In February the Dallas Wings wrapped up a four-way trade with the Connecticut Sun, Phoenix Mercury and Indiana Fever that brought WNBA vets DiJonai Carrington, Tyasha Harris, NaLyssa Smith to the team. The trade was a major deal that also saw the departure of Satou Sabally, Kalani Brown and Sevgi Uzun (who went to Phoenix), Jacy Sheldon (Connecticut), and Jaelyn Brown (Indiana).
The trade was notable for a lot of reasons, and Wings fan greeted the news with excitement. The team had a tough season last year, and the addition of Carrington, Harris, and Smith might be part of the sparks the Wings need to pull ahead this season.
But out of the group, there's one player who has a little bit to prove, and her playing time with the Wings might not match what she was used to elsewhere.
NaLyssa Smith will have a different season with the Wings
Though she averaged 24.8 minutes per game for the Indiana Fever in 2024, that time was actually a drop from 2023 when she averaged 28.5 minutes per game and 2022, when she averaged 30.7 minutes per game. Right now, many predictions have Smith starting at the 4 after Maddy Siegrist and Myisha Hines-Allen — a reality that doesn't jibe with her time in Indiana.
That Smith is unlikely to start over Siegrist shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has watched the latter play since she was drafted by the Wings in 2023. Though she didn't have a major role during her rookie season — she played in 39 games off the bench and averaged 3.7 points in 8.2 minutes per game — she was dependenable when she was on the court.
Her second season in Dallas brought with it a major increase in playing time and on the court impact. She started for the first time in the second game of the season after Natasha Howard was injured and went on to start in 11 of the team's first 13 games. Unfortunately, Siegrist's momentum was slowed down by a broken finger that kept her benched until the end of the Olympic break and she ultimately averaged 9.4 points and 3.3 rebounds in 23.9 minutes per game. Siegrist really showed up during her second season of AU Pro Basketball in 2025 as well. She averaged 24 points, racked up 12 double-digit games, set a new league benchmark of 7,052 leaderboard points, and was named the season 4 champion at the end of the season's run.