Ahead of his first season as the Dallas Wings’ head coach, Jose Fernandez hasn’t been shy to declare his intentions in leading the team.
“Change is coming, and we’re going to win,” he said to open his introductory press conference in November.
Fernandez, a veteran college coach in his first WNBA job, has not backed off on that messaging with training camp underway and the regular season on the horizon. He has been asked multiple times about his expectations for the year, and more often than not, he has said that he was “brought here to win.”
With back-to-back No. 1 picks on the roster — ascending star Paige Bueckers and sharpshooter Azzi Fudd — there is reason for the Wings to be so hopeful for what lies ahead. However, to what degree that optimism translates to the floor in 2026 is less certain.
General manager Curt Miller took on Dallas’ reinvention after the 2024 season, overhauling the roster and landing Bueckers as a franchise cornerstone in the 2025 WNBA Draft. Outside of the pickups of guards Aziaha James and JJ Quinerly in that same draft, however, the team’s other offseason moves didn’t end up being particularly successful.
The Wings went 10-34 in 2025, and head coach Chris Koclanes, a former assistant to Miller when Miller was still a coach, was fired after his first season.
Once again, Dallas significantly retooled the team this past offseason. Key players in Bueckers, Ogunbowale, James and Maddy Siegrist have returned, but Miller took swings in the offseason in hopes of building something that more closely resembled a playoff roster.
Most notably, Dallas added two former Minnesota Lynx bigs on seven-figure deals. Miller said he had a list of post targets heading into free agency and would have been happy to get one of Jessica Shepard and 2025 Co-Defensive Player of the Year Alanna Smith. The Wings got both, beefing up the frontcourt.
And while the general manager prided himself on 2025’s roster being fully comprised of players under 30 years old, the Wings put an emphasis on adding veterans like Odyssey Sims and Alysha Clark this time around.
“There was an intent this year to add veterans in the locker room, which we were successful [at] in free agency,” Miller told reporters at the team’s media day. “There’s a balance in that locker room now of youth, but the experience is very, very important to also add. So again, we want to win now. Coaches always want to win now. So we’re trying to help Jose and his staff, but the GM silo certainly wants to continue to look at sustainability and sustained success.”
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Awak Kuier also has the potential to be an X factor for the team. The 6’6, 24-year-old forward will return to Dallas after spending the last two seasons overseas, but her arrival is still pending as she goes through the immigration process.
“She wanted to take a couple years and improve. We went and met with her and really recruited her hard last year to come back,” Miller said. “She said, ‘I improved this much with one good international season. What could I do if I do it one more year?’ So we were supportive, we were patient and we recruited the heck out of her again, and now that she’s coming back, we can’t be happier.”
Despite all of the additions, Bueckers still enters 2026 as the centerpiece. The guard not only has stood out as a basketball player in training camp, but also is noticeably more of a vocal leader.
“She’s talking more in huddles. She’s saying things on the fly when we’re out there on the court. And that’s what you want, especially from your point guard and from your star player,” Clark told reporters. “You want to be able to have that line of communication. So she does a great job. She’s pulling the best out of everyone.”
Bueckers listed shooting more threes as an area of improvement for 2026, and she opened the preseason by hitting four in the first half against the Indiana Fever on Thursday.
Ogunbowale and Fudd round out the expected starting guard group. The former is looking to return to All-Star form after an injury-riddled, career-worst season in 2025. The latter was picked atop a draft with less of a clear No. 1 option than in years prior, and Dallas hopes to see her shooting, off-ball movement and defense translate quickly.
“We can’t be more pleased to draft Azzi Fudd. A true winner, competitor, hard worker, one of the most unselfish superstars at the collegiate level,” Miller said on draft night. “… [Fudd] has all the characteristics that we’re trying to accumulate in that locker room.”
A smaller, three-guard lineup lacking a proven defensive stopper in the backcourt brings concerns that Fernandez has been upfront in acknowledging. His primary rebuttal has been pointing out how lethal the trio can be on offense.
“When you look at those three playing together, I know the big concern is, how are those three going to play defensively? But other teams have to guard those three if they’re on the floor together at the same time as well,” Fernandez said in April.
Another player to watch in the group is James, who can bring a spark off the bench as a scorer and passer. She also listed defense as the main area of growth for herself this coming season.
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Fernandez being able to bring out the best in his backcourt will be critical to the team’s success in 2026. In his first professional training camp, the coach has left a favorable impression on his players. He’s been praised for his attention to detail and standard-setting, and practices have been competitive.
“He does remind me a lot of [UConn head] coach Geno [Auriemma], in terms of discipline and structure, the culture that he wants to build, the ‘no BS’ mentality, where he doesn’t let anything slide,” Bueckers told reporters after the first day of training camp. “He’s very detail-oriented, but he also communicates well.”
“There’s certainly an accountability throughout the room,” Miller said. “Jose knows how he wants to play, [he’s] a seasoned head coach, there’s standards being set immediately, and his non-negotiables are loud and clear each and every day. And so I think when you watch this team play, there’s going to be an identity that becomes apparent on both sides of the ball.”
That identity still might take time to shine through fully. Along with Kuier, Shepard and Ogunbowale missed the preseason opener because of overseas obligations.
Siegrist said the Wings’ 22 turnovers against Indiana were a sign that their chemistry is a work in progress. With the regular season just a week away, it might be reasonable to expect more growing pains.
However, the Wings aren’t too concerned with how well they play in the first game of the season, or even the first month. They want to be at their peak when postseason play comes around.
“Growth is seeing how this team’s going to come out of training camp, how we’re going to play in May, and how we’re going to continue to improve throughout the season,” Fernandez said. “So when you’re heading into October, November, you’re playing the best basketball.”
Want more team-by-team previews for the 2026 WNBA season? Read them all here!