It's been a strange WNBA season for the Dallas Wings. After finishing tied for the worst record in the league in 2025, the team revamped things to make an attempt at a playoff run in 2026. It's worked, as the team enters Friday 19-12, tied for the fifth-best record in the league. But despite that, there are some issues brewing.
The big one? Dallas has really struggled against good teams, winning just six games so far against fellow playoff teams. That issue has been magnified in recent weeks, as the Wings have lost four consecutive such games, with their last win against one coming July 7 against the Liberty. It's starting to look like the Wings might not really be contenders.
Why the Dallas Wings are pretenders, not contenders, in 2026
First, let me be clear about something: 2026 has been a success for the Dallas Wings. This is a team that's going to finish with more than double their wins from last season and that had two players starting in the All-Star Game. Considering where they've been at in the past, the Wings are in a great spot moving forward.
That's not to say there aren't issues, though. And strangely enough, the player everyone expected to be an issue, Arike Ogunbowale, has been playing some of her best basketball since the All-Star break. It just hasn't been enough to get the team over the hump against some of the better teams in the league.
One major problem? The roster just isn't meshing together how it should. There's not really a true small forward who you can play for long stretches, which means Dallas is throwing out three-guard lineups most of the time. That might be okay if you had a strong defensive frontcourt, but Jessica Shepard is a negative on that end of the floor — she literally has two blocks this season. Even that might be excusable, but the player meant to be the defensive anchor beside her, Alanna Smith, has struggled all year (though she did score a season-high 21 points last time out while blocking three shots, so maybe she's turning the corner there).
Lineup inconsistency has also been a problem, which has prevented this Wings roster from really gelling like it needs to in order to win close games against good teams. Nine different players have started a game this season, which is especially weird when you consider that four players have started 24 or more games. It's that fifth starter role that's rotated between seemingly everyone this season.
Yes, the team has done a good job beating up on bad teams, but at some point, you have to realize that you need to also beat good teams. And right now, this Wings team just doesn't feel capable of doing that consistently enough to win a playoff series, much less contend for a title.
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