What will the Dallas Wings look like in 2024?

2023 was a historic season for the Dallas Wings. The team made the postseason for the first time since moving to Dallas and advanced to the semifinals before falling to the eventual-champion Las Vegas Aces. Now, the Wings are looking to build on their success and take the next step toward joining the WNBA’s elite.

Training camp is drawing to a close; final cuts will soon be made and rosters are set to be finalized in a matter of days. The journey toward WNBA glory starts with the players who survive the roster crunch gauntlet and break camp with their clubs. Rosters must be finalized by May 13th, and the Wings have some decisions to make before they begin their season Wednesday night. So, let’s take a look at what their opening-night roster could look like and how the team will fare this season. The Wings’ salary-cap situation will prevent them from rostering the full 12 maximum players— with that in mind, here is my best guess at the 11 who will make the team:

Guards:

Arike Ogunbowale, SG

Jacy Sheldon, CG

Veronica Burton, PG

Lou Lopez Senechal, SG

Jaelyn Brown, SG

Arike is the Wings’ resident superstar, and her role as team alpha is unquestioned. But behind her sits a group full of young players and fringe roster candidates. Last week, Dallas dumped veteran guard Crystal Dangerfield to the Atlanta Dream, indicating a desire to fully embrace a youth movement at the point guard position. The move opens up a massive role for the number-five overall pick in the 2024 draft, Jacy Sheldon. Though not a pure point guard, the organization is clearly putting a ton of trust in Sheldon to make an impact.

The lack of a true floor general on this team is a bit concerning. Burton will likely begin the year as the starter at point guard, but Sheldon should challenge for that role sooner rather than later. Either way, neither player inspires a ton of confidence when it comes to running a WNBA offense. Burton is an incredible defender but offensively, she is a non-entity right now. Sure, she’s unselfish and can make basic reads. But her scoring, shooting, and overall playmaking ability leave a lot to be desired. Sheldon is a willing passer and can operate a pick and roll, but she has much greater value as a slasher and spot-up shooter. With these options at the one, playmaking duties will likely fall on Arike more than we should be comfortable with. Ogunbowale is capable of creating for others, but it’s not her bread and butter by any stretch.

Backing up Arike at the two spot are de-facto rookie Lou Lopez Senechal and training camp phenom Jaelyn Brown. Lopez Senechal was one of my favorite players in the 2023 draft class, a pure shooter with size who can bomb off movement and screens. She missed the entire 2023 season with a knee injury but had a good campaign overseas, and it looks like the coaching staff is excited about her. I think she’s a lock to make the roster, as Dallas (last in the league in 3P% in 2023) desperately needs shooting. Jaelyn Brown is a great story, a player looking to break into the WNBA after playing the last four years overseas. She had a great training camp and an incredible preseason debut, and I think Dallas will give her a chance. Hopefully, she can stick with the team and provide scoring and toughness off the bench.

EDIT: Veronica Burton was unexpectedly waived on Sunday. Turkish guard Sevgi Uzun made the final roster in her place. Uzun reportedly had a great camp and looked solid in the preseason game. From what I’ve seen, Uzun is a good facilitator and a solid three-point shooter. This will be her WNBA debut. With Uzun in tow, the Wings will carry five rookies on the opening-night roster.

Forwards:

Satou Sabally, PF*

Natasha Howard, PF

Maddy Siegrist, SF

Sabally is nursing a shoulder injury, and some reports don’t expect her back on the court until after the Olympic break in August. There’s no way around it, this is a devastating blow to the Wings’ ambitions in 2024. While Arike has compiled more accolades as a superstar in her own right, Sabally is Dallas’ best player. She’s their most versatile weapon, a playmaking forward who can play small-ball five, score from all three levels, and defend at a high level. There is nothing close to a replacement on this roster, and Dallas will struggle to tread water without her.

One player who will look to pick up that slack is Natasha “Flash” Howard. Howard had a great year in her first season with Dallas, averaging 16.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks per game in 2023. Howard is a two-way force, a versatile defender who can switch every position, oscillating between staying in front of perimeter players and protecting the rim. She complements her outstanding defense with good scoring ability and some semblance of a threat to hit open threes. Howard’s shot selection and overall decision-making on offense can get a bit wonky; between her and Arike, it will be key for Dallas to find the proper balance between filling the Sabally void and forcing things.

Maddy Siegrist is probably the biggest swing piece on this roster. As the number-three pick in the 2023 draft, Siegrist had a disappointing and uneventful rookie season. She averaged just 3.7 points and played just 8.2 minutes per game, struggling to earn a consistent role in Coach Latricia Trammel’s rotation. The scoring talent in Siegrist is unquestionable. But at times last season, the speed and physicality of the WNBA game seemed to overwhelm her. The hope is that there’s a jump to be made for Siegrist in her sophomore year, because Dallas is short on forwards and could really use some scoring/shooting from that position group.

Bigs:

Teaira McCowan, C

Kalani Brown, C

Stephanie Soares, C

This is an interesting group for Dallas. McCowan is a bit of a confounding player. At times, she looks completely dominant. Her ability to score in the paint and rebound the basketball is nearly unmatched in the W. She possesses incredible touch around the rim and physically dominates much of her competition. But she’s also incredibly slow with cement feet. Smart teams exploit her in the pick-and-roll, and she’s prone to getting played off the floor by guards who can score on her in drop coverage. She’s not quick enough to switch or hedge on screens, and she isn’t a great shot-blocker for a drop-only big. So, defensively she doesn’t quite work as an anchor. McCowan also goes through spurts of being ineffective on offense when teams load up the paint and get physical with her. She has no jumper to speak of. But, even with her faults, McCowan is a very good starting center in today’s league.

Her backup is Kalani Brown, a player who is essentially a dollar-store version of McCowan in almost every way. She has the same strengths (size, inside scoring, rebounding) and weaknesses (slow feet, no jumper, drop-only defense). Brown is also a nice success story and should be commended for playing her way into a roster spot + rotational role in 2023 and parlaying that into a new contract with the Wings. She’s a perfectly adequate backup big.

The big wild card in this group is Stephanie Soares, the fourth overall pick in the 2023 draft. Like Lopez Senechal, Soares missed the entire 2023 season with an ACL injury (her second one). Before that, she played just 13 career games for a Division 1 program (at Iowa State) before missing the rest of the 2022-2023 season after tearing the ACL. Soares is a complete mystery box because we just don’t have a ton of tape on her. From what I’ve seen, she has a ton of talent and versatility. She’s quicker than McCowan and Brown and has a much higher ceiling as a shooter and rim protector. Soares is going to get a chance because Dallas gave up a 2025 first-rounder (via Atlanta) to acquire her, forfeiting one potential bite at the apple in the Paige Bueckers sweepstakes (Don’t worry, Dallas still has its own 2025 first and swap rights with the Chicago Sky). Who knows how much time Soares gets, but I’m excited to see how she looks on a WNBA court.

The bottom line

The Wings have a lot of talent on this roster. But the Sabally injury is going to hurt them more than a lot of people want to admit. Her emergence last season as the WNBA’s Most Improved Player was the main reason for Dallas’ great record, and losing her for the majority of the season will be very difficult to overcome. It will take a village to make up for her absence.

Apart from the Satou of it all, the hole at the point guard position (a problem since Skylar Diggins-Smith left in 2019) is the biggest worry for this team. I believe in Jacy Sheldon, but she’s not equipped for that role. And there’s no one else on the team who is, either. Unless we see an unexpected jump in playmaking from Arike, Dallas could struggle to initiate offense in the halfcourt, especially without Sabally.

But the biggest issue from 2023, three-point shooting, should be much improved. The additions of Sheldon, Lopez Senechal, and increased-role Siegrist should help a ton in that area. Jaelyn Brown is a question mark, but maybe she contributes there, too.

I expect the defense to remain steady. Losing Sabally hurts, but Howard is an all-defense caliber player, Burton is a lockdown defender, and Sheldon should be able to hold her own. Dallas has good size at the center spot and an aggressive scheme. The defensive-minded Trammel preaches this stuff, and I think she’ll be able to lead the team to an average defense.

One big question: who is the fifth starter with Satou out? Ogunbowale, Howard, and McCowan are locks. Burton seems to be the team’s choice at point guard for now. But who will seize the last spot? You likely need a wing, so Siegirst and Brown are the leading candidates by default. But if Lopez Senechal lights the world on fire, does she force herself into that role? It’s a storyline I’ll be watching closely early in the season.

Overall, this is definitely a playoff team. But I don’t think they’ll perform as well as they did in 2023. They need some breaks to match last year’s record: rookies balling out, veterans having career years, Sabally coming back sooner rather than later. It’s a lot to ask. In fact, there’s a world where a starter gets hurt and this team is in the lottery. But I think that’s in the lower percentile in the range of outcomes. This should be a fun season, even if it comes with some bumps and bruises along the way.

Record Prediction: 19-21, sixth in WNBA.