The Dallas Wings used their second-overall pick in 2021 to draft Awak Kuier out of Finland. At 19, Kuier was not quite ready for the WNBA yet. She never averaged more than 2.8 points and 2.5 rebounds per game over her first three seasons and played only around ten minutes per game.
After the 2023 season, Kuier decided to take some time away from the W and only played in Europe. She played for Reyer Venezia and Galatasaray, and the Wings gave her the time she needed instead of giving up on her. By the end of the 2025-26 season, Kuier emerged as a finalist for the EuroLeague Defensive Player of the Year award and averaged 12.6 points, 7.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.6 blocks over 19 EuroLeague games. She finally looked ready to have a breakout year in the WNBA.
After a somewhat rocky start to the season, Kuier is now playing her best basketball in the W and has helped the Wings clinch their first playoff spot with Paige Bueckers in the mix.
Awak Kuier has been great over the last few games
With Azzi Fudd out, Wings head coach Jose Fernandez has had to experiment with different rotations and starting lineups. The most effective option turned out to be starting Kuier at the small forward spot in a big lineup alongside Jessica Shepard and Alanna Smith.
Kuier has been solid offensively, scoring at least nine points in all of the Wings’ last three games and spacing the floor. But it’s her defense that has been most impressive. Kuier totaled five steals and 13 blocks over the last three games, including seven in a big 91-85 win against the Indiana Fever. That kind of rim protection is invaluable for a Wings team that lost its best perimeter defender and has struggled with paint protection for most of the season.
It has been an impressive stretch at the perfect time for the Wings and highlights how much more room she has to grow. Kuier just turned 25. She may not have been ready to make an impact as a teenager and in her early twenties, but she’s ready now.
“She’s just playing with so much passion and energy and she’s so assertive on the defensive end to go ahead and change shots, right?” Jose Fernandez said after a playoff-clinching win against the Portland Fire, per a video on the Wings’ YouTube channel. “Offensively, she’s doing the same thing with how we played her at the four, but now there’s been more of a concerted effort of her putting the ball down on the deck. For her to play her best basketball right now and do what she’s doing, that’s what we’re gonna need down the stretch.”
Kuier’s development isn’t just important to this iteration of the Wings. It’s also important to an organization that has a history of not drafting well and losing top picks. Between the 2020 and 2024 drafts, the Wings had 12 first-round picks, including eight top-five picks. The only players still on the team now are Kuier and Maddy Siegrist.
Satou Sabally, their second pick in 2020, left as soon as she got a chance, they traded Ty Harris and Jacy Sheldon, lost Carla Leite in the expansion draft, and waived Veronica Burton, who is now the starting point guard for the second-best team in the W. Bella Alarie, Charli Collier, Chelsea Dungee, Lou Lopez-Senechal, and Abby Meyers all didn’t stick in the WNBA. So, developing at least one of those high picks into a starting-caliber player who can contribute to a playoff team is a silver lining.
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