PHOENIX — Even four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson doesn’t know what to expect in the coming weeks of an ultra-condensed offseason.
“Not one bit,” Wilson told reporters on Friday from USA Basketball training camp. “I hope I’m protected.”
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It’s near certain she will be on the Las Vegas Aces’ protection list for the two-team expansion draft, one of the few clear moving pieces as the WNBA announces the results on Friday, followed by an abbreviated free agency period when nearly every veteran is available. That flows into brief training camps before the season tips on May 8.
The Las Vegas Aces will seek again to retain their core, and Wilson doubled down on Friday, saying she isn’t interested in going anywhere else. Qualifying offers are expected to go out beginning on Tuesday, according to the most recent drafts sent to teams. Uncertainty abounds when it comes to official dates over the next two weeks, leading into training camps opening on April 19.
“Like when does it start again?” Sue Bird, Team USA managing director and a member of the Seattle Storm ownership group, quipped during a question on approaching free agency.
The WNBA has not officially released dates for qualifying offers, the negotiating period and the opening of free agency while it completes the full collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that the players union and Board of Governors approved late last month.
The tentative dates sent to teams are Tuesday for qualifying, Thursday for negotiations and April 12 for free agency. The week-long period overlaps the collegiate draft in New York on April 13, and is significantly shorter than typical offseason progressions that begin in January.
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It also squeezes the decision-making process for both teams and players, who want to get into their new homes by the start of camp. And the major boost in salary cap and supermax salaries means slightly new approaches to roster building, while major decisions could have lasting impact beyond the coming year.
“This is going to be a period of time where you’re just going to try to make the best decision you can in a short period of time,” Bird, who spent her entire career in Seattle before the recent dawn of athlete movement, said. “If you don’t get it right, you know, you got to learn from it.”
A majority of players didn’t sign past the 2025 season to reap the rewards of a new CBA and mega-boosted salaries. Wilson and New York Liberty stars Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu have all confirmed publicly this week they will stay with their current teams.
Ionescu said on Friday her offseason training did not change because she was always targeting the April 19 training camp date and being in Brooklyn with the franchise that drafted her No. 1 overall in 2020.
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“It creates a little bit of excitement, like everyone’s in it together,” Ionescu said. “No one knows what their teams look like. No one knows a lot. So I think it’s going to be exciting to just kind of start training camp. I think everyone will be able to take a deep breath.”
Then there are those free agents who will willingly look elsewhere or who don’t fit into their previous team’s future plans.
Bird said she’ll be interested to see if there are more one-year deals than long-term deals, given the circumstances. But she imagines, from the player perspective, that free agents have already developed their priority lists of resources, ideal team fit and coaching staff options.
“Hopefully they’re already doing that, so when the decision does come and they’re getting all those calls, they’re ready for it,” Bird said.
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The first call these players might receive is news they’ve been selected by either Portland or Toronto, moves that couldn’t be planned for in the previous weeks as the CBA was negotiated. Those could throw a late curveball into the free agency works.
There is also the WNBA collegiate draft that will impact team plans and future projections. General managers are possibly more prepared than ever, given it’s the main thing they could work on in previous weeks without the standard February free agency period to fill out a roster.
Connecticut’s Azzi Fudd, UCLA’s Lauren Betts and TCU’s Olivia Miles are projected lottery picks, as well as international standouts Awa Fam and Iyana Martín of Spain.
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There is no consensus No. 1 overall pick as there was the last two years, when Caitlin Clark went to the Indiana Fever in 2024 and Paige Bueckers to the Dallas Wings in 2025. The Wings again hold the No. 1 pick and could pair their leading scorer with her collegiate backcourt mate, Fudd.
“That would be exciting,” Bueckers said. “Again, I don’t know all that I can say. But obviously we’ve had a lot of games together under our belt. Won the national championship game together, so I think there’s great success in that.”
With so much crammed into such a short time, there are going to be missteps on each side that could create havoc in the regular season. Too many moving parts and unknowns remain exactly five weeks out from the start of the WNBA’s 30th anniversary season.
“The most important part is for everyone to be nice to themselves about it,” Bird said.
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