Next season the WNBA will add a team from the Bay Area, the Golden State Valkyries, before Portland and Toronto start play in 2026, with another franchise likely to arrive in 2028.
These teams, of course, will need new players. And Golden State will pick their new stars on Friday through an expansion draft. The WNBA has so far enjoyed five expansion drafts – in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2006, and 2008. This year’s edition will allow the Valkyries to select at least 11 players to their roster. They also have Nos 5, 17, and 30 in next year’s draft.
The expansion draft will be a chaotic time for the other teams, who can only protect a handful of players from Golden State, and for fans, who are attached to their team’s rosters and unlikely to be happy about anyone leaving. But at the same time, an expansion draft is an indication that the WNBA is a thriving ecosystem that can nurture and support more teams, meaning more players, more coaches, and more women’s basketball. So take a deep breath, because the expansion draft is a good thing.
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At the same time, don’t get too comfortable after Friday’s business is concluded because next year the league will host two drafts for the Portland and Toronto teams. Plus, approximately 90% of the league’s players will be free agents at the same time, which means things will be pretty spicy.
When is the WNBA expansion draft?
The draft is scheduled for Friday 6 December and will air on ESPN at 6.30pm ET.
Who are the Golden State Valkyries?
The team were officially announced in October last year, and within hours more than 2,000 deposits for season tickets were placed. Ohemaa Nyanin joined the Valkyries as the team’s GM in May, and former Aces assistant coach Natalie Nakase was named as their head coach. The team will play at the Chase Center in San Francisco, also the home of the other Golden State team, the NBA’s Warriors.
How does the expansion draft work?
Each of the current teams in the WNBA will be able to protect six players from being drafted by the Valkyries. Golden State will then be able to draft players from each team. These are players the teams have right to, including active, suspended, draft list/reserved, core, and retired athletes. The team can then acquire the rights to one player from each of the 12 teams, and can also only choose one unrestricted free agent from across the list of those available.
By the end of the expansion draft, the Valkyries should have at least 11 players (the roster maximum is 12, and the team have the No 5 pick in next year’s WNBA draft).
Can the Valkyries take any unprotected player they want?
No. The team can only take one unrestricted free agent total – one from across the entire league – and then the Valkyries can core that player to protect them in future drafts and trade deals. The player will not be able to sign with any other team for one year (and will be paid the league’s supermax salary of $249,244 for 2025).
Additionally, within the list of potential players, there are some who have spent the last two seasons cored under their own teams and can’t be cored again. Right now, this means six players (Brittney Griner, Brionna Jones, Natasha Howard, DeWanna Bonner, Nneka Ogwumike, and Tina Charles) who the Valkyries could technically select, but they’d likely end up losing them anyway after the 2025 season – and would lose out on that nearly $250,000 investment.
Which players will be protected?
The list of protected players will be kept confidential, so it’s not definite who is on the list and who is not. However, educated guesses can (and are) being made. Teams will make sure they hang on to their best players. So, sorry Golden State fans, stars like Caitlin Clark, A’Ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Napheesa Collier and Angel Reese are going nowhere.
Which teams will lose out the most
Both the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx will have to keep their starting lineup safe (unless someone has specifically requested to transfer to San Francisco, which isn’t information they’re likely to share ahead of the expansion draft), which means they each stand to lose key young players from their rosters. The Lynx only have three players – Diamond Miller, Dorka Juhasz, and Alissa Pili – under the age of 27, so a loss of any of them would be tough on the team. On top of that, both Miller and Pili were high draft picks (No 2 and No 8, respectively).
How expansion teams have fared
There have been five expansion drafts since the WNBA was founded in 1996. The league added the Detroit Shock and Washington Mystics in 1998, the Orlando Miracle and Minnesota Lynx in 1999, the Indiana Fever, Miami Sol, Portland Fire, and Seattle Storm in 2000, the Chicago Sky in 2006, and the Atlanta Dream in 2008.
Those teams have run the gamut in terms of first-season highs and lows. The Shock ended their first season with a 17-13 record and in a three-way tie with the Miracle and the Charlotte Sting for the playoffs, but soon suffered a years-long slump that wasn’t corrected until former Detroit Pistons player and coach Bill Laimbeer took over in 2003 and the team won the WNBA finals. The team relocated to Tulsa after Laimbeer left in 2009 and ultimately folded.
The Mystics entered their first season with high hopes after adding Olympian Nikki McCray to their roster but lost 27 of their 30 games – they didn’t make it to the playoffs until 2000. And though the Lynx are absolutely dominant now, they struggled for several years until the team made the playoffs in 2003. Drafting Seimone Augustus in 2005 was a boon, but the Lynx didn’t win a championship until 2011, although they have since added another three, in 2013, 2015 and 2017.
The Miracle didn’t have the staying power that the Lynx enjoyed. Though the team made it to the playoffs in 2000, Orlando Magic owner Rich DeVos opted against keeping the team in Florida. They relocated to Connecticut, where they became the Sun, in 2003.
The Fever had their first successful year in 2002 after Tamika Catchings was named Rookie of the Year and helped lead the team to their first playoff appearance, where they lost to the Liberty. The Sol folded three seasons into the team’s existence after failing to raise enough money to continue to operate, a problem that also plagued the Portland Fire after chairman Paul Allen was unable to buy the team.
The Storm had a rocky two seasons before drafting Sue Bird in 2002. Bird proved to be a franchise-defining player and the team were the WNBA champions in 2004. They won three more championships, in 2010, 2018, and 2020.
The Sky joined the WNBA to a lot of fanfare (Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams and Beyoncé’s father Matthew Knowles were announced as minority shareholders) but not much initial success. The 2013 playoffs marked a significant turning point for the team after they drafted Elena Delle Donne as the second overall pick. The team won their first championship, and so far only, championship in 2021.
The Dream’s first season was dismal – they went 4-26 in 2008. But they drafted Angel McCoughtry No 1 overall in 2009 and reached the playoffs in the same year. Like a lot of teams, the Dream experienced coaching changes frequently but reached the WNBA finals in 2010, 2011, and 2013.
