Arriving as the No. 1 overall pick in the draft, Azzi Fudd came into the WNBA carrying considerable reputation and expectation. After racking up accolades and big scoring nights at UConn, she was specifically known as an elite three-point shooter. However, since stepping into the professional game, Fudd hasn’t leaned into that label the way many expected.

Through her first three WNBA games, she has attempted just three three-pointers and made only one of them. Yet despite the relative absence of deep shots, her overall scoring efficiency has been quietly impressive. She’s shooting 61.1% on effective field goal percentage across those outings.

Speaking in her postgame interview following the Wings’ win over the Mystics on Monday, Azzi Fudd addressed that dimension of her game directly. “I’m just reading what the defense and what the game gives me. I know I’m a good three-point shooter. People like to limit me to that, but I’m more than just that,” she said.

The Mystics game was Azzi Fudd‘s best performance so far. She posted a career-high 12 points off the bench, adding three assists and two rebounds in a showing that underlined exactly what she meant about being more than a perimeter shooter. Every one of those points came from inside the arc.

She went 6-of-8 on two-point field goals and missed her only three-point attempt of the night. It’s also worth noting the trajectory she’s been on: 3 points in her debut against the Fever, 8 against the Lynx, and now 12 against the Mystics. She’s not exploding out of the gate, but she is clearly finding her footing, game by game.

That gradual settling in was entirely by design in this latest outing. “My goal was just to be aggressive when I got in the game. Contribute any way I could. Watch what the starters were doing. I mean, they started the game off pushing the pace, being aggressive, getting stops. So I wanted to continue that,” she explained.

The aggressiveness she brought off the bench felt like that of a player who had shaken off the uncertainty of early professional life and was playing on her own terms.

Her veteran teammate Arike Ogunbowale has been watching that process closely. And she also offered some important context on where Fudd is in her development. “She’s just getting comfortable in the league. People think that just because you were amazing at college, you’re just going to go and have confidence. But she’s so good,” Ogunbowale said. 

She even referenced an earlier moment in the season where Azzi Fudd had the green light but second-guessed herself on a shot she should have taken. “Even one time, she scored two buckets, and she second-guessed the shot. We want her to shoot that every single time,” Ogunbowale said.

In this Mystics game, the hesitation was gone. “She’s been aggressive. I mean, I’ve always said she’s one of the best shooters I’ve ever seen,” Ogunbowale added. And for her, the implication is clear: “Once she’s looking like that and looking for her shot, the team’s going to be really good.”

The Wings have now won their second game of the season. They dismantled Washington 92–69, a performance as convincing as the score line suggests. With momentum building and Fudd finding her stride off the bench, Dallas will be looking to carry that energy into their next outing against the Chicago Sky on Wednesday.

Jose Fernandez Hints at Bigger Role for Azzi Fudd After Breakout Mystics Performance

Some rookies hit the ground running from the very first possession of their WNBA career. Azzi Fudd has taken a different path, a gradual, deliberate one, with each performance meaningfully better than the last. After her breakout performance against the Mystics, her minute allocation off the bench is about to increase significantly.

Head coach Jose Fernandez made that much clear in his postgame interview, hinting directly at what comes next for his rookie guard. “I’m glad that now we can continue to increase the minutes,” he said.

The progression has been evident in the numbers. 18 minutes in her debut, 20 in the following game, and now 24 against the Mystics. Alongside those minutes, the scoring has climbed in tandem, starting with 3 points, then 8, and now a career-high 12.

She, however, missed one game against the Atlanta Dream due to a minor knee sprain. The Mystics matchup marked her return from that setback. For a rookie still finding her footing, coming back from even a brief injury absence and delivering a career-best performance says something about where her confidence is.

Coach Fernandez was clearly pleased with how she handled it. “She felt good, and it was good to see her. The comfort level that she played with and how her teammates also moved it and found her,” he said. 

In fact, for everyone in the Wings locker room, it was exciting to have Fudd back, especially after she looked so effective while sitting out with the injury. “I think everybody got excited to see Azzi and how well she played. How she shot it and how she defended and how she created off the bounce.”

All of that has given Fernandez every reason to keep trusting Azzi Fudd with a growing share of the game. And if the upward curve she’s been on is any indication, more minutes will almost certainly mean more of the kind of performances that are starting to make the rest of the league take notice.