DHJ Quick Take: Securing the Foundation
- The Core Clause: By placing the core designation on Arike Ogunbowale, the Wings have secured exclusive negotiating rights for their all-time leading scorer. Under the new WNBA CBA, this is the final year Dallas can use this tool on Ogunbowale, ensuring the franchise maintains control over her future alongside the incoming No. 1 overall pick, Paige Bueckers.
- Depth Retention: Extending qualifying offers to Li Yueru and Grace Berger protects Dallas from losing further rotation pieces following the Portland Fire expansion draft. Both players enter restricted free agency, giving Curt Miller the right to match any outside offer sheets.
- Cap Implications: The supermax qualifying offer for a cored player is valued at $1.4 million. Against the new $7 million salary cap, this single move accounts for 20% of the Wings‘ total space, creating a complex financial puzzle for Miller as he builds the 2026 roster.
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Wings are in the middle of one of the most consequential offseasons in franchise history. Coming off a 10-34 season that left them tied for the worst record in the WNBA, Dallas faces a series of roster decisions arriving in rapid succession — all dictated by a compressed league calendar. The expansion draft has already reshaped the roster. Tuesday, April 7 marked the league deadline for qualifying offers. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft is four days away on April 13.
By that deadline, the Wings had extended a core qualifying offer to guard Arike Ogunbowale and qualifying offers to center Li Yueru and guard Grace Berger, signaling which pieces the front office wants to retain as Curt Miller works to construct a roster around Paige Bueckers capable of competing in what is shaping up to be a dramatically different WNBA landscape under the new CBA.
The moves carry different weights and different implications. Here is what each one means for Dallas going forward.
Arike Ogunbowale Receives Core Designation
The headlining move gives Dallas exclusive negotiating rights over its all-time leading scorer. The core designation gives a team exclusive negotiating power over a free agent and comes with a supermax qualifying offer valued at $1.4 million in 2026. Unlike a standard qualifying offer — which creates restricted free agency and allows other teams to submit offer sheets — the core designation locks out the rest of the league entirely.
Ogunbowale’s options under the designation are more nuanced than a simple take-it-or-leave-it. She can accept the fully guaranteed one-year supermax, negotiate different terms with Dallas directly — including a salary below the $1.4 million figure if both sides determine that cap flexibility better serves the team’s broader roster construction — or be moved to another team via sign-and-trade. It is worth noting that some core players around the league have chosen to take less than the supermax specifically to give their team more room to add pieces around them. No other franchise can make Ogunbowale an offer until the Wings’ window closes.
That salary question carries real weight in Dallas. At $1.4 million against a new $7 million cap, a full supermax deal for Ogunbowale would represent a significant portion of the Wings’ available space. What Ogunbowale ultimately agrees to — and at what number — will shape how aggressively Miller can move in free agency around her.
Ogunbowale is the franchise’s all-time leading scorer — a four-time All-Star, two-time All-Star Game MVP, three-time All-WNBA selection, and the 2020 scoring champion. Across 224 career games she has averaged 19.9 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game on 39.0% shooting. Last season she averaged 15.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 4.1 assists in 29 games while managing knee tendinitis. She enters her age-29 season with her future tied directly to how the front office envisions the next chapter alongside Bueckers.
Li Yueru Receives Qualifying Offer
Dallas also extended a qualifying offer to center Li Yueru, keeping the 6-foot-7 big in the fold as the Wings sort out their frontcourt heading into the 2026 season.
A standard qualifying offer differs meaningfully from the core designation extended to Ogunbowale. Rather than locking out the rest of the league, it converts Yueru to a restricted free agent — meaning other teams can submit offer sheets, but Dallas retains the right to match any offer and keep her. It is a retention tool that preserves flexibility without requiring an immediate commitment to a full deal.
Yueru, 27, appeared in 22 games for Dallas last season after arriving via trade, averaging 7.4 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 1.0 assist in 20.0 minutes while shooting 42.1% from the field. Her interior presence and improved three-point shooting — 35.3% on 2.3 attempts per game with the Wings — gave Dallas a legitimate frontcourt piece with size and perimeter range. Across 85 career games she has averaged 4.8 points and 3.6 rebounds per game.
With the Wings holding the No. 1 pick in the April 13 draft and significant frontcourt decisions still ahead, retaining Yueru’s rights gives Miller roster flexibility at a position Dallas cannot afford to leave thin.
Grace Berger Qualifying Offer
Dallas extended a qualifying offer to guard Grace Berger under the same restricted free agency framework, preserving its rights to the 26-year-old as the roster takes shape around a new-look backcourt. As with Yueru, other teams can pursue Berger via offer sheet, but Dallas holds the right to match and retain her.
Berger, a 5-foot-11 guard out of Indiana University, appeared in 18 games for Dallas last season — starting 13 of them — and averaged 3.6 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 3.2 assists in 22.3 minutes. Her shooting efficiency was a concern at 30.6% from the field, but her playmaking and physicality gave the Wings a reliable ball-handler in reserve situations. Across 66 career games she has averaged 3.7 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 2.0 assists per game.
Expansion Draft Losses Add Context
Tuesday’s moves don’t exist in a vacuum. The Wings entered free agency already absorbing losses from last week’s expansion draft, where the Portland Fire claimed both forward Luisa Geiselsöder and guard Haley Jones. Geiselsöder averaged 6.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.6 assists in 22.4 minutes last season, while Jones contributed 10-plus points in 10 of her 24 appearances and brought two-way versatility as one of Dallas’ better defenders. Losing both in the same draft slot leaves real holes in the rotation that Miller will need to address before tip-off on May 8.
Retaining Yueru and Berger — even on qualifying offers — takes on added meaning in that context. With two proven rotation players gone, keeping continuity pieces available through the negotiating window is no longer just practical housekeeping. It’s a necessity.
The negotiating window runs through Friday, with players eligible to sign new contracts beginning Saturday.
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