LEAGUE BANS Satou Sabally?! — Unprecedented Scandal Rocks WNBA Max Deal

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]So, what the hell has happened to Alanna Smith?

[00:00:04]Like she is getting very close to being unplayable.

[00:00:09]And obviously as somebody who covers the Fever and watches a lot of the Indiana Fever the question is is like I've heard people say the Mobley's contract is one of the worst contracts in the WNBA. That question is echoing through every Dallas Wings front office meeting right now, seven games into the 2026 season. The most expensive defensive signing in franchise history is averaging fewer points than her own backup. We're talking about the reigning co-defensive player of the year. We're talking about a three-year max contract signed 43 days ago. And we're talking about a team that just figured out it might be better off without her on the floor.

[00:00:45]This one is a hindsight bad contract, like really bad contract. I think we all thought it was an overpay.

[00:00:51]Like I think nearly everybody thought that this was an overpay for Alanna Smith.

[00:00:57]But maybe that's what it would have taken to get Alanna Smith to go back.

[00:01:01]You kind of want to like this is a team that offensively has been very very like has a lot of pieces and we're just trying to fix the defense. April 12th, 2026. Dallas Wings general manager Curt Miller signs Alanna Smith to a three-year max deal away from Minnesota.

[00:01:19]On paper, the move made basketball sense. Dallas had Paige Bueckers, the reigning rookie of the year. They had A'ja Wilson, one of the league's premier scorers.

[00:01:28]They had Maddie Siegrist on a cheap rookie deal. And Jessica Shepard added in the same wave. What Dallas didn't have was defense. They tied for the worst record in the league last season.

[00:01:38]Alanna Smith was supposed to fix that single problem. Instead, [music] she's become the most expensive bench problem in the WNBA.

[00:01:46]I think it was a bit of a crazy one, but big butt here.

[00:01:51]Um if we're being real even though yes, there was a evidently uh the max contract was too much.

[00:02:01]It would fit a need.

[00:02:02]And yes, her contract like is up around the time when Paige Bueckers is going to be well, not even Paige is triggers her epic extension. Where um easy forward is going to you're going to start to look at paying easy forward.

[00:02:19]The contract structure is the dagger.

[00:02:21]Under the new collective bargaining agreement that took effect this season, the WNBA salary cap jumped from 1.5 million in 2025 to 7 million in 2026.

[00:02:31]The year one max landed at roughly 1.4 million dollars. And Smith's deal scales up with the cap every single year for three years. That's escalating money tied to a player who right now is being out performed by her own backup. The timing is what makes it lethal. Paige Bueckers becomes extension eligible soon. And Dallas just locked themselves into Smith's max precisely when they need every cap dollar to build around their franchise guard.

[00:02:56]The team is 100 times better without Alana Smith.

[00:03:00]Alana Smith was minus nine in a 15 point win today.

[00:03:04]Like that is not Like that's not good.

[00:03:11]Like that's not good at all. She's minus nine in a demolition win.

[00:03:15]>> [music] >> And then their second highest plus minus is Awak Kuier.

[00:03:19]Like Awak Kuier is is doing what everyone thought Alana Smith was going to be doing. She's been the This is the number that should terrify Curt Miller. Minus nine in a 15 point win. Think about what that actually means. Dallas demolished their opponent by 15 points, and when Alana Smith was on the floor, they got out scored by nine. The team was 24 points better when she sat. The second best plus minus on the roster belongs to Awak Kuier. The same Awak Kuier Dallas drafted second overall back in 2021. The same Awak Kuier playing on a one-year deal worth around $800,000. The The defender Dallas paid 1.4 million to anchor the paint is currently being out defended by a player they nearly cut last summer.

[00:04:01]Actually, I have just 3.3 foul.

[00:04:04]I'm not joking. Like on the season, her averages are lower than 4.3. They haven't updated yet.

[00:04:10]I don't think they'll update. No, no, this is after you add a zero in.

[00:04:15]So, she is averaging what? 4.3 points by six. So, she probably has 26 points.

[00:04:21]She has 26 points on the year. And that's 26 points over seven games.

[00:04:27]Like, that is her average.

[00:04:30]That is like her average under four points per game.

[00:04:34]She is making a max contract Let those numbers sink in. 26 total points across seven games, an average that doesn't crack four. For context, that's not defensive player of the year production.

[00:04:45]That's deep bench production from a player making the league minimum. The version of Alana Smith that anchored Minnesota's defense last season hasn't shown up in Dallas, and the offensive black hole has become impossible to play through. The Wings already have a top-tier offense with Butuquers and Ogunbowale running it. Forcing a near-zero score into that lineup at maximum salary is breaking the math both ways. They're getting punished on the offensive end, >> [music] >> and they're not getting the defensive payoff that justified the contract in the first place. I'll have to give up.

[00:05:15]Minimum?

[00:05:17]A first-round pick for Portland to take her.

[00:05:19]Minimum a first.

[00:05:21]There are three teams that could take her off your hands.

[00:05:24]Seattle.

[00:05:26]Um Seattle could take her off your hands. Portland could take her off your hands. And the Mystics could take her off your hands.

[00:05:32]And if I'm um Curt Miller, I'm looking at that right now because I feel like it's important to keep Awak.

[00:05:39]I think it's really important to keep her. It's important to keep Myisha Hines-Allen.

[00:05:43]Like Myisha Hines-Allen, whether she's a starter, whether she's a bench player, it doesn't matter. She's This is where the path forward gets ugly. To salary dump Alana Smith, Curt Miller doesn't just lose the player, he loses draft capital. A minimum of a first round pick attached to her contract just to convince a team to absorb it.

[00:06:01]>> [music] >> Three realistic landing spots exist.

[00:06:04]Seattle has cap flexibility and a need at the four. Portland is in full asset collection mode in their expansion rebuild window. Washington is sitting on one of the youngest, cheapest rosters in the league. Each of those teams is going to demand premium compensation to take a three-year max contract tied to a player nobody believes in seven games into the deal. Dallas would essentially be paying teams to take their all-defensive selection off the books.

[00:06:27]Because Arike might have some positive value.

[00:06:31]You probably don't have to salary dump Arike.

[00:06:34]And look, there is a world where you are if you are able to salary dump Alana Smith, you are able to work around some form of a trade with Seattle to trade Arike for Ezi.

[00:06:48]Like you might have to give up both of your first round picks next year, the one you have from Vegas eight from the Aces, which would be a late first round pick, and the one you have from um for your own.

[00:06:58]Like you might have to attach a first to Arike to get Ezi Magbegor.

[00:07:03]Look at the supporting cast and the picture gets bleaker. after this season.

[00:07:07]Maddie Siegrist, a legitimate bucket getter regardless of whether she starts, is on the final year of her rookie contract. Li Yueru on a minimum. Move Smith's salary and suddenly Miller has flexibility to chase a real defensive piece. Arike Ogunbowale, as franchise defining as she's been since 2019, may have positive trade value to a contender desperate for scoring. A package built around Ogunbowale and the late first Dallas owns from the Aces could conceivably land Epiphanny Prince from Seattle, exactly the kind of mobile defensive big the Wings thought they were getting in Smith at a fraction of the cap hit.

[00:07:45]And you're looking now and it's like, what the do we do as a team? Like, have we lowered our championship window to now?

[00:07:53]Like, is our championship window this year?

[00:07:56]Um because they want they're going to have to retool then.

[00:07:59]Like, if their championship window's like if they're going to not um win this year, they're going to have to retool. And the problem is is that do like they might have to punt on two years.

[00:08:11]Because as long as the Atlanta Smith and Awak Kuier are still on the roster, this is the best their roster's ever going to be.

[00:08:18]This is the existential question Dallas cannot avoid. They built this roster expecting a multi-year championship window with Bookers as the centerpiece.

[00:08:27]Now they're staring at a 2026 season where their max contract defender is unplayable, their best rotation pieces are on expiring deals, and their cap sheet is so frozen they may be forced to choose between Awak Kuier Ford and Maddie Siegrist next off season. The brutal truth is this, the Dallas Wings as currently constructed with Smith, with Kuier Ford, with Siegrist, with Jessica Shepard, with the entire support cast around Paige Bookers, this is the best version of the roster Dallas is ever going to see. Every other year the math gets worse. [music] So, unless the Indiana or unless the Dallas Wings find a way to salary dump Atlanta Smith, this is the best their team is going to look.

[00:09:05]I mean that. This is the best their roster is going to look.

[00:09:08]And I wonder what they're going to have to give up to to salary dump her. So, let's lay out what this actually means for Dallas Wings basketball over the next 12 months. The Atlanta Smith contract is not a recoverable mistake.

[00:09:19]It is a structural problem. Under the new CBA, max contracts now escalate with the cap, which means every year Smith remains on the roster, she takes up a larger percentage of Dallas's spending power. That's a death spiral disguised as a defensive upgrade. The most painful part isn't even the money. It's the opportunity cost. Awak Kuier is doing the job Dallas paid Smith to do. She's defending. She's rebounding. She's posting plus-minus numbers Smith hasn't sniffed all season. And because Smith's max contract sucks up roughly 1.4 million of cap space and only goes up from there, Dallas has no realistic path to retaining Kuier beyond this year.

[00:09:54]They will lose the player outplaying their max signing because they're paying their max signing. Then there's Maddy Siegrist, a pure scorer, the kind [music] of bench bucket every contender wants. She's also on the final year of her rookie deal, and the moment that contract expires, Dallas faces another impossible choice. Pay her market value or watch her walk for nothing. Multiply that across the roster. Jessica Shepard is on a team-friendly four-year deal that doesn't reset until after this season. And at that point, Dallas no longer has reserved rights to keep her cheap. Awak Kuier expires this year.

[00:10:25]Maddy Siegrist expires this year. Leo Resitu is on minimum. The roster Curt Miller built is a one-year Frankenstein, and the head holding it together is a max contract that's actively hurting the team on the floor. This is where the front office has to make a decision that defines the next half decade of Dallas Wings basketball. Option one, ride it out. Hope Alanna Smith finds her game.

[00:10:45]Hope the defense clicks. Hope Paige Bueckers takes another leap and drags this roster into playoff contention.

[00:10:50]>> [music] >> Realistic? Probably not. Smith's track record before her award-winning season in Minnesota was as a complimentary defender, not a max salary anchor. The contract was always a reach. Now the reach is on full display, seven games in. Option two, salary dump immediately.

[00:11:05]Attach a first-round pick to Smith's contract and shop it to Seattle, Portland, or Washington.

[00:11:10]>> [music] >> The cost is brutal. You're paying premium draft capital to escape a contract you signed 50 days ago, but you free up the cap space to retain Awak Kuier retain Siegrist and potentially pursue Ezzy Magbegor or another legitimate two-way big who actually fits the Bueckers timeline. Option three, the nuclear option. Trade Awak Ogunbowale.

[00:11:30]It's heretical to suggest in Dallas. She just re-signed multi-year. She's been the heartbeat of the franchise since 2019, but the brutal math of building around Paige Bueckers may demand it.

[00:11:40]Ogunbowale plus a first for Magbegor restructures the entire identity of the team. Dallas becomes a defense-first, Bueckers-led franchise with the cap flexibility to actually compete in 2027 and beyond. There's no painless path forward. That's what makes this so devastating. The Wings spent the offseason convinced they had cracked the code. Re-sign Arike, lock down a defensive player of the year, surround Paige Bueckers with depth, hire Jose Fernandez to run a new offensive system.

[00:12:06]Seven games in, the entire blueprint is collapsing under the weight of one contract. And in a league where the new CBA punishes teams that miscalculate at the top of the cap, mistakes like this don't fade. They compound. Curt Miller's tenure in Dallas was supposed to be defined by Paige Bueckers. Right now, it's being defined by Alana Smith. So, I want a real answer in the comments. If you're Curt Miller, do you ride this out and pray Smith recovers, or do you eat the draft capital salary dumper before the deadline and start building the Bueckers era for real? You can't pick both. The cap math doesn't allow it.

[00:12:38]Tell me what you do. And if you've been watching the Wings closely, drop the specific trade you think actually gets done before this team runs out of time.

[00:12:45]Because somebody in Dallas is going to make this call in the next few months, and the wrong answer might cost them the next five years of Paige Bueckers basketball.