opening day of training camp at College Park Center on Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n
Smiley N. Pool\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
ARLINGTON\u00a0\u2014 I suppose it\u2019s a bit early to refer to\u00a0Wings<\/a> general manager Curt Miller as the Howie Roseman of the WNBA. After all, in a 13-team league in 2025, Dallas tied for the 12th best record. So no one is calling this rebuild complete, although the optimism<\/a> at Wings media day seems as reasonable as it can be for a team coming off a 10-34 season.<\/p>\n In 2022 and 2023, Roseman started retooling the Philadelphia Eagles\u2019 defense with players from Georgia\u2019s national championship teams. Not every pick was a home run, but first-round tackles Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter played outsized roles in the 2024 Super Bowl season and the Eagles\u2019 repeat as NFC East champions last year. If you want to copy that, WNBA style, what could be better than loading up on UConn\u2019s\u00a0backcourt?<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Paige Bueckers won the league\u2019s Rookie of the Year award last season<\/a>, and, blessed with the first overall pick again this spring, the Wings added her teammate Azzi Fudd. On Monday, Bueckers opened with a statement that she and Fudd would not be discussing their personal relationship in the future<\/a>, and that they had always been professional in how they handled things on and off the court. If all goes as Miller has planned, the interest in the Bueckers-Fudd relationship will soon enough be focused on how the Wings assembled the best guard pair in the WNBA.<\/p>\n \u201cYou look around at the success of UConn players in our league, what we say all the time is that they know how to play the right way,\u201d said Miller, who was twice WNBA Coach of the Year with the Connecticut Sun. \u201cThey know the non-negotiables in our locker room, that you don\u2019t coach effort, you don\u2019t teach effort. Just really, really excited about our young pieces that we continue to build with.\u201d<\/p>\n Dallas Wings rookie guard Azzi Fudd pictured during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings center Li Yueru speaks with reporters as her dog Leyi yawns during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center, Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Members of the media gather as Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers takes photos during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center, Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers pictured during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings guard Aziaha James pictured during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings center Li Yueru smiles at her dog, Leyi, as they pose for photos during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers tosses a pass behind her back as she poses for photos during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center, Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers addresses her relationship with Azzi Fudd during media day at College Park Center on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings forward Amy Okonkwo shows off her Africa necklace as she poses for photos during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center, Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers stands for pictures during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center, Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings guard Grace Berger pictured during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings center Li Yueru pictured during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers addresses her relationship with Azzi Fudd during media day at College Park Center on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings forward Alysha Clark pictured during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings 2026 No.1 overall pick Azzi Fudd poses for photos during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center, Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings head coach Jose Fernandez speaks with reporters during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News Dallas Wings 2026 No.1 overall pick Azzi Fudd speaks with reporters during the team\u2019s media day at College Park Center, Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.<\/p>\n El\u00edas Valverde II\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n The league, hoping to hit a home run off its new media deal and new CBA, much of it a reflection of the unprecedented interest that the Indiana Fever\u2019s Caitlin Clark has sparked, shares Miller\u2019s excitement about the Wings. Despite last year\u2019s dreadful record which forced yet another coaching change\u00a0\u2014 Jose Fernandez is the team\u2019s sixth full-time coach in 10 seasons<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 NBC Sports\u2019 press release announcing its return to the league mentions eight players. Bueckers is the third star on the list and Fudd is the eighth. Of the 22 regular-season games scheduled for NBC and its offshoots, the Wings appear in four of them including a Week Two appearance at Brooklyn\u2019s Barclays Center against the New York Liberty.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n It appears NBC isn\u2019t looking for a Dallas\u2019 return to last place in the Western Conference any more than Miller, who hopes to have made as many key additions in free agency as he did in landing\u00a0Fudd with the first pick.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was an intent this year to add veterans in the locker room which we were successful in doing,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n The focus was on post players, and Miller said it became clear rather quickly that teams were doing all they could to retain their centers and power forwards with new contracts.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cYou got really quickly to Jessica\u00a0Shepard and Alanna Smith as players that might be willing to move, and for us to land both of them was a huge free agency get for the team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The 6-4 Smith from Stanford was the league\u2019s Co-Defensive Player of the Year in 2025. Shepard had the fastest triple-double in WNBA history last season, recording one in 21 minutes, 57 seconds against the Fever. She\u2019s one of three Wings to win championships overseas this offseason (that includes All-Star guard Arike Ogunbowale in China), so the team is just getting back together as the preseason starts Thursday in preparation for a season opener May 9 at Indiana.<\/p>\n Fudd said the speed, the intensity, the physical nature of the team\u2019s first few practices is the most noticeable indicator that, even having won Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four in 2025 for the Huskies, she has moved up a level.<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is obviously the next step, but I think it will be a big jump,\u201d Fudd said. \u201cBeing with a different coach, new organization, different players, I think it\u2019s going to be a bit of learning, a bit of growing, and I really look forward to that.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Expect her to grow quickly. As Bueckers, clearly more muscular in preparations for Year Two, said, \u201cAzzi Fudd was the No. 1 draft pick because she earned it, and it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with who she is as a human being, who she is as a basketball player.\u201d<\/p>\n Basketball fans in the area should be pumped. The Mavericks aren\u2019t likely to win another lottery and put back-to-back Rookies of the Year at the base of their foundation. The Wings, still toiling at UT-Arlington but bound for Dallas at an undetermined date in the near future, might do exactly that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Wings guards Azzi Fudd (left) and Paige Bueckers talk practice on the team\u2019s opening day of training…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[16393,3200,99,249343,248033,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-610210","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-azzi-fudd","9":"tag-commentary","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tp-dallas-wings","12":"tag-tp-paige-bueckers","13":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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