DHJ Quick Take: Preseason Takeaways and Final Preparations
- The Adaptation Curve: For Azzi Fudd, the No. 1 overall pick, the preseason provided a critical baseline for adjusting to the WNBA: pace and physicality. Her biggest takeaway is a self-correction on shot mechanics—learning to trust her natural release speed rather than rushing against WNBA closeouts.
- Playmaking Efficiency: Paige Bueckers enters the regular season with a clear focus on tightening margins. After a preseason finale in which she anchored the offense with 9 assists and 0 turnovers, her priority remains ball security and defensive connectivity as the system transitions from training-camp installation to live execution.
- Tactical “Homework”: With the regular-season opener just days away, preparation has shifted to film study and scout absorption. Both guards emphasized the importance of doing “homework” outside the gym to ensure that late-arriving veterans and rookies are aligned with Fernandez’s new offensive and defensive terminology.
- Veteran Integration: A major theme of the preparation has been the “seamless” integration of veteran arrivals like Jessica Shepard. The ability of the experienced players to absorb the playbook instantly has allowed the younger core to focus on their individual readiness rather than teaching on the fly.
- Physicality & Discipline: The final preparation steps involve cleaning up defensive discipline. After racking up 27 fouls in the preseason finale, the backcourt is focused on reading how games are called early and responding with “controlled physicality” to limit opponent free-throw attempts.
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Wings practiced Wednesday at College Park Center with two rotation pieces sidelined ahead of Saturday’s regular-season opener at the Indiana Fever. Alanna Smith (nasal fracture) and Aziaha James (sprained ankle) did not practice. Neither has been ruled out for the opener. Dallas has another practice scheduled for Thursday before traveling to Indianapolis on Friday.
The Wings finished preseason 2-0 with Sunday’s 101-84 win over the defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces at Moody Center, following a 95-80 win over the Indiana Fever in the preseason opener at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Head coach Jose Fernandez, Paige Bueckers, and Azzi Fudd all addressed the media after Wednesday’s session.
Alanna Smith, Aziaha James Sit Out Wednesday’s Practice
Smith and James were both absent from Wednesday’s session. The Wings have not ruled either player out for Saturday’s opener at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Smith sustained the nasal fracture on May 3 in the Wings’ preseason finale at Moody Center, where Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson elbowed her in the face on a play that left her bloodied. Smith had been the most efficient player on the floor for either team, finishing with 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting, 7 rebounds, and a plus-19 in 12 minutes before exiting. She also went 2-of-2 from beyond the arc. She’ll need a protective mask once she returns to the floor.
Smith joined the Wings in free agency this offseason as the reigning WNBA Co-Defensive Player of the Year and has started at center throughout camp. The starting frontcourt that Dallas opened the preseason with was built around Smith’s spacing and rim protection alongside Maddy Siegrist.
James is working back from a sprained ankle. The second-year guard was the Wings’ first guard off the bench in the preseason opener and gave Dallas 17 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and a team-high 4 steals in 31 minutes against Indiana. James also led the team with a plus-19 in that game.
The rotation Fernandez settles on for Saturday hinges on whether Smith and James are available, with the starting frontcourt largely built around Smith and meaningful bench scoring coming from James in the preseason opener.
“My toughest job is making sure we got the right five on the floor at times,” Fernandez said. “We’re very, very deep. Everybody being a star in their own, and making sure we just take efficient, great shots, and we share it. We’re deep in a lot of areas. But if we can play in the pace that we’re playing, just means we can play a lot more people that way.”
James turned in 17 points and a team-high 4 steals off the bench against Indiana, while Siegrist, in her fourth professional season after Dallas activated her team option this offseason, posted an 18-point, 11-rebound double-double in the same game and another efficient outing in Austin with 14 points and 7 rebounds.
“You gotta be impressed with Aziaha James and her off-season and her being able to get downhill and her feeling comfortable,” Fernandez said. “I thought Maddy had two really, really good pre-season games.”
Focus Areas Before the Regular Season Opener
Dallas finished both preseason games with assist totals north of 24 and won the rebounding battle by 19 in the opener at Indianapolis. The Wings also coughed up turnovers and racked up fouls in stretches that exposed how much of the new system is still being installed. Bueckers, who had 9 assists with zero turnovers in the win at Las Vegas, pointed Wednesday to the margins Dallas wants tightened up before Saturday’s tip-off.
“How we need to take care of the ball better, we need to clean it up defensively,” Bueckers said. “We wanted to set the tone with our physicality, and I feel like we did that. Just knowing how the game is gonna be called now, read that within the first five minutes, and respond accordingly. But continue to stay connected, continue to up our communication level on both sides of the floor, get out and play in transition, limit teams to one shot, box out better.”
Indiana returns Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, and Kelsey Mitchell from a roster that pushed pace under head coach Stephanie White last season. Dallas committed 27 team fouls and put Las Vegas on the line for 38 free-throw attempts in the preseason finale, the kind of margin Fernandez referenced as he reset the team’s priorities for the regular-season opener.
“We have to be special in transition defense,” Fernandez said. “Everybody knows their roster, and they’re very, very talented. They’re well-coached. We can’t turn the ball over like we did in that exhibition game, and we can’t commit as many fouls as we did. So those are gonna be the two big keys that we need to do.”
Bueckers’ 9 assists in the preseason finale anchored a 24-of-35 assist-to-made-field-goal mark in the rout of Las Vegas. Fudd and Siegrist both scored in double figures, Odyssey Sims ran the second unit, and Dallas held the lead from tip to buzzer.
“We just gotta continue to do that every single day. Have no slippage,” Fernandez said. “Everything matters. Continue to bring that focus every day in preparation and practice.”
Late Arrivals and Roster Integration
Arike Ogunbowale, Jessica Shepard, and Costanza Verona all joined Dallas in the back half of camp after wrapping overseas commitments. Shepard and Verona arrived after winning the Italian league championship with Beretta Famila Schio and made their Wings debuts Sunday in Austin. Ogunbowale missed both preseason games with a right ankle injury after returning from China.
“They just stayed connected with the team, regardless of how far they are,” Bueckers said. “And the coaching staff has done a really good job of putting scouts together and putting film together to where they can learn, and learn the plays and learn our offense, learn our defense. They’ve just done a really good job of adapting on the fly and being very receptive to learning. They’re already super high IQ basketball players, so it’s been pretty good for them.”
Bueckers stayed in regular contact with Dallas’ offseason recruiting targets, particularly during the FIBA AmeriCup window, where several of those players competed alongside her on Team USA.
“I was probably blowing their phone up a little bit more than they would’ve liked, but just to stay in constant communication, talk to them at an arrival, talk to them through USA Basketball and competing there,” Bueckers said. “But definitely was heavy on the communication side.”
Dallas turned over a significant share of its roster this offseason, with new free-agent signings and late-arriving overseas players needing to absorb the same offensive and defensive concepts as the rookies and returners.
“It’s tough ’cause people learn in so many different ways,” Fernandez said. “Paper, film, by doing. There’s so many different layers of the stuff that we run, and everything’s brand new. It’s a whole different, a lot of different concepts and a whole different language. But I have a really, really good staff, and they’ve done a great job with our players, sitting down and watching film and putting in extra time before and after practice.”
Arike Ogunbowale’s Return Boosts the Backcourt
Ogunbowale is back at practice this week after her offseason stint in China and her Unrivaled run with the Lunar Owls. She missed both preseason games with the right ankle injury and was on the floor again Wednesday alongside Bueckers in their first sustained reps together since training camp opened.
“It’s really fun to have her back, and to get her back into the flow of things offensively, defensively,” Bueckers said. “We talked about it in the off-season how much we just wanna win and how much we enjoy playing together. We enjoy each other as people as well. Just to have somebody on the floor who can score on every single possession, somebody who draws a lot of defensive attention, and somebody who can score at will. To have her on the floor just brings attention and brings defensive coverages. I love playing with Rike. We have a great relationship, so it’s been really fun to have her back.”
Ogunbowale is the Wings’ all-time leading scorer and the longest-tenured player on the roster. Her continued commitment to Dallas through the team’s rebuild has been a recurring topic for Fernandez since he took over.
“She wants to solidify her legacy here as a Dallas Wings member in her career here,” Fernandez said. “She’s been excellent. She’s come back prepared. She had a really good off-season at Unrivaled and in China. I think it’s gonna be an easy transition for her.”
Azzi Fudd Getting More Comfortable with WNBA
Fudd, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, started both preseason games alongside Sims, Bueckers, Siegrist, and Smith. The first preseason outing at Indianapolis came two-and-a-half weeks after the draft, and Fudd said the second appearance gave her a different feel.
“The pace, the physicality, the strength of the players. I feel like a lot of my takeaways were like, ‘Okay, I feel comfortable here, but it’s gonna take a few games,'” Fudd said. “Even the second game, I felt a lot better, a lot more comfortable out there than the first, offensively and defensively.”
Fudd built her UConn career around a quick, repeatable jumper and entered the WNBA as the consensus best shooter in the 2026 draft class. The transition has come with a self-correction on her release.
“What I did notice was that I was quickening my shot even though I didn’t need to. And so when I started to rush, that’s when my shot’s off a little bit,” Fudd said. “It’s just settling into the pace a little bit faster, but still trusting my shot. The speed of my shot is perfect. I don’t need to change that.”
Bueckers and Fudd won the 2025 national championship together at UConn before reuniting in Dallas. They’ve started both preseason games together in the same backcourt.
“She’s gotten to all her spots. She’s been aggressive, and she’s shooting the ball without hesitation, so that’s what we ask of her,” Bueckers said. “She got drafted, and she’s on this team to shoot and score the ball. She’s learning the physicality of the WNBA and learning how to play defensively. There’s a lot of different schemes and terminology, so to continue to stay in communication and get more reps, she’s only gonna get better.”
Smith, the reigning Co-Defensive Player of the Year, and Shepard, who led the WNBA in field goal percentage last season, have surrounded Fudd in the frontcourt. Sims and Ogunbowale carry the veteran backcourt voices.
“Having vets on the team that are vocal, experienced, willing to kinda pull me aside and just tell me what they see without me having to ask for it, is incredible,” Fudd said. “They can see the wheels in my brain turning. They’re like, ‘Okay, do this here. Do that.’ Having people that have been around the game longer than you, know the game better than you, it’s always gonna help. And our vets are incredible.”
Fernandez took over as the Wings’ head coach this offseason. The transition to the pro level is his first after a long run of building South Florida’s women’s basketball program.
“He’s intense, but he’s also fun. He makes jokes. He’s funny,” Fudd said. “But he has the highest expectations for us, and that’s never gonna change.”
Shepard signed with Dallas as a free agent this offseason after playing with Smith in Minnesota the previous season. She made her Wings debut Sunday in Austin after wrapping the Italian league title with Schio days earlier.
“I was so impressed that she came in and knew plays. I’ve been here and I’m still confused, and she came in knowing everything,” Fudd said. “The transition seemed seamless, which was super impressive, but that goes to show, like, she’s a vet. She’s been here before. She knows what to do, how to take care of all those little things. She knows the game. She knows how to read who she’s playing with. She’s a quick learner, and she’s super smart.”
Paige Bueckers Honored in WNBA GM Survey
The WNBA’s annual general manager survey, released this week, named Bueckers the player most general managers would build a franchise around. The reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year scored 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting against Indiana — going 4-of-6 from three — and added 11 points with a team-high 9 assists in the preseason finale against Las Vegas.
“It’s really cool, just to have that mutual respect amongst people who, who live in this area or live in this space and who really understand the game,” Bueckers said. “There’s so many amazing basketball players to choose from. I feel like there’s so many people I would, I would choose to start my team with, so for, for them to think that highly of me, I’m very grateful, very blessed.”
Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever Take Center Stage
Bueckers and Clark have shared the floor through college and with USA Basketball, including last year’s AmeriCup qualifying window. They met in the preseason opener at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, where Bueckers led all scorers at halftime with 20 points, and Dallas built a 36-17 second-quarter run en route to the 95-80 win. Clark finished with a game-high 21 points and went 11-of-13 from the free-throw line, but exited late in the third quarter after landing on Smith’s foot on a stepback three-point attempt and limping to the bench. The Fever later confirmed she avoided serious injury. Saturday’s nationally televised opener will be the first regular-season meeting of their careers.
“Me and Caitlin have been competing against each other for a long time. I think the greatest way to show respect is to compete and really bring the best out of each other, and I feel like we do that when we’re competing against each other, and then we’ve also enjoyed playing together with USA Basketball,” Bueckers said. “I have great respect for her and what she’s done for the game of basketball and women’s sports in general. She’s a generational player. Every time we take the floor and get to compete against each other, it’s always a great time.”
Fudd, who started against Indiana in the preseason opener at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, will return to the same arena Saturday for the official tip-off of her professional career.
“I’m excited. Looking forward to that game, first official game, and we got to scrimmage them, so we both have a sense of what each team does, what we do,” Fudd said. “It’s gonna be fun to be there. Great environment, great crowd. I’m just excited for the season to start.”
The Wings-Fever opener features four recent No. 1 overall picks between Bueckers and Fudd for the Wings and the Fever’s star duo of Clark and Boston.
“It’s great for our game, so all eyes will be on the Wings and the Fever this weekend,” Fernandez said. “It’s an exciting time for the league. It’s an exciting time to kick off the WNBA season.”
Off-Court Visibility and Team Bonding
Bueckers’ fashion presence has grown through her rookie year, with appearances at New York Fashion Week and the Met Gala in addition to the recent local gala she walked.
“I’m kind of new into the fashion world. I’ve been diving into it for the past couple years now. Went to the New York Fashion Week, went to the Met Gala, did some other things on social,” Bueckers said. “I’ve been working with them for about a year now, and just the collaborative process, working with a stylist, working with a whole team of people who put so much time and effort into that, I was really happy with how it turned out.”
Bueckers has been a regular at Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks games, as well as other DFW events, throughout her first year in Dallas.
“I just wanna remain relatable and remain within the community and not feel like I’m on a pedestal or I’m untouchable just because that I play basketball,” Bueckers said. “To be able to connect with the community, to be able to support other Dallas sports teams, and just get out. Been to the Texas State Fair, went to the Cotton Bowl, and some other really cool things and opportunities that the city provides.”
Smith, Shepard, Verona, Ogunbowale, and the rookies have only been together as a full group for a couple of weeks. The team has used some of that window to bond off the floor.
“We’ve gone out to eat a couple times, done some line dancing. Gone to a movie,” Fudd said. “I’m excited for all the other activities we’re gonna do together.”
Up Next
The Wings practice on Thursday again before traveling to Indianapolis. Tip-off against the Fever is set for 12 p.m. CT on Saturday on ABC.
More Wings Coverage on Dallas Hoops Journal
- Dallas Wings WATCH: Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd And Jose Fernandez Speak After Wednesday’s Practice
- Arike Ogunbowale Plans To Play Dallas Wings’ Opener Against Indiana Fever After Ankle Injury
- Dallas Wings Tuesday Practice Recap: Awak Kuier, Arike Ogunbowale Begin Chemistry Building; Aziaha James Injury
- Dallas Wings WATCH: Arike Ogunbowale, Awak Kuier Speak After Tuesday’s Practice
- Dallas Wings Make Six Roster Cuts, Down To 12 Players As Deadline Nears
- Dallas Wings’ Alanna Smith Exits Preseason Finale With Face Injury After A’ja Wilson Elbow
- Dallas Wings Cap Preseason With 101-84 Rout Of Las Vegas Aces In Austin
- ‘Awak Will Be Back In Texas’: Awak Kuier Rejoining Dallas Wings As Roster Nears Whole
- ‘They Did a Great Job Assembling This Team’: Jessica Shepard Details Joining Dallas Wings, Ready To Play vs. Las Vegas Aces
- Dallas Wings Open Preseason With 95-80 Win Over Indiana Fever Behind Paige Bueckers, Maddy Siegrist Double-Double
