Season Preview: The Dallas Wings
Can the Wings improve on last year's .500 finish?
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Last season, the Dallas Wings finished 18-18, marking the franchise’s first time finishing at or above .500 since moving to Texas. But despite coming off their best year in Arlington, the Wings underwent an offseason of change, highlighted by the team moving on from head coach Vickie Johnson after two seasons. With Johnson gone, the team hired Latricia Trammell, who had been an assistant coach for the Sparks since 2019.
Head coach wasn’t the only change, though. The Wings were involved in numerous trades this offseason that saw Allisha Gray, Tyasha Harris, Marina Mabrey and Kayla Thornton all sent to other teams. In their place, the team acquired Crystal Dangerfield, Diamond DeShields, Natasha Howard and draft picks.
With all these changes, what can we expect from the 2023 Dallas Wings?
Recapping the 2022 Season
Despite a second-consecutive first-round exit, it’s hard to look at last year’s results and not consider 2022 a success. Best record since arriving in Dallas: check. First playoff game victory since moving to Dallas: check. If it hadn’t been for Arike Ogunbowale missing all but six minutes of the playoffs, maybe the Wings would have found a way to advance in the postseason, something the franchise last did in 2009 when they played in Detroit.
Last season’s Wings team played so well because of its offense, ranking fourth in the WNBA at 82.9 points per game. The franchise was also fourth in offensive rating, averaging 104.6 points per 100 possessions.
One reason for the team’s success: it found a center. The Wings were second in the league in offensive rebounding rate at 32.8%, fueled by Teaira McCowan’s league-leading 3.0 offensive boards per game.
McCowan came on strong at the end of the season. She finished the year by scoring 14 or more points in 10 of the team’s final 11 regular season games, with six double-doubles over that span. The former Indiana Fever lottery pick showed what she can do with consistent playing time, and she now enters the 2023 season as the team’s starting center and a key piece going forward.
Ogunbowale led the Wings in scoring last season, putting up 19.7 points per game. While Ogunbowale’s not the most efficient player in the league, her 52.3% true shooting percentage last season was the second-highest of her career. Her assist rate rose from 19.3% in 2021 to 22.0% last year, and she also posted a career-low turnover rate, suggesting that Ogunbowale put more effort into getting her teammates involved.
Reasons for Optimism in 2023
The Wings lost some key players this offseason—replacing Gray, Mabrey and Thornton won’t be easy. Gray in particular is a huge loss, as she averaged a career-high 13.3 points per game last season while shooting 40.8% from three.
But the Wings were able to add a lot of talent this offseason, potentially minimizing the impact of those losses.
DeShields joins the team after spending last season with the Mercury. While she doesn’t possess Gray’s outside shooting prowess, DeShields brings a lot of energy to the floor. While she posted a career-low true shooting percentage last season, that’s partially because she was asked to create her own shot more last year than she had been in Chicago. Just 48.8% of her field goals were assisted last year, down from 63.6% the year before. If the Wings use her more in an off-ball role—and judging by the makeup of this team, that should be the case—then DeShields should be able to score more efficiently this year.
A potentially bigger addition is Natasha Howard, who spent the last two seasons in New York. Howard, an All-Star last season, brings some outside shooting ability at the four while also giving the Wings a boost defensively. Howard has been on the league’s All-Defensive team twice, and last season she averaged 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks per game for the Liberty. Per PBP Stats, the Liberty played better on both ends last year with Howard on the floor—the team’s overall net rating with Howard on the court was -0.83, while the net rating in the 409 minutes with her on the bench was -9.18.
The team also added Crystal Dangerfield, who spent last year with the Liberty. I’ll talk more about the point guard position and my questions about it in the next section, but Dangerfield could be a huge addition. Last year in New York, Dangerfield’s presence allowed Sabrina Ionescu to play off the ball more, leading to Ionescu improving her field goal percentage from 37.9% in 2021 to 41.1%. That wasn’t all because of Dangerfield, and a Ionescu/Arike comparison isn’t perfect since they’re different players, but it feels worth noting, at least.
Will this be the year that Satou Sabally takes a leap? Entering her fourth WNBA season, Sabally has struggled with her shot throughout her pro career, shooting 39.3% from the floor and 25% from three so far. But the talent is there. Between the Turkish league and Euroleague, Sabally played 18 games for Fenerbahçe this past season per EuroBasket, shooting 45.3% from deep. Getting a healthy season from Sabally would also be big, as she’s never played more than 17 games in a season.
The Wings also added Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist in the first round of this year’s draft. Siegrist led Division I in scoring with 29.2 points per game last season, shooting 51% from the floor. She’ll have to adjust to a scaled-down offensive role, but she has the potential to be a key contributor.
Some Concerns
While there’s plenty to be excited about, there are some question marks surrounding the 2023 Wings. The biggest one comes at point guard.
Like I mentioned above, Dangerfield joins the Wings this season after spending last year with the Liberty. Like Howard, the on/off stats show that New York was better with Dangerfield on the floor than off the floor last season. Still, the 5-foot-5 guard had the lowest true shooting percentage of her career last year, and her overall numbers since her 2020 Rookie of the Year campaign have really dropped off.
The other player who could start at point guard is Veronica Burton. The second-year product out of Northwestern started six games for the Wings last season and started at point guard in their first preseason game this year. She brings a lot to the floor defensively, but there are questions about how much she can add on the offensive end after she shot just 32.9% as a rookie. But will that matter? With Arike, McCowan, Howard, Deshields as well as Sabally off the bench, maybe all the Wings need at point guard is someone who can distribute the ball and guard the opposing team’s lead ball-handler. If that’s the case, then Burton can fill that role.
There are also some questions about the backup bigs. McCowan and Howard comprise one of the best one-two punches at center and power forward in the league, but the backup bigs all bring concerns. Awak Kuier is still relatively raw and averaged 2.8 points and 2.5 rebounds per game last season. Kalani Brown is a talented veteran but has only appeared in 39 WNBA games since she was drafted in 2019 and didn’t play at all last season. Former No. 1 pick Charli Collier fell out of the rotation last season, averaging just 4.6 minutes per game. Someone’s got to step up to provide big minutes when McCowan and Howard are off the floor, but it’s unclear who’ll be that person. The team could slide Sabally to the four and go small with Howard at the five, something that would really help with spacing, and Sabally’s got plenty of experience at power forward. Still, even doing that, the team would still need at least one other big to step up and play a bigger role.
2023 Outlook
The Wings are a talented team despite losing some key pieces from last season. They have a formidable starting lineup plus a lot of young players vying for spots in the rotation.
I wouldn’t say this year’s version of the Wings is “better” than last year’s version, but with a lot of talent coalescing in New York and Las Vegas and teams like Chicago and Seattle getting worse because of that, Dallas might end up with a better record than last season. Look for Dallas to finish somewhere around or slightly above .500 this season, which should be good enough to finish around sixth in the overall standings.
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