DHJ Quick Take: How Slowing Down Sparked Azzi Fudd’s Breakout
- Back-to-Back 20s in Her First Start: Azzi Fudd scored 22 in her first career start against Las Vegas after a career-high 24 at New York, becoming the only rookie this season with 20 or more points in back-to-back wins.
- Slowing Down Unlocked It: Fudd credited the surge to a deliberate effort to play slower, taking a breath and reading the game instead of rushing, an approach she said clicked in New York.
- Elite Off the Ball: Fudd ranks in the 89th percentile in points per possession, thriving on spot-ups, off-screen looks and in transition, and her teammates say she has been letting it fly with zero hesitation.
- Pick-and-Roll Is the Next Step: Fudd has flashed the talent as a pick-and-roll ball handler, an area to watch grow as Dallas installs more of its offense and she gets more comfortable.
ARLINGTON, Texas — Azzi Fudd is showing why the Dallas Wings made her the No. 1 overall pick. The rookie guard has scored 20 or more points in back-to-back games, including a career-high 24 at New York and 22 in Thursday’s 95-87 win over the Las Vegas Aces, and she traces the breakout to a deliberate effort to slow down.
Thursday marked her first career start, and she made the most of it, playing a career-high 37 minutes and handling the full closing stretch in a comeback win. She is the only rookie this season to score 20 or more points in back-to-back wins, and she joined New York’s Pauline Astier as the only rookies with multiple 20-point games. Fudd has now reached 12 points in four of her last five.
The production has followed a steady climb in role and comfort. After opening the season finding her footing, Fudd has grown into a starter and one of the focal points of an offense that ranks among the league’s best, and she points to a clearer, slower approach as the reason the game has opened up.
Slowing Down
Before and after the breakout, Fudd kept returning to one word: slower. After the New York win, she traced the 24-point night to a deliberate change in tempo.
“My goal today was just to play a little bit slower. I felt like I was rushing a little bit every time I caught the ball. I wasn’t reading right away. I was just putting the ball down, going too fast,” Fudd said. “So my goal was just to slow down, and my teammates were setting great screens, giving me great passes. Reading what was there was the key tonight.”
Days later, before the Las Vegas game, she said the adjustment was taking hold.
“Last game, the game felt a little bit slower for me. Having that intentionality about taking a breath and not rushing everything I do definitely helps with ball screening and spacing and cutting,” Fudd said.
Fudd has pointed to the New York win as a turning point, and not only because of the scoring.
“I definitely felt the most comfortable I’ve felt in New York, and I think you kind of saw that. And not just in me making shots, but just in my movements,” Fudd said. “Offensively, defensively, I felt like I just moved the most confidently I have all season.”
Much of that, she said, has come from the offense feeling natural after four years in UConn’s system.
“I feel more comfortable. It’s starting to get more natural. I feel like the UConn offense and calls were still just cemented in my brain, which they will be for a while,” Fudd said. “But really learning these plays, these offenses, being comfortable in that, and then learning my teammates, knowing what they like to do, when they like to roll, when they like to pop and slip.”
She expects it to continue as she settles in.
“I’m planning that it’s gonna carry on. Each game will be a little bit more comfortable, just on the floor with this team, with my teammates, learning, continuing to learn what they like to do, their tendencies, and how I can just better help this team,” Fudd said.
Asked whether a home game against the defending champions on national television carried any extra weight, Fudd waved it off. “Another game on the schedule. Another game,” she said.
Moving Without the Ball
Fudd’s value grows when she keeps moving, and head coach Jose Fernandez has built her role around relocating into screens rather than holding the ball.
“What I like is when people crowd her, she can get to her spot either going right or left,” Fernandez said. “We just have to sometimes be a little more patient and let her relocate to get back to a pin-down screen so we can get her in space again.”
Fudd said the screens her teammates set are what spring her.
“Not hesitating when I’m open, when Jess and K and them set me great screens, not hesitating to use them,” Fudd said. “But I think just reading what the game’s given me. Not ever trying to force to score, but just be aggressive.”
Paige Bueckers, who played alongside Fudd at UConn, pointed to her movement without the ball.
“Her being aggressive and hunting shots, looking for shots, not waiting for the game and for shots to find her. She’s being aggressive and putting her foot forward. And just her movement without the ball. It’s tough to guard so many actions, having to guard screening, coming off screens, staggers, singles,” Bueckers said.
Maddy Siegrist has noticed the game has started to slow down for Fudd as she settles in.
“I think just more comfortable. The game starts to slow down a little bit for you,” Siegrist said. “Not that it was too fast for her in the beginning, just that you get more comfortable and start seeing the reads a little differently. She’s doing a great job getting downhill as well, which I think opens up the three for her too.”
The play-type data reflects how Dallas uses her. Almost all of Fudd’s offense comes off the ball, and she has been efficient at it, scoring 1.238 points per possession on spot-ups and 1.176 coming off screens, where her volume ranks in the 96th percentile. She has been productive on the move as well, at 1.143 points per possession on cuts and 1.000 on dribble handoffs, and in transition she has been among the league’s best, scoring 1.625.
Her game as a pick-and-roll ball handler is the area to watch next. Dallas has given her reps running the action, and while it is still coming along, she has flashed the talent to grow into it. As the staff installs more of its offense and Fudd gets more comfortable, that piece could round out a scorer who is already among the league’s most efficient off the ball.
A Shooter Who Stretches the Floor
Fudd is shooting 46.4% from three and 57.1% from the field this season, and the Wings rank second in the WNBA in three-point percentage at 37.2%. Arike Ogunbowale said adding her answered a need Dallas had talked about all offseason.
“Yeah, we have shooters. A lot of people were like, ‘Oh, do they need another guard? Another guard.’ We did need another guard, and we got one of the best shooters in the country — I think the best shooter in the country,” Ogunbowale said. “So just having her be able to space the floor, myself, Paige, having shooting from that.”
A key difference in Fudd’s approach lately has been zero hesitation. Coming off a screen, spacing to the wing, or exiting to the corner, she has been letting it fly. Her teammates view her as one of the world’s best shooters and want even a sliver of space to become a shot.
Bueckers said the team has urged her to take those looks the instant they appear.
“We told her she was hesitant the first couple games, and we told her she only needs a split second of air space to get her shot off. We all believe it’s going in,” Bueckers said. “To have that confidence in her and have that confidence in herself, she’s only growing and getting better.”
That efficiency carries across her game. Fudd has scored 1.135 points per possession on all of her offense this season, a rate that ranks in the 89th percentile.
A Rookie-Record Night in New York
Fudd’s role has grown through the early weeks of the season. At New York on May 24, she poured in 17 points in the third quarter alone and finished with 24 on 9-of-15 shooting, including 6-of-12 from three, setting a Wings rookie record for made 3-pointers in a game. She also drew the primary defensive assignment on Sabrina Ionescu in the second half. Four days later, she added 22 against Las Vegas.
After the New York game, Fernandez said the performance showed exactly why Dallas drafted her first.
“I think now everyone knows why we took her number one,” Fernandez said.
Bueckers said the breakout was always coming.
“It was only a matter of time before we knew the breakout was coming. For us as teammates to instill that we need her, and we know she’s more than capable of doing stuff like this on any given night, I think that’s just what the future looks like,” Bueckers said.
A Starting Role Earned
Fernandez had signaled for weeks that a starting role was on the way, saying the team was “headed in that direction.” By Thursday, she was in the first unit against Las Vegas, and after Saturday’s practice, he said she got there on her own.
“We saw that she deserved to start, and the way that her minutes progressed, we got her to that point,” Fernandez said.
The Wings (5-3) host the Seattle Storm on Monday at College Park Center.
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- Paige Bueckers Cleared To Play For Dallas Wings Against Las Vegas Aces
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