DALLAS — Azzi Fudd will miss the rest of the 2026 season. Before the Dallas Wings host the Indiana Fever on Thursday night, coach José Fernández laid out what changes without her on both ends of the floor.
Dallas announced Wednesday that Fudd will undergo an arthroscopic procedure on her right knee early next week in Connecticut, with rehabilitation to begin immediately.
Fudd played 30 games this season and started 24. She averaged 13.1 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 1.8 assists in 31.7 minutes while shooting 45.6% from the field, 39.7% from 3-point range, and 82.6% at the free-throw line.
Her 62 made 3-pointers lead Dallas and set a single-season franchise rookie record. Fudd also gave the Wings another scorer who could work in the mid-range when defenders ran her off the line.
José Fernández Details What Dallas Wings Lose Defensively Without Azzi Fudd
Fernández went first to defense when he discussed Fudd’s absence.
“Azzi brought so much on the defensive end because she had the assignment to guard the other team’s best perimeter player,” Fernández said. “So that moves some things around for us in regards to how we’re guarding individually, where we’re bringing help from, how we’re guarding slot and side pick-and-rolls has to change up a little bit. So in Azzi’s absence, you saw three different starters in her spot, right? Aziaha James, Odyssey Sims, and Alysha Clark. And you’ll see a different one tonight. So hopefully we can solidify that to open up the first quarter of games for tonight.”
That fourth starter is Awak Kuier, who will start at the 3 against Indiana. Dallas will open with Paige Bueckers, Arike Ogunbowale, Kuier, Alanna Smith, and Jessica Shepard, a combination the Wings have not used often together.
Kuier gives Dallas more size on the wing at 6-foot-6. She has moved in and out of the starting lineup this season, but Thursday puts her between two guards and a Smith-Shepard frontcourt.
Aziaha James, Odyssey Sims, and Alysha Clark had previously drawn starts in Fudd’s place.
Monday at Golden State, the Wings started Bueckers, Ogunbowale, Clark, Shepard, and Smith together for the first time this season. It was Dallas’ ninth different starting lineup in 36 games.
Sims started the previous game at Indiana and scored 11 points while making 3-of-6 from 3-point range. James has started twice this season but is out Thursday with a lower left leg injury.
Clark added another piece of the Fudd discussion at Thursday’s shootaround. Her shooting forced defenders to stay attached away from the ball and helped create room for everyone else.
“She’s a generational type of shooter, and so just the gravity that she attracts obviously helped with spacing, and her ability to get downhill and move off the ball,” Clark said. “I mean, we still have, you know, some really good shooters, but they have different assets.”
Maddy Siegrist said Dallas cannot put all of Fudd’s responsibilities on one player.
“No one’s going to be able to do what she does out there,” Siegrist said. “As a collective, it’s going to take a little bit more from everybody.”
The numbers have moved with Fudd on and off the floor. Dallas went 19-11 in the 30 games she played and is 1-5 without her.
The Wings posted a 112.4 offensive rating and 105.5 defensive rating during Fudd’s 950 minutes, a plus-6.9 net rating. With Fudd off the floor, Dallas has a 102.5 offensive rating and 108.7 defensive rating, a minus-6.2 net rating.
José Fernández Wants Dallas Wings To Find Easier Offense
Fernández also addressed what Dallas needs offensively. With its leading 3-point shooter unavailable, the Wings have seen defenses load up around the paint and send more attention toward Bueckers in the half-court.
Fernández wants Dallas to get to offense before those coverages can get set.
“Transition,” Fernández explained. “We’ve got to get easy baskets, whether it be straight-line drives from end to end, pitch-ahead threes, pitch-ahead drives, rim runs. I think the more that we can score early in those first seven seconds, eight seconds of the shot clock will help. Because now when you’re going five-on-five and people are loading the blocks and elbows and helping at the nail and throwing people at Paige, that’s where it gets difficult, unless you’ve got better ball movement and player movement and the ball going to our second side of stuff in the half-court.”
Dallas averages 88.4 points, sixth in the WNBA, and makes 8.1 3-pointers per game.
Bueckers leads the Wings at 20.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 5.8 assists across 34 games. Shepard averages 13.9 points and 11.2 rebounds. Ogunbowale is averaging 14.9 points and has played all 36 games.
The Wings enter Thursday at 20-16 and open a four-game homestand against an Indiana team that is 24-12 and has won five straight. Tip-off is 7 p.m. CT at American Airlines Center. The game streams nationally on Prime and airs locally on WFAA and KFAA.
