Five games missed, and now an operation
Azzi Fudd will undergo surgery on her right knee and sit out the remainder of the regular season, Dallas confirmed overnight. The recovery window is being framed at up to six weeks.
The soreness has been building since early August. Fudd last played on August 5 against Washington, where she scored nine points with three steals in 34 minutes. Two days later she went through pregame warmups against Golden State, felt the knee, and did not dress. She has not appeared since.
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What Dallas loses
Fudd went first overall in this year’s draft and has averaged 13.1 points, 1.8 assists and 1.7 rebounds across her rookie season. Those numbers understate the spacing she provides next to Paige Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale, which is the part the standings have already registered.
The Wings have lost four of the five games played without her. They sit 20-16, eighth in the league and holding the final playoff position by a margin that no longer looks comfortable. Eight games remain, starting with Indiana on Thursday.
The stakes are specific. Dallas has not reached the postseason since 2023. A franchise that spent three seasons rebuilding around a top pick now has to close out a qualification run without that pick on the floor, and the schedule does not soften.
The offseason stays intact
Six weeks of recovery puts Fudd back in circulation before December, which matters for reasons beyond Dallas. She has committed to Project B, the new international league launching in December and running through April 2027, positioned as a direct competitor to the Miami-based three-on-three circuit Unrivaled.
Barring a setback, that commitment holds. The surgery removes her from the WNBA regular season, not from her winter.
For Dallas the calculation is colder. Bueckers and Ogunbowale remain, and the roster that went 20-16 was built to survive a stretch like this. Whether it can survive eight games of it decides whether the Wings play in October.
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