WNBA: What will Carrington, Smith bring to the Dallas Wings?

After diving into two extensive trades and dishing out a handful of training camp contracts, the Dallas Wings seem to be almost done with their offseason moves.

Given that they hold the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, their excitement hasn’t peaked yet, but we can finally get a good look at what the retooled roster might look like come May.

Expected farewells

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It was no surprise that the lights were being dimmed on Satou Sabally’s Dallas tenure. Sabally made it clear that she wanted more from an organizational standpoint than what she had experienced in her young career: more resources, more transparency, better facilities.

Fortunately for Dallas, their core designation of Sabally meant that they wouldn’t lose her for free. Sabally isn’t the only Wings player that’s been dealt this offseason. She’s joined by Jaelyn Brown, Sevgi Uzun and Jacy Sheldon. Uzun will be joining Sabally in Phoenix, while Brown heads to the Indiana Fever and Sheldon rebuilds a recently-decimated Connecticut Sun roster.

Much-needed reinforcements

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Sabally’s Dallas departure hollowed the already-dwindling forward spot. Given the ever-fair assumption that the Wings select UConn combo-guard Paige Bueckers with the first overall pick, the draft didn’t look like a legitimate way to find instantly impactful size. Luckily, Dallas was able to land two certified rotational forwards in free agency: NaLyssa Smith, who was acquired from the Fever on the tail end of the Sabally trade, and Myisha Hines-Allen, the former Washington Mystics veteran who ended last season with a Finals run with the Minnesota Lynx. Smith, a Texas native and Baylor legend, saw a decline in usage last year, but she’s a consistent complimentary scorer and one of the leagues top rebounders. Hines-Allen has been a bruising interior scorer for seven years in the league, and while she isn’t MVP candidate she once was—yes, she really received MVP votes in 2020—she’s slowly transitioned into a quality reserve.

The biggest additions to the Dallas backcourt, at least until draft night, have been DiJonai Carrington and Ty Harris. Carrington and Harris, both formerly of the Sun, were rerouted to Dallas in a four team trade that sent Sun star Alyssa Thomas to Phoenix. Carrington was last season’s Most Improved Player, and her two-way impact will be extremely valuable to a recently league-worst Dallas defense. Harris spent three years with Dallas to start her career, but blossomed into a 3-point shooter in New England, connecting on nearly 40 percent of her attempts. She’ll be much more of a scoring threat than she was in her last Wings stint, and her shot diet will likely become much more like that of an off-ball shooting guard alongside a ball-dominant scorer like Arike Ogunbowale.

Training camp agenda

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All things considered, this projects to be a much more competitive Dallas roster than last year. Their ceiling will unsurprisingly be dependent on the draft, but they’ve accumulated enough of a supporting cast to suggest that they’ll at least see a postseason berth. If I had to speculate a rotational depth chart, I would put my money on something like the following:

• Starters: Bueckers, Ogunbowale, Carrington, Smith, McCowan
• Rotational reserves: Harris, Siegrist, Hines-Allen

On paper, the biggest gaps in their potential rotation are a lack of a true backup 5 and a lack of quality guards off the bench. Hines-Allen can be a small-ball center, but she won’t win matchups with quality bigs and shouldn’t be deployed as such for significant stretches. German big Luisa Geiselsoder, who the Wings drafted in 2020, will be in attendance at training camp and could potentially make the roster. As for guards and wings, Joyner Holmes, Lou Lopez Sénéchal, Mai Yamamoto and Kaila Charles will be competing for a spot on the roster. Holmes is the only one with real WNBA experience, but that almost feels like a disadvantage, given her lack of production in a five-year career.

In a dream scenario, Dallas finds two gems at the center and guard spot in training camp. Realistically, they’ll probably be happy to come away with a serviceable player at either spot. First-year head coach Chris Koclanes has enough chess pieces to do some damage, but a completely new roster leaves nothing guaranteed.