WNBA ready to usher in big changes
The WNBA hasn’t gone through an expansion draft in 16 years.
In 2008, the Dream was added as the 14th team in the league. By 2009, the WNBA was back to 13 teams after the Comets folded. The next year, the league dropped to 12 teams — which it where it stayed until now — after the Monarchs’ dissolution.
Friday marks the start of the WNBA’s era of ascent, with the Valkyries kicking off the first of three expansion drafts in two years. General manager Ohemaa Nyanin is the mastermind behind the team’s first roster.
‘‘The goal is throughout the journey of expansion — free agency, college [draft] and midseason trades, all of those things — to by the end of the season get very close to [defining] what does Valkyries basketball look like,’’ Nyanin said.
In 2026, Toronto and Portland will bring the league two steps closer to commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s goal of having 16 teams by 2028. The revival of a former franchise might end up rounding things out. Cleveland has launched a bid to bring a team back after the Rockers, one of the WNBA’s original franchises, folded in 2003.
Beyond the addition of two new franchises for 2026, the WNBA will see a major overhaul, with the collective-bargaining agreement set to expire at the end of the 2025 season. The fact that every WNBA team likely will undergo a transformation, with almost every player becoming a free agent in 2026, offers Nyanin no easy way to experiment during the Valkyries’ inaugural season. Year 1 for Nyanin, coach Natalie Nakase and their staff will be rooted in developing a solid foundation and team identity.
‘‘The different iterations of who is going to be protected has influenced me to be super-open,’’ Nyanin said.
All 12 existing WNBA teams turned in their list of six protected players Monday. Nyanin will select up to one player from each franchise’s unprotected list during the expansion draft, which will be broadcast at 5:30 p.m. Friday on ESPN. She only will be allowed to draft one player set to become an unrestricted free agent in 2025 if that player hasn’t played under the core designation for two or more seasons. The Valkyries then would be able to core that player — similar to the NFL’s franchise tag — giving them exclusive negotiating rights in free agency.
The Sky have four clear protections: Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso, Elizabeth Williams and Michaela Onyenwere. The other two players they protected are less clear. It was expected that Chennedy Carter, their leading scorer in 2024, would be protected, even if the Sky don’t plan to re-sign her as a free agent. The Sky’s last protected player likely is Dana Evans, who will be a restricted free agent, or Rachel Banham.
The WNBA didn’t make the protected lists public, which gives franchises a clear upper hand in future negotiations. For example, if the Sky didn’t protect Banham and the Valkyries pass on her, it would benefit her to know she wasn’t valued enough by the Sky to protect.
It’s unlikely Nyanin will make 12 selections, considering that she will look to add players in free agency and through the 2025 draft. Another factor to consider is how Nyanin potentially will use the expansion draft to execute a multiteam trade or to acquire draft assets by agreeing to avoid selecting a specific unprotected player.
Most teams have maxed out their salary-cap space, meaning they would have to execute a clean trade or wait until the new year. The Sky are the only team with considerable cap space left this year.