Watch out for the Dallas Wings this season. Opposing teams’ general managers certainly will be.
The Wings were voted the team most likely to improve in 2026, the team that made the best offseason moves before the 2026 season and were tied for first in the voting (with the Seattle Storm) for having the most promising young core in the most recent WNBA GM survey, released on Tuesday.
Paige Bueckers, Alanna Smith and Azzi Fudd account for a lot of the excitement surrounding the team that went 19-65 across
the last two seasons. Bueckers was voted the player general managers would most like to start a WNBA team with, Smith’s offseason acquisition was tied for first in the voting for most underrated signing and Fudd (20%) was a distant second in the voting for player most likely to win WNBA Rookie of the Year, to the Minnesota Lynx’s Olivia Miles (73%). Bueckers was also second in the voting for best shooting guard, and third in the voting for best point guard in the WNBA.
Bueckers looks stronger entering the 2026 season than she did coming into her rookie year. She made 5-of-7 from 3-point range in the Wings’ two preseason games after shooting just 33.1% from deep as a rookie.
With regard to the rest of that promising young Wings core, don’t discount backup guard Aziaha James, who the Wings selected 12th overall in the 2025 WNBA Draft, 11 spots behind Bueckers. James piled up 35 points and six steals in the team’s two preseason games and showed some punch on offense as her minutes increased in the latter half of her rookie season. The Wings beat both the Indiana Fever and the Aces pretty handily in two preseason games, though the second halves of both those games featured mostly reserves. Fudd chipped in 12 points against the Aces in 21 minutes on the floor.
“When you look at this roster, and you look at [Bueckers] and [Fudd] and Arike [Ogunbowale] and [James] and Maddy [Siegrist] and the front line, we’re tough to guard,” first-year Wings head coach Jose Fernandez said in a draft night press conference last month. “Now you add [Jessica Shepard] and Alanna [Smith] in the pick-and-roll with Paige, it’s going to open up a lot of things for [Ogunbowale] and [Fudd] out on the perimeter. The same way people may be concerned with how we’re going to play defensively, people are going to have to guard us as well.”
The Las Vegas Aces (40%) were voted the team most likely to win the WNBA Championship this year, with the New York Liberty (33%) and the Atlanta Dream (27%) close behind in the eyes of league GMs. The Golden State Valkyries were voted the best defensive team in the WNBA (50%) by league GMs, with the Dream (35%) coming in second.
