Dallas Wings Must Address This Weakness Before WNBA Trade Deadline
The Dallas Wings put together a great first half of the season. They sit in fourth place with an 18-9 record—just 0.5 games behind the Las Vegas Aces for a top-three seed. Led by Paige Bueckers and Jessica Shepard, the Wings have the fourth-best offensive rating in the W. Their overall defensive rating is solid, but the Wings could still use some help on that end of the floor.
The Wings lack wing defenders and paint defense. Awak Kuier, who averages just 16.8 minutes per game, is the only player on the roster who averages at least one block per game. Alanna Smith is just having a disappointing season overall, and as great as Shepard has been offensively, she’s not a good defender. As a result, the Wings allow the fourth-most paint points per game and would benefit from having another rim protector.
They are also asking a lot of Azzi Fudd. Starting alongside Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale, Fudd has emerged as the Wings’ go-to perimeter defender. She has done well in her role, averaging 1.7 steals and 0.8 blocks per game and disrupting plays in ways that don’t show up on the stat sheet. Still, bringing in a lengthy, defensive-minded wing who can guard several positions off the bench would help the Wings.
Improving their defense will boost the Wings’ playoff chances
Given how the first half of the season has gone, the Wings are headed for their first playoff run in the Paige-Bueckers era. Glaring holes on defense are tough weaknesses to make up for in the playoffs. Teams have time to game-plan, adjust, and learn how to exploit those weaknesses. So, shoring up the defense would boost the Wings’ chances of finding playoff success right away.
They really have no reason to waste time either. Having a player like Bueckers comes with high expectations, and the Wings are now past the point where they have to be careful with their assets.
One defensive-minded player who has been involved in trade rumors all season is Betnijah Laney-Hamilton. She is stuck on the New York Liberty’s bench, racking up DNPs under new head coach Chris DeMarco. Laney-Hamilton missed the entire 2025 season with a knee injury and had some rough games this season, but she could still add defense, positional versatility, floor spacing, and championship experience to the Wings. New York has little incentive to trade Laney-Hamilton to another playoff team, so getting her would probably take some serious convincing.
The Wings still have until August 2 to explore trades for Laney-Hamilton and other defensive-minded players.
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Elaine Blum covers women’s basketball for On SI from Europe. She has been writing about women's hoops since 2023 and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism and a master’s degree in American Studies with a focus on women’s and gender studies. She started playing basketball when she was 10 years old and won several league and state championships at the youth and senior level.