Satou Sabally returning to Dallas Wings on 1-year deal after earning Most Improved Player honors

Satou Sabally posted career highs in points, rebounds, assists and steals last season with the Wings. (Kirby Lee/USA Today)

Satou Sabally will be back in Dallas this summer.

Sabally, the league’s reigning Most Improved Player, will return to the Dallas Wings next season on a 1-year deal, she told ESPN on Tuesday. Sabally, who was a restricted free agent this offseason, will sign a 1-year, $195,000 contract. That’s about $12,000 less than the regular max deal she could have earned.

“Just engaging in those basketball conversations really made us realize that we want to work together, and we want to bring a championship to Dallas,” Sabally said, via ESPN. “It could really be termed as unfinished business.”

Sabally was selected by the Wings out of Oregon with the No. 2 pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft. She had a career year last season and earned her second All-Star nod while averaging 18.6 points and 8.1 rebounds. That earned her Most Improved Player honors in the league, and she finished fifth in MVP voting. The 6-foot-4 forward also had career highs in assists and steals per game, and she recorded 14 double-doubles and shot better than 36% from behind the arc.

Sabally was a restricted free agent this offseason and had six other teams reach out to her about a deal, per the report. She was playing in China earlier in the WNBA offseason, though she will head to Brazil next to try to qualify for the 2024 Olympics with the German national team.

The Wings went 22-18 last season and made the playoffs for a third straight year, though they were knocked out in the semifinals by the Las Vegas Aces, who went on to win a second straight championship.

Sabally is one of several key players returning for Dallas, along with Arike Ogunbowale, Natasha Howard and Teaira McCowan. The franchise won three WNBA championships back when it was the Detroit Shock, but it hasn’t won since relocating first to Tulsa and then to Dallas.

“The most important thing for me next year is really finishing the mission of actually being the greatest team in the league and being a leader, developing as a leader and really paving the way for the future,” Sabally said, via ESPN. “I think the WNBA is at such an amazing point right now in women’s sports and history, so being one of the faces that can be part of that is such an honor to me. … I’m grateful to be able to come back to a place that I call home. That is also super special and something I’ve worked hard for, so I’m just really excited and happy.”