DHJ Quick Take: Azzi Fudd Embraces the Dallas Wings
- The “We-Over-Me” Mentality: Azzi Fudd’s comments on her “team mentality” aren’t just draft-night rhetoric. Her 97th-percentile spot-up efficiency (1.210 PPP) is the ultimate selfless skill; she creates gravity for Arike Ogunbowale and Paige Bueckers simply by standing on the perimeter, forcing defenses into “scramble mode.”
- The Health Factor: Fudd was remarkably candid about the “unknown” potential of her partnership with Bueckers. Having only played 49 games together at UConn due to overlapping injuries, the Dallas Wings are essentially betting on the health and development of a duo that has already proven it can reach the Final Four even when less than 100%.
- The DMV Pipeline: The connection between Fudd and Kiki Rice highlights the elite talent pipeline coming out of the DC area. For Dallas, bringing in a player with Fudd’s pedigree—the first sophomore to win Gatorade National Player of the Year—solidifies the “winner’s culture” Curt Miller has prioritized.
- Addressing the 3PT Void: With Fudd leading Division I in three-pointers made (117), the Wings have found a direct solution to their 2025 season where they ranked last in the WNBA in both attempts and efficiency. Her 44.5% career mark from deep is the new engine for Jose Fernandez‘s offense in Arlington.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Azzi Fudd has dreamed about this moment since she was a kid. When it finally arrived Monday night at The Shed at Hudson Yards in New York City, she found herself at a loss for words after being selected No. 1 overall by the Dallas Wings.
“I am not really sure I have words to describe that feeling, what that meant,” Fudd said after being drafted. “I don’t think it’s fully sunk in. It is nothing I could have imagined — the feeling sitting there with my family, with Morgan. Hearing your name called and walking up there, it just — it’s such a surreal feeling. I’m so grateful.”
Morgan Valley, a UConn assistant coach who served as Fudd’s position coach throughout her time in Storrs, was among those in the building to witness the moment firsthand.
Fudd noted that attending past drafts to support teammates didn’t prepare her for what it actually feels like to be in the chair.
“Absolutely not,” she said when asked if those experiences helped. “I thought that those experiences coming, supporting other teammates would help with that, but it definitely doesn’t. Being in that chair waiting for your name to get called — there’s nothing you can compare that feeling to.”
On Joining the Dallas Wings
Fudd was direct about how she sees herself fitting into a Dallas roster that already features Paige Bueckers, Arike Ogunbowale, and Maddy Siegrist.
“They’ve been able to see my time at UConn, how I’m a team mentality, we-over-me kind of player. I’m going to do what the team needs and not anything less,” Fudd said. “But I know how to play with great players, so I know how to space the floor, I know how to move without the ball. So I’m just excited to go in to learn just the newness of the organization, the newness of the players, how to play off Arike, Maddy, everyone else on the team. And I can’t wait — especially getting to watch Arike for so long and then getting to play against Maddy and other players on the team. I think it’s going to be incredible to finally get there and just get to finally play with them.”
That profile is backed by what she showed at UConn in her final season. Fudd led all of Division I with 117 three-pointers made while shooting .489/.455/.955 across 39 starts — the best free-throw percentage in UConn program history at .925, fifth in career threes made with 292, and among the most efficient perimeter seasons in recent college basketball history. According to Synergy Sports data, her spot-up PPP ranked in the 97th percentile at 1.210 points per possession, and her off-screen efficiency came in at 1.150 PPP at the 90th percentile. The Dallas Wings ranked last in the league in three-point attempts last season at 21.6 per game while converting at 30.4%. Fudd addresses that structural weakness from day one.
On Playing With Paige Bueckers
The Fudd-Bueckers pairing was the dominant pre-draft storyline for months, and Fudd made clear Monday night that she views their partnership as something with significant untapped potential.
“Paige is an incredible player. Everybody knows that. She is someone that makes playing basketball easy,” Fudd said. “And so I think just the prior experience, knowing how to play with her, play off of her, will only help going into this.”
She was candid, however, about the reality of their shared time at UConn — and what it means for what lies ahead.
“Our time at UConn felt like — it was just full of injury, full of like either I was playing, she wasn’t, she was playing, I wasn’t,” Fudd said. “It wasn’t until last year that we really got a chance to actually play together. And even then it wasn’t a full season. So I feel like there’s still so much left on the table and so much unknown and just so much potential — with not just her, but the entire Dallas Wings roster. So I can’t wait, obviously, to play with her again, but to play with every single one of them.”
The injury history she’s referencing is real and well-documented. Fudd tore the ACL and MCL in her right knee before arriving at UConn, missed 11 games her freshman year with a foot injury, lost 22 games of her sophomore season to another knee injury, and then tore the ACL in her right knee again just two games into her junior year — effectively costing her an entire season. Bueckers dealt with her own injury battles during that same stretch. The two played in 49 games together during their UConn careers, making two Final Four appearances, including the 2025 national championship game.
Fudd averaged 17.5 points per game in that NCAA Tournament run alone and was named Final Four Most Outstanding Player. Now, with a full professional season ahead of them for the first time, the ceiling on what the pairing can become is genuinely unknown.
On Family and the DMV Legacy
Fudd is a second-generation draftee, and the weight of sharing the moment with her family was not lost on her. Her mother, Katie Fudd, forged her own path in the sport — a 2,000-point scorer across her college career at N.C. State and Georgetown before a brief WNBA career of her own. She and her husband have since worked as youth basketball coaches in the Virginia area, raising a daughter who surpassed every expectation.
“They’re just so proud of me. You can see that in how they show up for me every single game and how they’re here,” Fudd said. “This weekend you would’ve thought that my whole family was getting drafted, how invested they are. But to be able to share this moment with her, with all of them — is super special. The conversation has just been how proud they are of me and how they want me to enjoy this moment and soak it all in and how I deserve it. So yeah, that’s been my goal — just take it all in.”
She also reflected on becoming the first No. 1 overall pick from the DMV region — and what that means to her personally.
“DMV is who I am, where I’m from. It helped develop me, raise me, get me to where I am. Just the competitiveness of the DMV is, I feel like, just what started things for me,” Fudd said. “And to be here with Kiki — another DMV native — is incredible. I mean, we used to play each other in state championship games and now we’re in the same draft class. I got to cheer her on while she was getting drafted. It’s just a full-circle moment to be here, especially with her. And it’s incredible. I’m so grateful.”
Kiki Rice — the UCLA guard selected by the Toronto Tempo in Monday’s first round — grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, making her and Fudd two of the most prominent players in recent women’s basketball history to emerge from the same region. Fudd herself attended St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C., where she became the first sophomore in history to win the Gatorade National Player of the Year award in 2019, a three-time Gatorade Washington, D.C. Player of the Year, and a 2021 McDonald’s All-American.
On Faith and What Comes Next
Fudd spoke openly about her faith and a significant personal milestone — her recent baptism — and what that foundation will mean as she navigates the challenges ahead in the WNBA.
“My faith has already helped me tremendously just this last year and a half,” Fudd said. “Being able to be rooted in Christ and have that as my foundation — I’ve seen a tremendous change in myself and just a sense of peace and feeling lighter, not having to hold things and carry everything on my own. I know change is going to hit me like a truck. Things are going to be hard. I’m going to have to learn. I’m going to have to adjust. And I’m looking forward to all of that. But being able to do that knowing I’m not alone is definitely going to help me get through everything.”
When asked what she would tell her younger self knowing what she knows now, her answer was characteristically grounded.
“Just keep believing in myself,” Fudd said. “I wouldn’t tell her anything different or change anything because everything young Azzi had to go through is what got me here.”
It’s a fitting sentiment for a player who spent years watching teammates get drafted, battling through ACL tears and foot injuries, and waiting for a moment that no amount of preparation could fully capture. Monday night, the wait was over.
The Wings open the 2026 regular season on the road against the Indiana Fever at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on May 9 at 12 p.m. CT.
More Azzi Fudd & Wings Coverage on Dallas Hoops Journal
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- Evaluating Top Options For Dallas Wings At No. 1 Overall In 2026 WNBA Draft
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