Dallas Wings, part 2

[WiseWillie]

My best ideas come from the Catbus in my neighbor’s garage.

Mr. Miyazaki will be happy to hear that.

 

[NycUcWbbFan]

On the plus side, the Wings are clearly Paige’s team now. Just about everyone likes Paige, many players know her personally and most would love to play on the same team with her.

The minus is of course that playing with Paige comes with playing in Dallas, a franchise that has struggled mightily in recent years. If GM Miller can sell enough solid veterans that Dallas is the up and coming place to be, the Wings might just be a “much improved team” next season.

I feel, with one asterisk &0, Dallas is indeed, with deliberate unhaste, moving on from being probably the worst of a prior league-wide system that produced an institutional class of underdeveloped/ underused young players.

Paige’s attracting contagious joie de vivre and foundational talent greatly help.

It is a new GM’s dream environment when all tools in their toolkit are available in a compressed timeframe without the usual multi-year Rube Goldberg roster construction contraption.

Miller has been making the most &1 of said dream environment:

• 2025 Draft: #1 Paige
• 2026 Draft: Best Odds at #1 (Azzi?)
• 2027 Draft: 2-year W-L system opportunity &0; 2 first round picks;
• New CBA: Better GM-friendly rules? (salary cap, wnba prioritization (Awak+Lou)?, more roster spots?, etc.);
• UFA holiday shopping — all except the newly cored UFAs, including on the 2 expansion teams, if applicable CBA rules remain the same — are available for Dallas who only currently have cheap contracts; whether UFA targets are non-sticky and gettable especially from current super teams is another question.

&0 Selling Koclanes as the coach of a dream team built around Paige is indeed tricky.

&1 The Aces weren’t built in a day.

 

[Bigboote]

My best ideas come from the Catbus in my neighbor’s garage.

20 or so years ago I got home and my 3-year-old daughter greeted me on all fours going "ROWWR". She had a stuffed Catbus as big as her at that point. She had three different size Totoros. Her car now has a bumper sticker "My other vehicle is a moving castle."

 

[oldude]

I feel, with one asterisk &0, Dallas is indeed, with deliberate unhaste, moving on from being probably the worst of a prior league-wide system that produced an institutional class of underdeveloped/ underused young players.

Paige’s attracting contagious joie de vivre and foundational talent greatly help.

It is a new GM’s dream environment when all tools in their toolkit are available in a compressed timeframe without the usual multi-year Rube Goldberg roster construction contraption.

Miller has been making the most &1 of said dream environment:

• 2025 Draft: #1 Paige
• 2026 Draft: Best Odds at #1 (Azzi?)
• 2027 Draft: 2-year W-L system opportunity &0; 2 first round picks;
• New CBA: Better GM-friendly rules? (salary cap, wnba prioritization (Awak+Lou)?, more roster spots?, etc.);
• UFA holiday shopping — all except the newly cored UFAs, including on the 2 expansion teams, if applicable CBA rules remain the same — are available for Dallas who only currently have cheap contracts; whether UFA targets are non-sticky and gettable especially from current super teams is another question.

&0 Selling Koclanes as the coach of a dream team built around Paige is indeed tricky.

&1 The Aces weren’t built in a day.

Good points all. Although I will suggest that if she declares herself eligible for the draft, Spain’s athletic, 19 year old, 6’4” Awa Fam will be the #1 pick in the draft next year. Fam is a great scorer and defender in the paint, and maybe the best passing big I’ve seen in a while. This past year she was the MVP in both the EU under-18 and under-20 championships.

 

[Bone Dog]

20 or so years ago I got home and my 3-year-old daughter greeted me on all fours going "ROWWR". She had a stuffed Catbus as big as her at that point. She had three different size Totoros. Her car now has a bumper sticker "My other vehicle is a moving castle."

Our house has been awash in Totoro gear too. Miki even had a Totoro backpack when she was in elementary school courtesy of grandma. But the prize was a May doll.