Inside Dallas Wings forward Jessica Shepard’s breakout seasonKendra AndrewsAug 1, 2026, 09:45 AM ETMultiple Authors
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Jessica Shepard directed traffic as she brought the ball across half court.
She pointed to a spot just inside the top of the 3-point line, letting Azzi Fudd know where she should go. The Dallas Wings were two minutes away from the WNBA All-Star break on July 22, clinging to a three-point lead over the Portland Fire and seeking to secure a win.
Fudd set a screen for Shepard and then made her way outside the arc. As two defenders closed, Shepard tossed the ball to Fudd, who knocked down the dagger, clinching Shepard’s 10th assist of the night and her fourth triple-double of the year. Heading into this season, she had recorded just one triple-double in her WNBA career.
Perhaps the biggest breakout star of 2026, especially among players on new teams, Shepard is the first WNBA player with multiple 15-point, 15-rebound and 10-assist games in a season. With career highs of 14.7 points and 11.9 rebounds, the Wings forward is one of just three players in the league averaging a double-double.
Fresh off of her first All-Star appearance, she is an integral part of the Wings’ hopes of returning to the playoffs for the first time in three years.
And yet, Shepard isn’t out to prove anyone wrong or put them on notice. She doesn’t have a score to settle or a chip on her shoulder. The success is gratifying, Shepard stated, but in her mind, it was only a matter of time before she made this sort of impact in the WNBA. The key was finding the right spot.
“I’ve known what I’m capable of doing,” Shepard stated. “I think it’s my first time in the W just finding a team where I really fit.”
Wings forward Jessica Shepard is averaging 14.9 points and 12.1 rebounds this season, almost seven more points and five more rebounds than in 2025. Vaughn Ridley/NBAE via Getty ImagesSHEPARD WAS READY to look for an opportunity outside of the Minnesota Lynx. After five years with the team that drafted her with the No. 16 pick in 2019, she wanted a bigger role. The Lynx were the No. 1 seed in the 2025 playoffs, where they lost in the WNBA semifinals, but Shepard averaged about 20 minutes and came off the bench behind MVP candidate Napheesa Collier and Alanna Smith.
As she weighed free agency options, the list of attributes she wanted in her new team was short: somewhere she could fit in seamlessly and continue to compete for a championship.
Despite ending last season with the worst record in the league, Dallas quickly emerged as a potential landing spot. Shepard liked the Wings’ young core centered around guards Paige Bueckers and Fudd, the past two No. 1 draft picks. Guard Arike Ogunbowale, who Shepard played with in college at Notre Dame, provided a steady and elite veteran presence. First-year coach Jose Fernandez had a clear vision for the team.
“I was looking at what they were missing, and the big question was, can I fill that?” Shepard told ESPN. “They need consistency in the post, as well as someone who can push the pace and take some of the pressure off of [the guards] there but find them when they are open. That’s something I can provide.”
Dallas general manager Curt Miller believed Shepard could be an efficient scorer around the rim and a player who could clean up on the boards. With her playmaking abilities, he felt she could be molded into a point forward similar to Alyssa Thomas and Candace Parker.
Fernandez also had the inside scoop. One of his former college players from USF had been teammates with Shepard in Italy and provided the coach with insights on how the 6-foot-4 forward could impact the Wings.
“It wasn’t a surprise for me,” Fernandez stated of Shepard’s success this season. “I think her European experience has translated to how she’s playing here, being able to distribute, DHO [dribble hand off] and zoom actions. It’s great to see her have the success that she’s having.”
Jessica Shepard earned her first WNBA All-Star nod this season and is a front-runner for the league’s Most Improved Player award. Cameron Browne/NBAE via Getty ImagesShepard has scored or assisted on 27.7% of Dallas’ 89.9 points per game this season. She’s also averaging 17.9% more touches this year compared to last, which ranks in the top 10 in the largest increase over the past year in the WNBA. Her overall usage rate (17.9%) is up 16.0% from last season, and she’s averaging almost seven more points and five more rebounds from 2025.As for her playmaking, the Wings are shooting 49% directly off of Shepard’s passing, which ranks seventh in the WNBA among the 50 players with at least 100 assists; 14% of her passes have led to an assist, which is the highest rate in the league among players with at least 600 passes.”It helps when you have really good guards around you,” Shepard stated. “You know they can knock down shots. We have three guards that are all capable of going off on any given night, so it makes my job pretty easy.”Breaking news from Alexa Philippou
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Bueckers is averaging 20.8 points, eighth best in the league, while Ogunbowale is putting up 15.1 points and Fudd 13.3. Shepard ranks second for Dallas in points and assists per game and leads the team in rebounds. The Wings (18-11), who host the Connecticut Sun (7-22) on Sunday (7 p.m. ET, ESPN), are on pace to finish the season with the second-best record by a team that finished last in the prior season in league history, behind only the 2003 Detroit Shock (a franchise that has twice relocated and is now the Wings).
“She spent a long time on a really deep Minnesota Lynx team and completely embraced the role they needed her to play,” Bueckers stated of Shepard after the All-Star Game. “Now she’s in Dallas with a bigger role, and she’s meant so much to our basketball team.”
Shepard is a front-runner for the WNBA’s Most Improved Player award, but that’s not her focus. With 15 games left in the regular season, she and the Wings are sixth in the standings and comfortably in the playoff picture. But they know they can’t relax.
“Honestly, I don’t care [about MIP],” Shepard told ESPN. “For me, if the team is winning, I will be happy. If we can make the playoffs and make a push there, it will mean a lot more to me than any individual award. But also, those things come along with winning.”
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