I do not see it at all, with no disrespect to Butler. She was great against non-P5 competition, and she had a very fine college career. But with Liz Cambage back, Dallas is only likely to keep two centers on its roster, unless another player can rotate between the 4 and the 5 - which Natalie cannot do. Butler is up against 2017 first round pick Evelyn Akhator and 2017 first round pick Breanna Lewis. Both Akhator and Lewis made the roster last year, with Courtney Paris. But Dallas was lacking at PF outside of Glory Johnson - and even ran lineups with Johnson at center. Teresa Plaisance is likely to make the roster because even though she is a 5 who cannot defend the 4, she is a legitimate three-point threat (though had a down year at 34 percent last year) and produced quite a bit (almost 8 ppg, which is good when you consider the number of shots taken by Diggins, Johnson, Gray, Davis, Christmas-Kelly, etc.).
If I had to speculate on Dallas's roster, it would go like this:
Starters:
PG - Skylar Diggins
SG - Allisha Gray
W - Karima Christmas-Kelly (or Aerial Powers)
PF - Glory Johnson
C - Liz Cambage
Bench:
W - Aerial Powers (or Karima Chistmas-Kelly)
SG - Kaela Davis
F - Azura Stevens
C - Teresa Plaisance (even though her W bio lists her as a forward, she is a center with range, as she cannot defend the 4)
F - Kayla Thornton
That leaves two rosters spots (WNBA teams can carry a maximum of 12 players). The final two spots will be a competition among Saniya Chong, Evelyn Akhator, Breanna Lewis, Loryn Goodwin, and Natalie Butler (plus anyone else that Dallas brings into camp).
Right now, my list of projected starters and bench players does not have a backup point guard. This is where Saniya Chong has an edge (especially after spending one year in Fred Williams' system in Dallas). That means there is one spot remaining for which Butler can vie, and she is doing so against two other players at her same position who each have had one year in the Wings's system.
