Examining Arike Ogunbowale's slow start: Why Wings star is struggling alongside Paige Bueckers

After four straight All-Star appearances, Ogunbowale has seen her minutes and scoring numbers dip early this season

Late in the Dallas Wings' loss to the Seattle Storm on Monday, Arike Ogunbowale forced a stop with some strong defense on Gabby Williams, then took off the other way on a one-woman fastbreak. She drove hard to the basket, but her layup that could have cut the deficit to three with less than a minute remaining was so wild it never even hit the rim. 

That sequence summed up a frustrating start to the summer for Ogunbowale. The four-time All-Star is coming off the best season of her career, in which she averaged 22.2 points and a career-high 5.1 assists, and was named to the All-WNBA Second Team, but has struggled to adjust to the new environment in Dallas.  

Through the Wings' first two games this season, Ogunbowale has scored 24 points on 6 of 26 from the field, including 1 of 11 from 3-point range, and has four assists and three turnovers. She also hasn't played more than 28 minutes in a game. Prior to this season, the last time she played fewer than 30 minutes in a regular season game was Aug. 6, 2022. 

Ogunbowale's shot chart through the Wings' first two games.  WNBA.com/Stats

When the Wings won the 2025 WNBA Draft Lottery back in November, Ogunbowale was ecstatic. "I just fell to my knees. THANK YOU LORD!" she wrote on social media. 

Like everyone else in Dallas, Ogunbowale knew that getting the No. 1 pick would allow the Wings to draft Paige Bueckers, one of the best prospects to enter the league in recent years, which is exactly what they did last month. 

The general consensus was that Bueckers, who boasts incredible offensive versatility, would be a perfect fit next to Ogunbowale in the Wings' backcourt. Ogunbowale could help ease Bueckers' transition to the professional level, while Bueckers could help lift some of the offensive burden Ogunbowale has been carrying for so long in Dallas. 

As great as that sounded in theory, the reality has been underwhelming thus far. 

Bueckers has handled most of the point guard duties, and there's not a ton of ball movement in the Wings' offense (their 59.6 assist percentage ranks 10th in the league). If Ogunbowale doesn't bring the ball up the floor, or receive an initial pass to start an action, she's often left standing around on the wing or in the corner. 

There were 22 possessions in the Wings' season-opening loss to the Minnesota Lynx where Ogunbowale never even touched the ball. Against the Storm, that number jumped to 27. 

Ogunbowale has never been the most efficient player (her career field goal percentage is 39.2), but she made up for it with volume. She's no longer able to do that, and as a result her sometimes questionable shot selection has been brought into sharper focus. 

Throughout her career, Ogunbowale has been used to running the show in Dallas and being on the floor nearly all the time. That's all changed under first-year coach Chris Koclanes, perhaps to a larger extent than anyone, including Ogunbowale, would have expected. 

It's going to take time for Ogunbowale to adapt to a new role, new system and new teammates, but she's certainly talented enough to do so. Until she gets comfortable and her shot starts falling, Koclanes wants her to be more than a scorer. 

"[I'm going to] continue to coach her and empower her to continue to be aggressive while also still playing within our structure and really finding ways to impact the game when she's not scoring," Koclanes said after the loss to the Storm. "I think that's a growth opportunity for her. The more she can continue to impact the game even when the ball isn't going in, the more she's going to help this team."