Azzi Fudd was initially held out after developing right knee soreness on August 7. She then appeared to be progressing toward a return, only for her to miss five consecutive games. Now, after losing four of their last five games without Fudd, the Dallas Wings have confirmed what nobody wanted to hear. The rookie will miss the remainder of the 2026 season, including the playoffs.
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With the Wings having had the chance to go with another option as their No. 1 pick in the draft, WNBA analyst Robin Lundberg believes the Wings should’ve taken it.
“I think Olivia Miles and Paige Beckers could have played together because Paige could slide into the shooting guard role with Olivia Miles playing the point guard role,” Lundberg said, reacting to the Azzi Fudd news on his YouTube channel on Wednesday.
“Then you get to the potential of Awa Fam, of course, and with her size and skill and coordination, everything that she brings to the table. So, you look at that, and you take all that into consideration as to where the draft should have gone.”
With Olivia Miles putting together a remarkable rookie season and Awa Fam showing flashes, he is now revisiting the question of whether the Wings should have selected someone else instead of Fudd at No. 1, especially given her injury history.
“And then there’s the injury history with Fudd, which eventually starts to become concerning. She obviously missed a lot of time during her time at UConn,” Lundberg added.
The last game Azzi Fudd played was on August 5, when the Dallas Wings suffered a 96-92 loss against the Washington Mystics. Since then, she has not featured in any of the five games that the Dallas Wings have played. On Wednesday, however, the franchise came out to confirm the worst fears, announcing that she will now undergo an arthroscopic procedure on her right knee, ending her 2026 campaign with less than five weeks left in the regular season.
As Lundberg pointed out, Fudd did have a history of injuries, particularly involving her knees, while in college. In 2019, she tore her right ACL and MCL while playing for Team USA, requiring major reconstructive surgery. In 2022, she missed five weeks after a teammate accidentally fell onto her right knee during a game against Notre Dame. Then, in 2023, she tore the ACL and medial meniscus in her right knee just two games into the season, forcing her to undergo surgery and take a medical redshirt.
The Wings are currently still on the path to making the playoffs, sitting eighth in the standings. However, their slump in form following the All-Star Weekend has only gotten worse in the last five games where Fudd has been absent. Right now, the Wings’ chances don’t look great if they face the Lynx in the first round of the playoffs.
However, for Lundberg is not a question of whether or not they would miss Fudd or whether they would have a better chance of making the playoffs with her. The question now is: was their choice of Azzi Fudd as their No. 1 draft pick the right one in the long run?