Wings Basketball is back, well sort of
After a busy offseason of change, the Dallas Wings are taking on a new identity with newfound expectations.
Let’s daydream for a second. Can you hear it?
Quiet, take a moment, and listen. It’s there. Turn down the music. Turn off the TV. Crane your neck to one side, your good ear, and take it in. You’ll hear it. I promise. The ball bounce. The sound of fans filling College Park Center in Arlington, Texas, cheering. The public address announcer. The sounds of Dallas Wings basketball.
In a little more than a month and a half, the Wings will be back in business. And following an offseason of change, it will be a season with unheralded expectations from new head coach Latricia Trammell down.
“[Last season] We took that leap forward in the playoffs, getting a playoff win was huge to gain that experience as a rookie, was huge for me,” Veronica Burton said to me over a phone call in February. “It’s been nothing but great things here in, so I am excited.”
Burton, the first-round pick of the Wings, is entering the season with a different team than the one she averaged 15 minutes a game for during her rookie campaign in 2022.
Aside from the hire of Trammell, the Wings had an active offseason, trading away Allisha Gray, Kayla Thornton, Tyasha Harris, and Marina Mabrey. With their departure comes the additions of Natasha Howard, Crystal Dangerfield, and Diamond DeShields – indicating the Wings’ desire to move in a new direction with a new coach and a season with newfound expectations.
The most shocking trade, sending away veteran Gray, was the franchise attempting to recoup valuable assets following her trade request at the end of the 2022 season. Wings President Greg Bibb explained that the deal was two sides wanting to honor a promise. At the start of last season, Bibb and Gray had a conversation where he asked Gray to give the Wings one more season and that if she felt she needed to go elsewhere after that, he would see to it that it happened, according to Peter Warren of the Dallas Morning News.
“Over a period of time — several seasons really — Allisha and I have had multiple conversations about her desire to try something new in a new place,” Bibb said. “Nothing in regards to the Dallas Wings organization doing something wrong. Simply, her desire, after being in one place her entire WNBA career, to try something else.”
2022 came and went, and Gray still sought to play closer to her home in Georgia, so Bibb – in a move that netted Dallas the No. 3 pick in this year's draft – sent Gray to the Dream. He later described the move as a “win-win.”
In addition to the trades, Dallas held on to some continuity, bringing back Teaira McCowan on a three-year deal.
So, as things stand, the Wings have a high-potential offense that features a three-headed monster in Howard, McCowan, and Arike Ogunbowale. Satou Sabally assures the team’s depth. And on the surface, it appears that the Wings are fully embracing Ogunbowale ball.
The team will play downhill, putting pressure on the rim and forcing defenses to make tough decisions between stopping Ogunbowale, who can score at all levels, or closing out to spot-up shooters.
The only real question in the Wings’ offseason process boils down to shooting consistency, which isn’t exactly a new story. There is also plenty riding on the team’s defense, and the Wings aren’t necessarily filled with defensive aces. Outside of Burton, there aren’t many primary on-ball stoppers. Dallas appears to expect Burton to leap forward in 2023. And it is a move that she expressed she is ready for, she said.
Throughout March, Burton played in Athletes Unlimited – a player-first league that provides a domestic option for women’s hoops when the WNBA is in its offseason – where she focused on the development aspects of her game.
“To continue playing basketball, and to stay over here, and to continue to train in the offseason, is huge for me,” she said.
But the Wings’ improvement on the defensive end isn’t solely up to Burton. The team will be asking more of Ogunbowale on that end of the floor. And the organization believes it is a responsibility she can handle.
DeShields is also a capable defender, offering an effort and willingness to guard. Meanwhile, anchoring the defense is Howard, a former Defensive Player of the Year and two-time All-Defensive first-team player, who will allow Dallas’ more perimeter-oriented defenders to take chances, knowing she is there to offer help.
Then, there is the night of April 10, when the Wings have the third, fifth, and 11th picks in the first round of the WNBA Draft.
A recent ESPN mock draft has the Wings selecting Jordan Horston as the No. 3 pick. Horston is a 6-foot-2 guard who played for the Tennessee Lady Vols. The scouting profile Horston suggests that her main calling card is her motor, which could bode well for the Trammell era of Wings basketball.
But motor and energy aren’t all. In her senior season, Horston averaged 15.6 points and seven rebounds, showing that in a pinch, she may be able to offer the Wings an additional scoring threat if selected.
At pick No. 5, ESPN mocked the Wings to select Maddy Siegrist, a 6-foot-2 forward out of Villanova.
Siegrist is known as a “scoring machine” with a defensive identity possessing an uncanny ability to play alongside almost anyone.
She led the nation in scoring during her senior season, averaging a mind-bending 29 points per game and 9.5 rebounds. In the Sweet 16, she hung 31 points on Miami with ease to suggest she is more than ready for WNBA competition.
With the third and final selection of the WNBA Draft, the Wings are projected to select Lou Lopez Senechal, a 6-foot-1 forward for UConn.
Senechal averaged 16 points per game on 47 percent from the field and 42 percent from three. If selected by the Wings, she brings an outside touch that could mesh seamlessly in an offense that will rely on Ogunbowale getting downhill paint touches that force defenses to make decisions.
The jury is still out on whether the Wings’ offseason plan will yield results. But that is already a step in the right direction – the organization appears to have a plan. It may be one reliant on the team’s star taking a playmaking leap forward, but heading into Ogunbowale’s fifth season with the Wings, that pressure is a weight the franchise clearly believes she can bear.
For now, fall back into that daydream. To the sound of sneakers squeaking and a ball bouncing and the PA announcer booming. The Wings are back, well sort of. Remember, it’s almost time.