ARLINGTON, TX — Azzi Fudd’s on-court entry into the WNBA was quieter than many may have anticipated.
The 2026 No. 1 overall pick was the second of back-to-back guards selected by the Dallas Wings at the top of the order. Fudd was widely expected to be an instant complement to 2025 first pick Paige Bueckers and veteran Arike Ogunbowale in the team’s backcourt.
“We needed to address 3-point shooting,” head coach Jose Fernandez told reporters on draft night. “So I think now having Paige and Arike and Azzi on the floor together, and what we addressed in free agency with our front line … I think now it’s a little bit more relaxed with the post players that we got that’s going to free her up for a lot of things.”
The projections for her role haven’t dissipated, but they haven’t been fulfilled with the immediacy that usually comes with a No. 1 pick. In her WNBA debut, Fudd came off the bench, playing 18 minutes, scoring 3 points and taking just two shots. Four games into the Wings’ season, she’s made all of her three appearances as a reserve and missed the home opener with a knee injury.
A No. 1 pick hasn’t come off the bench in her debut since 2017, when Kelsey Plum also didn’t crack the starting lineup until her fourth game with the San Antonio Stars.
Fernandez never made promises that Fudd would be in the opening lineups, but the trio of her, Bueckers and Ogunbowale had come up repeatedly in the time between the draft and the opener. General manager Curt Miller even imagined them as starters as he walked reporters through the team’s projected depth.
“When you think of a projected potential lineup of Paige, Arike, Azzi and Jess [Shepard] and, let’s say, Alanna [Smith], you’re talking a second unit now of Odyssey [Sims], Aziaha [James], Maddy Siegrist, Awak [Kuier] and Li [Yueru],” Miller said on April 23. “That’s a pretty good 10.”
Instead, it’s been Odyssey Sims who landed the final starting spot alongside Bueckers and Ogunbowale in the backcourt so far. The 12-year veteran — who played in Dallas in 2016, 2023 and 2024 — is accomplished as a pro and played a crucial role for the Indiana Fever during their semifinals run last season.
Sims was the final player added to the roster, signing a training camp deal days after the draft. She has quickly taken on an important role with the team as the starting point guard, with team leadership praising both her veteran presence and ability to take pressure off the heavily-guarded Bueckers.
In the opening win over Indiana, Sims scored 20 points, including a clutch shot late to put the team up five with 36.4 seconds left.
“I thought she did well, scored 20 points, did a very good job defensively,” Fernandez said in the days afterward. “It’s just, for me, I want to save Paige’s legs down the stretch in the fourth quarter. The more I can play her off the ball, we know she’s going to get trapped at the point guard spot and in some pick-and-roll situations. … For right now, that’s our lineup, and that’s what I’m gonna go with.”
Fudd, meanwhile, scored her only bucket on an open 3-pointer in transition. Of her 18 minutes, fewer than six came alongside both Bueckers and Ogunbowale, and Dallas scored 20 points in that second-quarter stretch.
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The rookie guard missed the next game, downgraded from probable to out for the home opener against the Atlanta Dream with a knee injury. Fernandez said pregame they made the move out of “an abundance of caution.”
When Fudd did make her home debut, she hit 20 minutes off the bench and scored 8 points while also contributing a block and a steal. She matched up with 2026 No. 2 overall pick Olivia Miles and played key minutes in a tight fourth quarter before being pulled for Sims in the final two minutes of the loss to the Minnesota Lynx.
“You want [Fudd] more comfortable,” Fernandez said postgame. “We had to get Odyssey back in there because Paige was getting double-teamed, and she was getting worn down. We needed a point guard in there to get us into some things.”
Against the Washington Mystics, Fudd once again exited early, but this time under different circumstances. After subbing in with 6:37 left in the third quarter, she played almost 14 consecutive minutes alongside Bueckers, Ogunbowale and Jessica Shepard as Dallas’ lead grew from 9 to as much as 25. Fudd finished with 12 points and three assists in her 24 minutes played.
While she’s been known as a 3-point sharpshooter, much of her success has come inside the arc. Her outside threat has perhaps been a part of opening that up. Multiple times, Fudd received the ball on the perimeter after coming off a screen and responded to a defender’s closeout with a mid-range pull-up off the dribble. On another occasion, she received a pass from Bueckers and drove to the rim through contact.
She’s only 1-for-4 from beyond the arc this season, but is happy with the looks she’s been able to generate.
“I’m just reading what the defense and what the game gives me,” Fudd said after the win over the Mystics. “I know I’m a good 3-point shooter, and people like to limit me to that, but I’m more than just that.”
As the No. 1 pick continues to be a key piece of the team’s rotation, there’s no telling for certain when or if she’ll enter the starting lineup. Fernandez told reporters on May 11 that the guard is capable of starting and that “she’ll be ready” when the time comes.
Don’t expect to see less of her, however, as the Wings begin a three-game road trip.
“I think everybody was excited to see Azzi, and how well she played, and how she shot it, and how she defended it, and how she created off the bounce,” Fernandez said after the win over Washington. “I’m glad that now we can continue to increase her minutes.”