2026 WNBA expansion mock draft: Selecting new Fire and Tempo players

Friday’s 2026 WNBA expansion draft will send new players to the incoming Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire. The draft order is set, and existing WNBA teams can now protect up to five players ahead of time.

How will the draft work? In essence, the Fire will draft first and the Tempo will draft second in a snake-style draft, picking from the available pool of unprotected players. Only one player per team can go in each round, making the maximum number of possible losses for each WNBA team two.

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The new teams can choose from any unprotected players on any WNBA roster but can only draft one impending free agent each. That means the Tempo and Fire will largely choose from players who are rostered on rookie deals or are restricted free agents or exclusive rights free agents.

Going off our 2026 WNBA team protections list, how could Friday’s expansion draft shake out? Here’s our likely-to-be-very-wrong 2026 WNBA expansion mock draft.

Round 1

1. Portland: G Jewell Lloyd (Las Vegas Aces, UFA)

2. Toronto: G Marine Johannes (New York Liberty)

5. Portland: C Li Yueru (Dallas Wings)

6. Toronto: F Olivia Nelson-Ododa (Connecticut Sun)

7. Portland: F Chloe Bibby (Indiana Fever)

8. Toronto: C Dorka Juhász (Minnesota Lynx)

9. Portland: G Isobel Borlase (Atlanta Dream)

10. Toronto: F Jordan Horston (Seattle Storm)

11. Portland: F Emily Engstler (Washington Mystics)

12. Toronto: F Kathryn Westbeld (Phoenix Mercury)

Round 2

1. Toronto: F Azurá Stevens (Los Angeles Sparks, UFA)

2. Portland: F Awak Kuier (Dallas Wings)

3. Toronto: F Cecilia Zandalasini (Golden State Valkyries)

4. Portland: G Sug Sutton (Washignton Mystics)

5. Toronto: G Maya Caldwell (Atlanta Dream)

6. Portland: F Maria Kliundikova (Minnesota Lynx)

7. Toronto: G Nika Mühl (Seattle Storm)

8. Portland: G Aaliyah Nye (Las Vegas Aces)

9. Toronto: G Rebekah Gardner (New York Liberty)

10. Portland: G/F Kitija Laksa (Phoenix Mercury)

11. Toronto: C Rayah Marshall (Connecticut Sun)

12. Portland: G Bree Hall (Indiana Fever)

Projected Portland picks

Projected starters: G Lloyd, G Sutton, F Engstler, F Jocytė, C Yueru

Projected Toronto picks

Projected starters: G Johannes, G Allemand, F Stevens, F Zandalasini, C Juhász

This article originally appeared on For The Win: 2026 WNBA expansion mock draft: Selecting new Fire and Tempo players