{"id":633570,"date":"2026-05-09T21:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T21:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/633570\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T21:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T21:27:09","slug":"dallas-wings-bench-no-1-pick-azzi-fudd-for-season-opener-against-indiana-fever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/633570\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Wings Bench No. 1 Pick Azzi Fudd for Season Opener Against Indiana Fever"},"content":{"rendered":"

Azzi Fudd made her WNBA<\/a> debut with the Dallas Wings<\/a> on Saturday afternoon, facing Caitlin Clark<\/a> and the Indiana Fever<\/a> on the road at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Fudd, after a college career with the UConn Huskies, was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, joining her former Connecticut teammate Paige Bueckers<\/a> in Dallas.<\/p>\n

Fudd spent five seasons in Storrs, Connecticut, playing college ball, including four alongside Bueckers. She helped the Huskies win a national championship in the 2024-25 women’s college basketball season, before taking a bigger role this past season upon Bueckers’ departure. During her senior year, Fudd averaged 17.3 points on 48.1% shooting and 3.1 assists per game, all of which were career highs.<\/p>\n

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\"Dallas<\/p>\n

Dallas Wings guard Azzi Fudd (35) shoots the ball while Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) defends in the first half at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

During the preseason, with All-Star Arike Ogunbowale<\/a> out, Fudd started in both of the Wings’ games, which included a win over the Fever and a win over the Las Vegas Aces<\/a>. In 18.5 minutes per game, she averaged 8.0 points on 35.3% shooting and 1.0 assists, making just one of her seven 3-point attempts.<\/p>\n

However, to begin the regular season, the Wings elected to bring Fudd off the bench despite taking the guard No. 1 overall, opting to start former Indiana guard Odyssey Sims<\/a> instead. The rest of the Dallas starting lineup included Bueckers, Ogunbowale, forward Jessica Shepard<\/a> and center Alanna Smith<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The Fever<\/a>, on the other hand, with Monique Billings<\/a> sidelined due to injury, still kept a familiar starting lineup which consisted of Clark, Kelsey Mitchell<\/a>, Sophie Cunningham<\/a>, Aliyah Boston<\/a> and Myisha Hines-Allen<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“First 5\ufe0f\u20e3 for our debut!” the Wings wrote on X.<\/p>\n

Following the Fever matchup, the Wings will be back in action on Tuesday, hosting Angel Reese<\/a> and the Atlanta Dream<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: Sophie Cunningham\u2019s Outfit For Indiana Fever Season Opener Draws Attention<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on May 9, 2026, where it first appeared in the WNBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Azzi Fudd made her WNBA debut with the Dallas Wings on Saturday afternoon, facing Caitlin Clark and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[49795,2648,3691,2832,3444,16393,1760,2834,4129,2839,66744,4806,4677,60204,53536,9217,2833,4805,99,5112,434],"class_list":["post-633570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-alanna-smith","tag-aliyah-boston","tag-angel-reese","tag-arike-ogunbowale","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-azzi-fudd","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-dallas-wings","tag-fever","tag-indiana-fever","tag-jessica-shepard","tag-kelsey-mitchell","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-monique-billings","tag-myisha-hines-allen","tag-odyssey-sims","tag-paige-bueckers","tag-sophie-cunningham","tag-sports","tag-the-wings","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633570","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=633570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}