The Dallas Wings’ season is off to a poor start, and head coach Jose Fernandez is already calling out his players for their mistakes. The Wings did well in the preseason matchups, winning both their games against the Fever and the Aces.
Paige Bueckers and the Wings also won their first game of the regular season against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. Since then, the team chemistry has derailed. The Wings have lost back-to-back games against the Dream and the Lynx.
Fernandez, who took over the head coaching duties from Chris Koclanes in October 2025, went off during the post-game press conference.
“There’s selfishness in this locker room,” Fernandez said he told his players. “You gotta look in the mirror and be accountable on how you played. And don’t get upset if you think that you should have played more, or you didn’t play enough, or you didn’t get the shots that you think you should have gotten.”
Fernandez criticized his team because he wants the players to hold each other accountable and perform as a unit on the floor. Four-time WNBA Champion Cynthia Cooper weighed in on the criticism and disagreed with the coach’s assessment of his team.
“They had 11 assists in the first quarter, how you gonna be selfish?” she said. “I believe, at some point, Dallas lost control of the game. And because they lost control of the game, they looked for ways out of it.”
Cooper said that the Wings are too young to figure everything out all by themselves.
Fernandez, on the other hand, believes that his players are too concerned with how many shots they can take each game. In his opinion, good teams worry about winning games because that’s the only thing that matters.
Jose Fernandez on Players Getting Less Minutes
Fernandez has been criticized for bringing Azzi Fudd off the bench. Even though she started in both preseason games, Fudd has come off the bench in two regular-season games for less than 20 minutes.
“Minutes here, minutes there. Whatever minutes [Awak Kuier] gets, with her size, she can protect the basket,” Fernandez said. “Correct? So, I don’t know. Whatever minute she gets, or Maddy [Siegrist] gets, or [Alanna Smith] gets, or Fudd gets, just defend. Make use of your minutes, make shots, play the right way.”
In his opinion, players shouldn’t worry so much about how many minutes they’re getting on the floor. The team’s objective is to win games, and the Wings should focus on making great contributions toward that.
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