Although Dallas finished in last place in 2025 with a 10-34 record, Bueckers dazzled as the team’s only All-Star, a second-team All-WNBA selection, and Rookie of the Year.<\/p>\n\n
Paige is special. Great players want to be coached. She wants to be coached and held accountable. And I think the things we’re going to do in the half court and in the open field are going to suit her well. So I’m really excited to start working with her.<\/p>Fern\u00e1ndez<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nThe Wings decided to dispense with first-year head coach Chris Koclanes in September and sought an experienced head coach who was a proven winner with sustained success. The franchise also looked for a new coach who was strong in player development, added General Manager Curt Miller, an “innovator” and, if possible, someone with international reach.\n\nThe Wings have missed the playoffs the last two years and have only advanced past the first round in the postseason once since moving to Dallas from Tulsa in 2016. They have also experienced a lot of turnover, now on their fifth coach in seven years.\n\nBut with the organization now on the rise, not only with Bueckers on the team, but with an imminent move from Arlington to Dallas and a new practice facility on the way, expectations have never been so high, both internally and externally.\n\nDallas was one of the teams that offered former New York Liberty coach Sandy Brondello a head coaching job, before she ultimately decided to join the Toronto Tempo.\n\nFern\u00e1ndez was an attractive choice after turning USF into one of the most consistent and successful mid-major universities in the country, where he ran a pro-style offense with European influences, excelled at international recruiting, and produced dozens of players who went on to play in the WNBA or overseas.\n\n
This job wasn’t for everyone. The scrutiny, the expectation that comes now with the job in Dallas is extremely high, and that scared people. And what I loved about [Jos\u00e9 is] that he wasn’t scared, in fact, it motivated Jos\u00e9 in our conversations.<\/p>Miller<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\nWhile she will have the task of building around Bueckers, there is a lot of uncertainty with the rest of the team beyond that. A two-team expansion draft will be held after the new collective bargaining agreement is completed, and then all but two veterans in the league will move to free agency.\n\nDallas also has the best odds of getting the number 1 pick in the next draft lottery.\n\nThe Wings’ roster is young as it is: their only players under contract are Bueckers, 2025 draft classmates Aziaha James and JJ Quinerly, Maddy Siegrist and Diamond Miller, but Miller said the team will ultimately look to add veterans and more talent while preserving their culture.\n\nThere will be tremendous collaboration in the decisions around the expansion draft, the decisions around free agency and, ultimately, the decisions we will discover at the end of this month, where we land in the draft,” Miller said.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jos\u00e9 Fern\u00e1ndez knows Paige Bueckers perfectly. The coach, during his time at South Florida, faced the player, a three-time All-American, several times during her outstanding career at UConn. Fern\u00e1ndez also maintains a friendship for years with Bueckers’ former coach at UConn, Geno Auriemma. Now, Bueckers, the first overall pick of the Dallas Wings this year, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[377,10096,129,382],"class_list":{"0":"post-79762","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-dallas-wings","9":"tag-jose-fernandez","10":"tag-paige-bueckers","11":"tag-wnba"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alofokedeportes.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}