Paige Bueckers’ take on Wings guard hints at breakout 2026 season

As Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers is looking to improve going into her second year, there are other players on the team that is looking to break out come the 2026 season. While the Wings will be led by Bueckers and rookie Azzi Fudd, another player who will be crucial is Aziaha James.

Bueckers would be asked about James on Friday, expressing the amount of improvement she’s seen from the North Carolina State product. Like Bueckers, James is heading into her sophomore year in the WNBA, with the star even seeing the traits she’s improved in during Unrivaled.

“She’s just grown so much more confident,” Bueckers said, according to Drake Keeler. “And I think again, it started in Unrivaled. Every single time she stepped up on the developmental team, she’s just cooked, if you watch, like she’s played extremely well, and every single team that she played on, and she was just working extremely hard, like we saw each other every day, just working, grinding, getting better, and I know that helped a lot.”

“So she’s just been super confident,” Bueckers said. “Aggressive on both ends on the floor, and learning to be disruptive, crashing up the offensive boards, getting the deflections and steals on the defensive end, just be her aggressive self on offense, hunting shots, getting to the paint, creating. So she’s been doing all that.”

Paige Bueckers on Aziaha James

“She’s just grown so much more confident” pic.twitter.com/cZtrU98cOg

— Drake (@DrakeKeeler) April 24, 2026

Last season, James averaged 7.5 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game while shooting 37.3 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from beyond the arc. At any rate, it remains to be seen how improved James will be, as she was the 12th overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft.

James, Bueckers, Fudd, and others look to help improve Dallas, coming off a league-worst 10-34 record.

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