What do WNBA championship winning teams all have in common since the start of the 2020s? They all have had at least one high-impact wing player that can be relied upon to step up when needed.
Beginning in 2020, Alysha Clark played a pivotal role on the Seattle Storm all season long that culminated in averaging 11.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists across the Storm’s three-game sweep of the Aces during the 2020 WNBA Finals.
A year later, Kahleah Copper broke out and became the 2021 WNBA Finals MVP for the Chicago Sky, averaging 17 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists over the four-game series. During that playoff run, Copper went from X factor to superstar who virtually was unguardable.
And then the Las Vegas Aces during their back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023 relied heavily on the production and development of combo wing Jackie Young. Young also played an indispensable role during the 2025 WNBA Finals, where she blossomed into the Aces’ second option behind A’ja Wilson. She averaged 20.3 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds over the four Finals games last fall.
And then the New York Liberty’s run and WNBA Finals win in 2024 was defined by the wing play of Leonie Fiebich and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, with the latter scoring 20 points in Game 2 of the 2024 WNBA Finals while nursing a bad knee. Fiebich averaged 13 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists over the five games of the 2024 Finals.
The point is: the wing player in modern WNBA basketball has become an absolute necessity to winning a WNBA championship, which is all the more reason why the August 17 matchup between the Dallas Wings and the Golden State Valkyries that will air on Peacock and NBCSN at 10 p.m. ET absolutely is fascinating.
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The Wings ironically enough, because of their namesake, have just one wing player listed on their roster. Meanwhile, the Valkyries have an entire starting lineup of wing players and six in total on their roster, which is half of full active rosters minus the two developmental spots.
Dallas has Clark, the oldest player in the league, as their lone wing player, while the Valkyries have first major free agency signing Gabby Williams, first franchise All-Star Kayla Thornton, 2026 Sixth Player of the Year front-runner Janelle Salaün, as well as Kaila Charles, Cecilia Zandalasini and rookie Justė Jocytė all on their roster as wings.
To be clear, there are flaws in both these extremes, which I will come back to, but first let’s explore why and how wing players became so vital in the WNBA. First, what’s their function in the modern more spaced out W?
The Valkyries look to extend their winning streak to SIX games as they take on Paige Bueckers and the Wings. pic.twitter.com/jf0sUMiyVR
— WNBA on NBC and Peacock (@WNBAonNBC) August 17, 2026
It’s very similar to what has emerged in the NBA, where versatility is one of the main tenets of modern roster building and wing players play roles that almost require the most versatility and bandwidth.
“I think the wing player will always be the one, especially in today’s era of basketball, that can make a three and play defense and be switchable,” New York Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco said when asked about the role of the wing player. “They connect the team, especially defensively and offensively.”
But in the WNBA, the importance of the wing player now has come into focus because of how the younger generations of players are being taught the game. Players are being put less into a box during their teenage years, although sometimes college coaches, depending on the coach, tend to put players back in them once these players head to college.
Los Angeles Sparks assistant coach and offensive coordinator Zack O’Brien told NBC Sports he joked with Breanna Stewart — a player considered a big wing and a forward — that if she had grown up 10 years later than she did, she might have been a point guard.
“I think basketball in general is just trending towards, especially at the younger ages, forget the position,” he said. “Let’s just put the ball in our best players’ hands, regardless of size, and let’s put as much size and skill out there as we possibly can. And I think where it manifests, especially right now, is in that wing position.”
DeMarco also stressed another quality of wing players, one that isn’t necessarily physical but more mental, is the fact they are habituated and often willing to be selfless. Wing players often are those that are “sprinting from corner to corner” who don’t always get the ball.
“It’s really important from that position to get that buy-in and understand that you’re going to do all the little things that help the team win,” he said.
All of these qualities mentioned: selflessness, skillfulness, three-point shooting, defensive versatility and proficiency essentially are the identity of the Valkyries in a nutshell. This was Golden State’s head coach Natalie Nakase’s blueprint she wanted her team to embody, especially the selflessness.
This focus on the nucleus of the team embodying the talent of their wing depth is something Nakase has tried to replicate from her mentor Joe Mazzulla, head coach of the Boston Celtics, who won a championship with two top options that were versatile wings.
This model has allowed Nakase and her team to sit second in the WNBA standings, but not without flaws and ones that can be exploited come playoff time. What happens when there are clutch situations in the postseason where teams will have to go off script from their system and just find a way? During the regular season, Golden State hasn’t been the most productive in clutch situations, averaging 9.1 points in those situations, 10th best in the league.
The Valkyries also have the best defense and seventh-best offense, metrics that reflect their strong buy-in, defensive competence and versatility, but also lack of offensive creation and freelancing especially during tight game situations.
Now shifting over to the Wings, who only have one wing in Clark. To be clear, this isn’t the only reason these two teams very much are the inverse of one another, but it’s a pretty central one.
Besides Clark, let’s examine the makeup of the Wings: the amount of wings the Valkyries have Dallas has in guard play. We’ve touched on the three-guard play of the Wings before, but Dallas has Paige Bueckers, Arike Ogunbowale, Odyssey Sims, Aziaha James, Sug Sutton and Azzi Fudd. These all are guards, although Fudd has been played as more of a wing at times. She has emerged as a defensive playmaker in addition to her exceptional shooting. That sounds like some of the wing attributes, right?
But as a result of the large two-way bandwidth placed on Fudd, knee soreness has come up and she’s been sidelined since August 7 without a clear approximate return to play timetable.
Without Fudd in the lineup, the Wings have struggled and without her during this stretch their defensive rating has been 120.8, a hair off the worst in the league over the past ten days. Overall, the Wings have the 9th-best defense, still not ideal.
To break down the flawed Wings’ defense even more, Dallas gives up 41.8 points in the paint, third worst in the league, in addition to its 16.1% opponent turnover percentage, fourth worst in the league. But, what the Wings do have is excellent clutch shot making when they are in games and are the third best clutch team in the league mostly behind the creation brilliance of Bueckers.
Both of these teams have wing players at the center of their weaknesses. Do the Valkyries have too many? Do the Wings have too few? These are the questions both front offices will need to face after the 2026 playoffs, where both teams are expected to compete.
Golden State owner Joe Lacob put a five-year mandate on winning a championship for his team the Valkyries, which played its first season in 2025. And the Dallas Wings have a true winner in Bueckers who expects to be competing at the highest levels possible.
In order to please both of those stakeholders and clear a path to a WNBA Finals and win it, both franchises are going to have serious discussions about wing players. Both teams should be aiming for a solution reflected by the Goldilocks principle. It’s got to be just right.
