{"id":637355,"date":"2026-05-11T22:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T22:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/637355\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T22:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T22:14:10","slug":"wings-coach-jose-fernandez-comments-on-azzi-fudds-chances-of-starting-after-tough-first-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/637355\/","title":{"rendered":"Wings Coach Jose Fernandez Comments on Azzi Fudd\u2019s Chances of Starting After Tough First Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

The No. 1 pick Azzi Fudd<\/a> made her WNBA regular season debut on Saturday when her Wings faced the Fever<\/a>. Even though Fudd was projected to be in the starting lineup this season, Dallas coach Jose Fernandez opted to have the rookie come off the bench instead.<\/p>\n

In her debut, Fudd made some unfortunate history as she only scored three points off of two shot attempts in 18 minutes played. This is the lowest number of points scored by a WNBA No. 1 pick in their regular season debut\u2014oof. <\/p>\n

There was originally hope that Fudd would quickly work her way up into in the Wings\u2019 starting lineup, but now it\u2019s up for debate on when that could happen based on her first performance. Instead of playing Fudd, Fernandez opted to start Odyssey Sims who scored 20 points, so it was definitely worth it in the 107\u2013104 Dallas win.<\/p>\n

Does Fudd have a chance of starting this season? Fernandez is definitely still open to that\u2014it has only been one game. When speaking to media on Monday, Fernandez gave no direct timeline on when he thinks that may happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think about it that way. Is she capable of doing that? Yes, she is,\u201d Fernandez said, via Drake Keeler<\/a>. \u201cWhen it does happens, I think she\u2019ll be ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fernandez has a plan in place to help Fudd improve on the court moving forward, starting with having her get more good looks to score.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other thing, when she gets in and she\u2019s a shooter, I gotta get her more involved, get her some looks, but you got to give other teams credit too. Other teams prepare for really good players,\u201d Fernandez continued.<\/p>\n

The first-year Dallas coach didn\u2019t sound concerned about the Wings\u2019 top pick on Saturday. AS he said above, when the time is right, she\u2019ll be ready; but for the time being, the Wings have a solid backcourt, which includes Paige Bueckers, Arike Ogunbowale, Aziaha James, Sims and Fudd.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeep doing what she\u2019s doing, it\u2019s her first year in the league,\u201d Fernandez said on Saturday. \u201cWe got five really talented backcourt players.\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems like the Wings plan to take their time when developing Fudd on the court.<\/p>\n

Wings\u2019 starting five\"Dallas<\/p>\n

Wings guard Paige Bueckers headlines Dallas\u2019s starting lineup. | Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Paige BueckersArike OgunbowaleOdyssey SimsAlanna SmithJessica Shepard<\/p>\n

Ogunbowale led the Wings in scoring on Saturday with 22 points, while Bueckers and Sims both posted 20 points. Shepard nearly recorded a triple-double as she finished with 13 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in her Dallas debut. Smith scored six points.<\/p>\n

WNBA rookies who earned starting roles<\/p>\n

Even though Fudd didn\u2019t earn a spot on the starting five in Dallas, other WNBA rookies landed starting roles on their respective teams.<\/p>\n

No. 2 pick Olivia Miles started for the Lynx against the Dream and led her team in scoring with 21 points and in assists with eight. No. 5 pick Gabriela Jaquez started for the Sky vs. the Fire and posted 10 points and seven rebounds. No. 8 pick Flau\u2019jae Johnson made her first start for the Storm against the Sun and led her team in scoring with 16 points, while also recording six rebounds.<\/p>\n

More WNBA from Sports Illustrated\"\"Add us as a preferred source on GoogleFollow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The No. 1 pick Azzi Fudd made her WNBA regular season debut on Saturday when her Wings faced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-637355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637355","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=637355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}