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When is the WNBA expansion draft? What to know about Portland Fire, Toronto Tempo rosters originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Following the adoption of a new CBA, the WNBA offseason is going into overdrive.
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Over 46 chaotic days starting next month, the WNBA will hold a truncated but complete offseason in the build-up to the season opener on May 8.
WNBA players will hit free agency on April 9, while rookies will join the league in the rookie draft on April 13 before training camp begins on April 19. But looming over the offseason is the entry of two brand-new teams, the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo, whose rosters need to be filled as the WNBA expands for the second year in a row.
Expansion draft scheduled for April 6, but WNBA guidance needed
The WNBA expansion draft will take place on April 6, but little else is known for certain about the process, as the league has not provided guidelines to its 14th and 15th member franchises.
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ESPN’s Kendra Andrews reported Monday that a simple coin flip will determine whether the Fire or the Tempo will pick first in the draft. Their pool of players to choose from will be anyone who is left unprotected from the 13 existing teams; Andrews reported that each of the WNBA’s teams will be able to protect five players from the expansion draft.
Between April 1 and April 5, the existing WNBA teams will decide which players they want to protect before the draft. On draft night itself, the Fire and the Tempo will alternate turns selecting players until each roster has 12 players.
The team that does not pick first on April 6 will get the sixth overall pick in the following week’s college draft; the team that does get the opening crack in the expansion draft will select seventh.
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Both the Fire and the Tempo (led by two-time WNBA championship-winning coach Sandy Brondello) will be optimistic about the potential of their teams following the draft. After all, the Golden State Valkyries reached the WNBA playoffs in their first year of existence in 2025.
