Wings Urged to Keep Awak Kuier, Alysha Clark and Add More Wing Depth

Dallas should add combo forwards, The Athletic’s Sabreena Merchant wrote in her Nov. 10 analysis of every WNBA team’s offseason priority. Wing depth tops her list for the Wings, and she starts with keeping Awak Kuier and Alysha Clark.

“My vote would be adding more combo forwards,” Merchant wrote.

Her other options for Dallas were frontcourt help in case Alanna Smith gets hurt again and more guards for an up-tempo style. She named DiJonai Carrington, Aicha Coulibaly, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, and Stephanie Talbot as outside players who fit, not as players the Wings have been reported to pursue.

She also noted that Golden State, the team that eliminated Dallas, just won the title with that approach.

The Valkyries came back from 16 down in Game 3 of the first-round series Oct. 2 at Chase Center to end the Wings’ season.

Arike Ogunbowale had forced that game two nights earlier in Arlington. She scored 45 points, a WNBA playoff record, in a 108-100 overtime win, banking in a 3-pointer to start overtime and hitting another with 1:46 left to put Dallas ahead for good at 103-100.

Smith missed the series with a leg injury. Azzi Fudd was out for the season with a knee injury, according to The Associated Press’ injury report.

Dallas had gone 10-34 in 2025, and in the first season under Wings coach Jose Fernandez it went 27-17 and earned the No. 7 seed, although the Valkyries had beaten the Wings all three times they played in the regular season.

Merchant counted six Wings under contract for 2027. The returning starting five of Paige Bueckers, Ogunbowale, Fudd, Jessica Shepard, and Smith are all signed, and so is Aziaha James.

There is no core tag for Dallas this offseason. Ogunbowale is still on her cored contract, according to Her Hoop Stats.

Kuier is a restricted free agent, so Dallas can match any offer sheet she signs once the signing period opens Feb. 16. Clark is unrestricted.

Dallas has three other restricted free agents in Maddy Siegrist, Li Yueru, and Haley Jones. Kitija Laksa and Odyssey Sims are unrestricted.

Merchant’s four outside names are all unrestricted. Two of them, Carrington and Coulibaly, were with Chicago in 2026, while Laney-Hamilton played for Washington and Talbot for Las Vegas.

Next season the Wings are out of Arlington. The team announced Aug. 3 that every 2027 home game will be at American Airlines Center instead of College Park Center, with construction on a renovated Dallas Memorial Auditorium running behind schedule. The Wings have a 15-year use agreement with the city of Dallas, signed in 2024, to play in that building.