The Dallas Wings have landed the No. 1 pick again after winning the 2026 WNBA Draft Lottery on Sunday night. It’s their second straight year atop the board after selecting UConn star Paige Bueckers in 2025. And with another top pick in their hands, many are already speculating that the franchise will pick Azzi Fudd. But for general manager Curt Miller, this next choice won’t be about hype or headlines; it comes down to something far bigger.

Speaking in a recent interview, Miller was asked whether the past season’s trends have shifted the type of players he’s prioritizing.

“Yeah. I think the game continues to modernize… We’re playing more five-out. It’s a lot of threes and a lot at the rim. We have the elite midrange jump shooter in the game, so we’re going to continue to take midrange jump shots with, allowing Paige to get to her sweet spot because she’s so efficient at that. But all those trends in the modernizing of basketball, you need bigs to be able to facilitate, to be able to be on the perimeter screening and rolling and into DHOs,” he said.

He then added, “You need shooters, you know, through our injuries, one of the things that really impacted our three-point shooting was injuries. We’ve got to continue to increase our three-point shooting. We just need versatility.”

This is where the Fudd chatter gets interesting. Azzi Fudd has recently climbed to the top of ESPN’s predicted No.1 draft pick, beating Lauren Betts and Awa Fam. Making basketball legend Rebecca Lobo push the idea of a Fudd-Bueckers reunion in Dallas.

“Any UConn fan is thrilled with the notion that Azzi Fudd could potentially rejoin Paige Bueckers down in Dallas,” Lobo said, adding that Fudd’s elite scoring and lightning-quick release would make her a “phenomenal fit.”

While Paige Bueckers is already one of the best players in the league on an individual level, when it comes to the team, they as a whole finished last in the 2025 WNBA season, tying with the Chicago Sky, after recording 34 losses. So, this top pick couldn’t have come at a better time ot the franchise as they have the chance to team up Bueckers with someone she already shares chemistry with.

But the 2026 Draft isn’t scheduled until April 13th, so there is a lot of time for the Wings to evaluate the draft class and explore their options, or else one wrong move can cost them another season. However, right now, they face bigger challenges with two WNBA expansion teams and free agency.

How expansion and free agency could affect the Dallas Wings?

With the league adding two new franchises, the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo, the Wings aren’t just preparing for the draft. They’re preparing for a reshaped WNBA. Both expansion teams will participate in the expansion draft before free agency opens, meaning the Wings will have to protect their key players while potentially losing at least one valuable player to an expansion team.

And for a team already dealing with shooting gaps and depth issues, that introduces another layer of uncertainty. Curt Miller acknowledged exactly that, saying the final decision at No. 1 won’t happen in a vacuum.

“Once we know how we come out of the expansion draft and players that we unfortunately will lose to Portland and Toronto, and then free agency. It will really play a part in entering what the biggest needs are and the best players as this season goes along and collegiately and internationally, and we’ll make the good decision at that point,” he noted.

That’s where things get complicated for Dallas. Their biggest weaknesses last season were perimeter shooting and frontcourt versatility, areas they hoped to rebuild around Paige Bueckers. But depending on who is taken in the expansion draft, those needs could shift overnight. If they lose a shooter, the Fudd pick becomes even more valuable. If they lose frontcourt depth, someone like Lauren Betts jumps higher into the conversation.

But that’s not it, with the free agency also right around the corner, the Wings still have to decide whether they will sign their star veteran, Arike Ogunbowale, again or not. So, even before they could think about building around Paige Bueckers and a future star, they have to find out what their roster even looks like.