The 2026 WNBA season arrives with so many fascinating topics at the forefront of everything. But before the regular season tips off on Friday, May 8, we’ve got preseason basketball to dissect.
Here are four compelling storylines that deserve your full attention.
1. What is José Fernández building with the Dallas Wings?
New Dallas Wings head coach Jose Fernandez has done a masterful job of saying a lot without actually revealing much.
Through training camp and post-draft pressers, he’s spoken in glowing terms about his roster’s versatility and his desire to
create a “totally different language” on both ends of the floor, but specifics remain hidden.
One of the biggest unknowns is offensive structure. Paige Bueckers, coming off a Rookie of the Year season, is being pushed by Fernandez to expand her 3-point volume. Her sophomore leap could be the difference between the Wings being a darkhorse playoff team and a lottery team.
Meanwhile, Azzi Fudd, the No. 1 overall pick out of UConn, enters as one of the most efficient shooters to join the league in years, having shot 45.5 percent from deep and 95.5 percent from the free throw line in her final college season. The Wings finished second to last in 3-point rate in 2025, and Fudd is an immediate fix for that, but exactly how much she’ll be asked to do, especially defensively, remains an open question.
Add Arike Ogunbowale back into the equation alongside new free agent additions Alanna Smith and Jessica Shepard, and you have some dangerous offensive options at guard plus frontcourt talent that can play inside-out and pass exceptionally well.
The starting lineup is a genuine mystery regarding that presumptive fifth spot. Does the three-guard look with Bueckers, Ogunbowale and Fudd lead to any defensive concerns? How fast will this team play? Preseason is the first chance to get a glimpse at the answers to these questions.
2. What will we learn about the Las Vegas Aces’ Chennedy Carter experiment?
Perhaps no signing this offseason generated more buzz than the Las Vegas Aces bringing in Chennedy Carter on a training camp contract.
Carter is one of the most gifted guards in the world, she ranked 12th in WNBA scoring in her last full season with the Chicago Sky in 2024, but she’s also been unsigned in two of the last three seasons, spending time in China and Mexico, with multiple reports citing locker room issues at each of her previous stops in Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago.
The Aces are built to absorb that kind of risk.
Their locker room, anchored by championship veterans with tons of continuity, is focused on repeating as champions, and head coach Becky Hammon is precisely the kind of leader who can manage strong personalities.
The structure is there, but preseason is when we find out how Carter actually fits from a basketball perspective.
Tactically, the questions are fascinating.
The Aces switched heavily on defense during their late-season turnaround, anchored by A’ja Wilson’s rim protection and the versatility of Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray to guard up multiple positions. Carter, while being a monster on offense, is too small to handle the same task, so what will this mean for the team? Will this affect the lineups she is able to play in? And offensively, does she accept a bench role, and how will she fit without the ball in her hands?
Preseason won’t give us a definitive verdict, but it could tell us a lot about whether this is the start of a comeback story for Chennedy or just a short-term experiment.
3. Who might emerge as the early Rookie of the Year frontrunner?
The 2026 draft class, despite not having the top-level talent of previous years, certainly brings a lot of intrigue. Azzi Fudd, Olivia Miles, Awa Fam, Lauren Betts and Flau’Jae Johnson headline a class that also has a ton of underrated talent all fighting for one award.
On paper, several of these players have legitimate cases to start on day one. Miles will be stepping into the point guard role for a Lynx offense that is going through a semi-rebuild and will be without the services of Napheesa Collier for the beginning of the season.
Fudd’s shooting opens the floor in Dallas and demands a starting role. Fam, at 19 years old with professional experience in Spain, is built for immediate minutes, especially with Ezi Magebegor being out for at least two months.
But here’s the honest complication: Preseason for rookies is a notoriously unreliable indicator.
The jump from an NCAA season, which ended just two weeks ago, to playing professional competition with almost no transition time is brutal. Coaches often use preseason to evaluate depth, experiment with lineups and build conditioning, not showcase their best product.
The more interesting question entering preseason isn’t who starts, it’s who adapts fastest to the pace and physicality of the pro game. Watch for which rookies show translatable skills in preseason rather than just raw statistics.
As for Rookie of the Year? Miles and Fudd are the obvious frontrunners given their situations, but there are some sleepers in this draft as well. Preseason won’t crown anyone, but it might be the first time we see who’s ready to make the case.
4. What will Oluchi Okananwa show in her WNBA preseason preview?
Maryland junior Oluchi Okananwa is, by most accounts, one of the most electrifying prospects in the 2027 WNBA Draft.
This past season, she led the Terrapins in scoring at 17.8 points per game, while also leading the Big Ten with 74 steals—a two-way profile that very few college players can boast. Multiple outlets have already slotted her right outside the top five of their 2027 big boards,
But college basketball and WNBA basketball are different animals, and Okananwa’s strengths—an elite first step, relentless transition offense and disruptive hands on defense—are the kinds of tools that have to be recalibrated against professional athleticism.
The Nigerian National Team has called her up for their spring tour ahead of the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, meaning she’ll face the Los Angeles Sparks, the Minnesota Lynx and the Indiana Fever in a three-game stretch of WNBA exhibition action.
The scouting concerns around Okananwa at the pro level are consistent: erratic decision-making in the half court and shooting.
The tour with Nigeria won’t answer those questions definitively, but she can at least show scouts whether she can hang with WNBA athletes. If she looks natural in these settings—finishing through contact, disrupting the passing lane and managing pace—her 2027 stock has a chance to soar. For draft watchers, this may be the most valuable footage available until college basketball resumes again in October.
