The Dallas Wings have been one of the better teams so far to start the 2023 WNBA season. Sporting a record of 3-2, the Wings are hoping to build upon last season's playoff appearance. Helping lead the way so far has been fifth-year guard Arike Ogunbowale. Arike Ogunbowale is the Wings franchise player and is steadily becoming one of the WNBA's elite players. She's been off to a hot start to begin this season. She's taken another leap in her game and she believes she knows the reason why. Prior to their game against the Washington Mystics, Ogunbowale credited not playing overseas as the main reason why she was able to come out of the gates strong as per Kareem Copeland of The Washington Post.
Arike Ogunbowale is a two-time All-Star for the Wings and it's pretty safe to say that she'll make that a third straight selection this season. The No. 5 overall pick from the 2019 WNBA Draft, she has been having a career year.
Through the first four games of the season, Ogunbowale has been averaging a career-high 25.3 points per game, 4.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.8 steals with splits of 37.4 percent shooting from the field, 32.5 percent shooting from the three-point line and 90.9 percent shooting from the free-throw line.
For many WNBA players, they have to go overseas during the offseason in order to make a sizeable income. WNBA salaries do not pay as much as some overseas contracts. As a result, many of them are playing basketball year-round with no time off. Ogunbowale didn't go overseas this WNBA offseason and it looks like her game has benefitted from that.