The Dallas Wings defeated the Las Vegas Aces 101-84 on Sunday at the Moody Center in Austin. It was the second preseason win for the Wings.
The WNBA officially kicks off its 30th season on Friday, but talk of just how far the Wins might go is already ramping up.
Grant Afseth, who covers the WNBA for the Dallas Hoops Journal, joined the Standard to talk about the Wings’ prospects heading into the new season. Listen to the interview in the player above or read the transcript below.
Texas Standard: Well, you were at the game in Austin on Sunday. I hear it was a pretty packed crowd, given it was not a typical home game for the Wings. Tell us about what you saw.
Grant Afseth: Yeah, they had a sellout crowd at the Moody Center, the first WNBA game played in Austin. It was a very energetic crowd, lots of enthusiasm.
The Aces actually used to be in San Antonio, so I think some fans got a chance to see their former team as well. So there’s a lot of excitement on both sides.
Sellout in the Moody Center. That is huge. This just goes to show you how big the WNBA has has really become.
Yeah, absolutely. There was a ton of noise, excitement for the starting line of intros for some of the stars: A’ja Wilson, of course, the four-time MVP, and then also Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd — that newer generation that’s bringing a lot of excitement for a lot fans across the country.
All right, well we’re focusing on the Wings here since they are the the current Texas team. They have the last two number one draft picks — in 2025, Buecker’s and this year with Fudd. How do those stars seem to be settling into this team?
Yeah, Paige Bueckers, she ended up having a Rookie-of-the-Year season last year and was All-WNBA second team. So she was one of the most exceptional players in the league last year. She looks like she’s picking up where she left off.
And then Azzi Fudd, she had a tough shooting night in her first preseason game against the Indiana Fever and she looked more comfortable and she talked about that after the game as well in the post-game press conference of having a greater comfort level in her second game against the Aces. And I think it’s going to take her a little bit of time to get acclimated.
The Wings have a new head coach, a lot of new players, and everyone is basically learning each other going into the season.
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Well, I’m glad you mentioned the coach. I was going to ask, Jose Fernandez — it’s his first year. What’s his coaching style been so far?
Yeah, he’s been somebody that’s been focused on having a very, I guess you could say, like high standard. They won by 15 points in Indiana. And the first thing he wanted to talk about was how they gave up 42 free throw attempts and turned the ball over over 20 times.
So he’s someone who’s very focused on process and, offensively, it’s a very different style than they played last year. Like Jose Fernandez is a first-time WNBA coach, but he coached 25 years at University of Southern Florida. So he’s not a first-time head coach in general.
There’s a contrast in that, I guess you could say just handling of the head coaching roles that you can already see.
Well, Texans might also know Odyssey Sims, a former Baylor star who got picked up later in the season by the Indiana Fever, a team plagued by injury. But she was signed by the Wings this season.
How has she made an impact on the team?
Yeah, it was very interesting. She was the 22nd player to sign — the final player — for training camp. Just a ton of players to compete against.
She’s made a difference. She’s started, which won’t be the case during the actual season itself with Arike Ogunbowale coming over from a championship season in China and rejoining the team.
But Odyssey has filled in quite well and looked like a complimentary piece next to Paige Bueckers and has had a great training camp to very likely earn a roster spot by the time the Wings cut their roster down to the final 12 players, but she definitely seems to always have that ability to step into a team and pretty much provide whatever they need.
Like you mentioned with the Fever last season, and I talked to her actually in Indiana before that game. And that’s something that she’s taken a lot of pride in, is just being able to fit in wherever she ends up getting that call.
Well, come next season, the Wings won’t be the only Texas WNBA team with Houston getting a franchise again. What do we know about that so far?
Yeah, so far, the Connecticut Sun are relocating to Houston. The Houston Rockets ownership group, they acquired the Sun in a sale and they’re going to be rebranding the team and I think they’re running into a snag in the process with the copyright trademark — all that stuff for the Houston Comets branding because a lot of those former IP and just branding for the teams that went defunct in the first round of the WNBA, they’re all running into problems with that.
So the team could feature a top draft pick if they win the lottery next year. Another former Baylor product, Brittney Griner could end up being a part of the roster as well as she stays with the team since she signed with Connecticut this offseason.
