It was a storybook season for the Dallas Wings.
That shouldn’t be overlooked, even if the Wings were swept by the Las Vegas Aces in the semifinals of the WNBA playoffs.
Look at the accolades. A surprising fourth-place finish in the regular season. The WNBA’s Most Improved Player. Several individual noteworthy performances. Three players recognized for the league’s weekly honor. Second-place finishes in voting for Coach of the Year (Latricia Trammell) and Executive of the Year (president and CEO Greg Bibb). Hosting a semifinal playoff game for the first time since the franchise relocated to Dallas seven years ago. All of that happened with, as Trammell noted throughout the season, despite fielding a new coaching staff and only three returning players.
So no wonder Satou Sabally, the league’s Most Improved Player, believes the Wings are in a completely different place than before.
“This season we grew out of this young team into a team that is a championship contender. That is something that is really beautiful,” she says. “We had more experience in crunch-time situations, how we faced adversity, accepted criticism—you felt that growth. It was nice to see our growth on and off the court.”
During exit interviews on Thursday, Bibb gave this season a B+ grade. “It was a year of growth, progression, and success,” he says, “but I’m not going to give an A out until we reach the promised land.”
The team looks to be well on their way toward that promised land with Trammell at the helm.
In her first season, Trammell transformed the young, talented team by stressing a defensive mindset. The culture she implemented won over the players on a franchise that introduced its fourth coach in six years.
Trammell worked miracles with a team that hardly resembled the one that showed up for the start of training camp. Jasmine Dickey and Ashley Jones were released. Injuries took a toll. Both Diamond DeShields, a prized free-agent signing, and Lou Lopez Senechal, the fifth pick in the 2023 draft, missed the season with knee injuries.
In addition, Teaira McCowan missed a big chunk of time early in the season while playing for Turkey in EuroBasket. At times, Trammell had as few as nine players to work with. Kalani Brown and Odyssey Sims were signed to hardship contracts, and both fit seamlessly into Trammell’s system.
En route to a 22-18 record, players thrived under the leadership of Trammell and her staff. The Big 3 of Sabally, Arike Ogunbowale, and Natasha Howard earned league-wide Player of the Week honors and became the second trio of teammates in WNBA history to score at least 25 points in a game.
Sabally and Ogunbowale were named All-Stars for the second time. Howard, a three-time WNBA champion and a much-needed locker-room addition, recorded her first career triple-double. McCowan, Awak Kuier, and other players took steps forward, some of them significant.
“There’s been growth whether you see it or not in the stat sheet,” Trammell says. “Mentally, physically, or whatever it looks like but there was major growth.”
Never was that growth more evident than in a first-round playoff sweep of the Atlanta Dream, the franchise’s first series win since moving to Dallas in 2016.
“As players, we are getting older every single year, and now we’re getting more experience,” Ogunbowale says. “Last year was the first round and this year the semifinals, so hopefully the next step is a ladder and we get to the finals.”
After being knocked out by the defending champion Aces, the Wings are turning their attention to what’s next: continuing their quest for a championship.
Eight of 12 players are under contract, including Sabally, who will be a restricted free agent. After her breakout season she will have no shortage of suitors if she can’t come to a deal with the Wings. But should that happen, Dallas will almost certainly match any offer for the league’s MIP, which will ensure a healthy pay raise. Unsurprisingly, Bibb called re-signing the 25-year-old “priority No. 1” heading into the offseason.
During exit interviews, Sabally, who has confirmed she will play overseas again during the offseason, sounds like a woman prepared to be back in Dallas next year, with her next area of growth already in mind.
“My biggest takeaway is I belong in the league, but how the season ended, I felt like I wasn’t ready for that type of competition,” Sabally says. “I was disappointed with myself when it ended. I felt super-sad about the games because I felt like I had such a great year but simply didn’t perform the way I wanted in the semis.
“That is something that drives me. I will be even better next year. It’s just part of the development for the future.”
DeShields, Brown, and Sims are unrestricted free agents. The Wings also hold the rights to Kitija Laksa, whose contract was suspended, and Stephanie Soares, the fourth pick in the 2023 draft, who missed the season with an ACL injury.
One of the Wings’ strengths this season was their frontcourt, which was bolstered by the emergence of Kuier, who showed out toward the end of the regular season and in the playoffs. It was pivotal progress for the 22-year-old, who has immense potential but struggled to find a role in her first two WNBA seasons after being selected second in the 2021 WNBA Draft.
“Every year you get flashes of it and the flashes are becoming more and more consistent,” Bibb says. “Scratching the tip of the iceberg. That’s the headline for Awak. You can see it. It’s coming. And when it all comes together, look out.”
The Wings are far less settled at point guard, however. Veronica Burton began the season as the starter before being replaced by Dangerfield, who had been sidelined by injury. Sims got two starts in the postseason. Bibb also cited three-point shooting as an area that is top of mind heading into the offseason.
Perhaps those solutions come via the WNBA Draft, where, once again, the Wings possess a high draft pick, this time the fifth selection by way of the Chicago Sky as part of the Marina Mabrey trade last offseason. Regardless, it won’t take much. With a tweak here and there, they should be able to move the needle in their championship quest. Howard just hopes this group stays together. And if it does?
“Anything can happen for us,” she says. “Everybody keeps saying we’re a young team. I feel like we all grew up every game. I see us doing a lot of big things next year.”
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