During the preseason, new Dallas Wings general manager Curt Miller called this a foundational season for his team. The Wings came into the season with not only a new general manager but a first-time head coach in Chris Koclanes. The youngest team in the league featured four rookies led by number one overall pick and Rookie of the Year Candidate Paige Bueckers, as well as new acquisitions DiJonai Carrington, NaLyssa Smith, Tyasha Harris, and Myisha Hines-Allen.

And yet, despite all the turnover and the admission by Miller that the team was looking to build a foundation in Dallas beyond wins and losses, I thought the Wings would at worst be in the playoff race all season. Their starting lineup of Bueckers, Ogunbowale, Carrington, Smith, and Hines-Allen had no glaring weaknesses, while Harris and Teaira McCowan were substantial pieces off the bench.

Instead of fighting for a playoff spot, the Wings are hurtling towards their 13th losing season in the last 15 years. At 1-11, the Wings are entrenched in last place, and fans would be forgiven for turning their attention to what the team will look like next year with Bueckers, another high draft pick, and presumably some more offseason acquisitions. With that in mind, this seems like a good time to look at the foundation the Wings are building and what it means for the rest of the season and beyond.

I suppose the place to start for the Wings is that things are not as bad as their 1-11 record indicates. Their -7.7 net rating, while 11th in the league, is well ahead of Chicago and Connecticut. Unless Dallas suffers a major injury or decides to completely tank, they almost certainly won’t finish with the league’s worst record. Since Paige Bueckers returned from her four-game absence, their new starting lineup of Bueckers, Ogunbowale, Carrington, Hines-Allen, and rookie Luisa Geiselsoder has a 14.1 net rating in 34 minutes.

That being said, more growing pains are likely coming. Tyasha Harris, who leads the Wings in +/- at +15, will miss the remainder of the season with a left knee injury. I have no idea why Harris didn’t replace Bueckers in the starting lineup, but the backcourt is suddenly awfully thin. Kaila Charles has given Dallas good minutes off the bench, but rookie third-round pick J.J. Quinerly is the only point guard on the roster behind Bueckers. Geiselsoder and Teaira McCowan, who is the only other player on the team with a positive +/-, will miss the next couple of weeks for Eurobasket. Their minutes will be replaced at least in part by Li Yueru, whom Dallas acquired from Seattle for a 2026 second-round pick and a 2027 third-round pick. Yueru has been very effective in limited minutes off the bench for Seattle this season, but it could take some time for her to gel with her teammates, as it did for Geiselsoder.

Given their personnel, this team was always going to be better on offense than on defense, but I hoped that if they were average on defense and above-average on offense, they would make the playoffs. Instead, they are average on offense and third-worst in defensive rating, which is how they have the third-worst net rating by a comfortable margin.

I think Dallas can still get to an average defense. Especially after McCowan and Geiselsoder return from EuroBasket. Wings’ opponents are shooting 38.5 percent on threes, second only to the Chicago Sky. If that improves just a little bit, it could go a long way.

Offensively, Dallas needs to do a better job creating open threes. Only Seattle and Washington have attempted fewer threes per game, and only Washington has scored a lower percentage of its points on threes. Dallas is fifth in the percentage of three-point makes that are unassisted. Ogunbowale, Bueckers, and Carrington are all capable of making threes off the dribble, but that doesn’t mean they should. Dallas is much better when those three are getting into the paint, either to score or find open shooters.

As much as the Wings want to build a foundation for the future, the reality is this was likely always going to be a transitional year. Only the rookies and third-year player Maddy Siegrist are under contract next season. I suspect Arike Ogunbowale will move on following seven seasons in Dallas, leaving the Wings to find a co-star for Bueckers in the draft or free agency.

While I’m sure Dallas would love to have a better record this season, their most important development this season is that Paige Bueckers looks every bit as advertised. She is averaging 17.4 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 5.1 assists while shooting 46.8 percent from the field, 41.7 percent on threes, and 81.8% on free throws. I would love to see her shooting more threes and getting to the line more, but with Ogunbowale and Carrington leading the team in usage, that is unlikely to happen this season. Dallas may be heading to the lottery yet again, but things are better than a glance at the standings would indicate, and they will be one of the most interesting teams in the offseason.