Who Will the Storm Protect?

The Toronto/Portland WNBA Expansion Draft takes place on April 3rd.

With the CBA ratified, the WNBA moves forward with its off-season plans. Next up is the WNBA Expansion Draft for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, which takes place on Friday, April 3rd. However, the deadline to submit the existing teams’ protected players list is today (March 29th).

WNBA Expansion Draft Rules

Per the league’s PR, they sent out the following.

“The WNBA’s 14th and 15th franchises, the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo, set to begin play in May, will begin assembling their respective rosters when the league conducts the WNBA Expansion Draft 2026 presented by State Street Investment Management SPY on Friday, April 3. Coverage and analysis will be provided by ESPN, which will air the WNBA Expansion Draft Special 2026 Presented by State Street Investment Management SPY at 3:30 p.m. ET.

A coin toss will be conducted between Portland and Toronto on Friday, March 27, with the winner having the right to choose between either receiving the first selection in the Expansion Draft or the sixth pick – rather than the seventh pick – in the first round of the annual draft set for Monday, April 13, 2026.

The Expansion Draft will consist of two rounds, with Portland and Toronto having the ability to select from a designated pool of available players as determined by each of the current 13 teams. The Fire and the Tempo will “snake” picks such that the team that holds the first pick in the first round via the coin toss selection will have the second pick in the second round. In each round, Portland and Toronto will alternate selections and shall have the right to acquire the player contract of, or the negotiating rights to, one player listed on the Unprotected List of each of the existing 13 teams.

In the college draft, Portland and Toronto will alternate picks such that whichever team holds the sixth pick in the first round will then have the seventh pick in the second round and the sixth pick in the third round. The other team will have the seventh pick in the first round, the sixth pick in the second round, and the seventh pick in the third round.

In preparation for the Expansion Draft, each of the existing 13 teams will be required to submit to the league office by Sunday, March 29, a Roster List that includes every player to whom the team has rights – players on the team’s active, suspended, draft list/reserved, core, or retired lists – as of the final day of the 2025 regular season. The 13 teams will be required to designate a maximum of five “Protected Players” who will not be available for selection in the Expansion Draft. All other players on each team’s Roster List will be eligible for selection by the Fire and Tempo (“Unprotected players”).

If a player who is not signed to a contract for the 2026 season is selected by Portland or Toronto in the Expansion Draft, the selecting team will receive whatever rights to such player that the existing team would have had if that player was not selected in the Expansion Draft.

Any player who has completed the playing services called for by her [previous] player contract and has five or more years of service as of the end of the 2025 season must be designated on the Roster List as a “Potential Unrestricted Free Agent.” All such players must be further designated as either “Protected Players” or included on the Unprotected List.

Only one of the players selected by Portland and only one of the players selected by Toronto in the Expansion Draft may be a “Potential Unrestricted Free Agent.” Such a Potential Unrestricted Free Agent may be selected even if they can no longer be designated as a Core Player, permitting the selecting team to be the only team that can negotiate a supermax contract with such player.

Between the time that the Roster Lists are submitted and a designated time on the day before the Expansion Draft, Portland and Toronto will be permitted to make the following trades with existing teams: (i) an agreement to select a particular player from an Unprotected List and trade that player to a team other than her existing team; and (ii) an agreement to select (or not select) a particular player from such trading team’s Unprotected List.”

Since the WNBA released this information, we have had the drawing in which Toronto won the coin toss. They selected to have the earlier draft pick, #6 overall in the WNBA Draft. That means the Portland Fire will get the first pick in the Expansion Draft. Today, the 13 current WNBA teams will need to send the league their list of five players they plan to protect. All other WNBA players will be available to be selected by Portland and Toronto.

Seattle Storm’s 2025/2026 Roster

Under Contract

Lexie Brown
Jordan Horston
Dominique Malonga
Nika Mühl

Unrestricted Free Agents

Skylar Diggins
Ezi Magbegor
Tiffany Mitchell
Nneka Ogwumike
Katie Lou Samuelson
Brittney Sykes
Erica Wheeler
Gabby Williams

Reserved Players

Zia Cooke
Mackenzie Holmes

Unfortunately for the Storm, the rules have changed a little more. Last year, they were able to protect six players, and this year, they’re only able to protect five. Moreover, previously they didn’t need to protect players who had received the Core (franchise) tag multiple times in previous seasons, but this time they will. That means they will have to protect Nneka Ogwumike where they didn’t need to in 2025.

With two expansion franchises coming in during the same season, I do believe these changes to the rules were necessary. It should give both the Tempo and Fire a chance to be decent in their first season. No one expected the Golden State Valkyries to be a playoff team last year, but they made it happen. We’ll see if either Portland or Toronto can match that.

Who Will the Storm Protect?

I think we have a general idea of the players that should be protected, but there is some uncertainty due to the change in expansion rules, plus the fact that we don’t know what the plan is with a new Head Coach (Sonia Raman). It’s unclear if the team plans to continue to build around veterans Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins or rebuild around a younger core with Dominique Malonga and Jordan Horston.

I feel very confident that, whether they do the former or the latter, either way, they will be protecting Malonga and Horston. Both players are already under contract for next season, or in Dom’s case, several more seasons. That takes up two of Seattle’s five protected spots.

Seattle’s starting five at the end of last season was Skylar Diggins, Brittney Sykes, Gabby Williams, Nneka Ogwumike, and Ezi Magbegor. Erica Wheeler deserves an honorable mention as she started the majority of games at Shooting Guard before the Sykes trade. Because we’ve already protected two players who weren’t starters in the above scenario, we know that the Storm won’t be able to protect all five starters ahead of the expansion draft.

I think we can safely rule out Mackenzie Holmes, Zia Cooke, Lexie Brown, Tiffany Mitchell, and Nika Mühl. I don’t really see a scenario where the Storm would protect those players over the potential starters from last season’s playoff team. That isn’t to say that I don’t think any of them will be on the Storm’s roster in 2026.

Players like Mühl, Holmes, or Cooke could all be on Seattle’s roster in some form or another if they aren’t selected in the Expansion Draft. Lexie Brown has a guaranteed contract with the Storm for 2026. Assuming she isn’t selected in the expansion draft, they could keep her, look to trade her, or try to buyout her contract.

Before we knew the rules for this year’s expansion draft, I thought the Storm might have to debate between protecting Katie Lou Samuelson or Erica Wheeler. Wheeler obviously played a much larger role on the team, but Katie Lou is younger, and we don’t know what the new coaches will be looking for. However, this thought process was under the initial impression that Seattle could protect six players and wouldn’t need to protect Nneka. Now we know that neither of those things is accurate. Because the rules have changed, I don’t expect the Storm to protect either Katie Lou Samuelson or Erica Wheeler.

That leaves us three spots for five players: Nneka Ogwumike, Skylar Diggins, Gabby Williams, Ezi Magbegor, and Brittney Sykes.

Sykes seems like the most expendable, even though Seattle gave up their 2026 first-round pick (9th overall) to acquire her at the trade deadline. With the Storm being eliminated again in the first round, losing their first-round pick, and then immediately losing the player they traded their first-round pick away for, is an unfortunate double-whammy. But Sykes shares a similar style to both Gabby Williams and Jordan Horston. With Horston returning from injury, there is some redundancy there.

Nneka Ogwumike was the Seattle Storm’s best player in 2025. Arguably, she was also their best player in 2024 as well. Even in a scenario where the Storm’s front office decided they probably want to go into a full youth rebuild, I can’t see a situation where they wouldn’t protect Ogwumike. She is far too talented. Seattle’s Front Office wouldn’t protect players like Katie Lou Samuelson or Nika Mühl over Ogwumike. That’s not happening. Nneka will take up one of the remaining three spots.

Gabby Williams is next on the list. For the reason I wrote about why I don’t think Brittney Sykes will be protected, Gabby will be. Both share a lot of similarities. Both players are incredible, dynamic athletes. Both are great at getting downhill and driving to the rim. They’re both good rebounders and excellent defenders. However, both struggle with their outside shooting; both are around 30% or below from 3-PT throughout their career. The difference? Williams is nearly five years younger than Sykes. She has built a strong following in Seattle, she is a huge fan favorite, and has a great relationship with the franchise. Gabby is also more likely to re-sign with the team because she has already done so multiple times.

Williams can also be looked at as a cornerstone franchise piece, no matter what direction the Front Office wants to head. Does the team want to try and swing for the fences and push for a Championship in 2026? Then Gabby Williams is going to be an important piece, likely as the team’s third or fourth option. What if they want to go into a full rebuild around the younger players like Dominique Malonga? Gabby can be her veteran and still be the 2nd or 3rd option on the team. Similar to what Jewell Loyd was for Ezi Magbegor and Jordan Horston, or Sue Bird was with Jewell and Stewie. With all that in mind, I think Gabby is in. That would be four protected slots taken up.

Two players are left to decide one spot. And boy, is this not easy. Skylar Diggins and Ezi Magbegor. The team has to make this decision before WNBA Free Agency or the WNBA Draft. General Manager Talisa Rhea will have to decide between the team’s defensive anchor and their primary ballhandler and point guard.

Making the Case to Protect Skylar

Storm fans know better than anyone how important the point guard position is. They’ve watched Sue Bird lead the franchise to four incredible WNBA Championships as the lead guard. The team also saw how poorly it operated in 2023 after Bird retired at the conclusion of the 2022 season, especially because they let Jordin Canada leave after 2021. In 2023, Yvonne Turner, Ivana Dojkić, and Sami Whitcomb all took turns trying to run the point, and none of them were successful to the level Seattle needed.

Despite some concerns, Diggins is still one of the league’s best point guards. She’s averaged over 15.0 PPG and 6.0 APG during her two-year stint in Seattle. While I believe Nneka might have a little more left in the tank than Skylar, I still believe Diggins can perform at or near an All-Star level in 2026.

When making the argument to protect Skylar over Ezi, I would talk about the importance of the point guard position. I would reference that Diggins is coming off her 7th All-Star appearance, while Magbegor had her worst season since 2021 (her 2nd year in the WNBA). I would also argue that if the team is building around Nneka Ogwumike in the near-future for the next couple of years and Dominique Malonga over the long-term, then I don’t know where that leaves Magbegor. I wrote an entire article about this topic late last year.

Diggins has expressed interest in finishing her career in Seattle. I don’t know if that has changed with the coaching/regime change (Quinn out and Raman in). But if that still holds true, Skylar can potentially give the Storm another season or two of high-quality point guard play, and that is very valuable when building a basketball team.

Making the Case to Protect Ezi

Around the time Jewell Loyd requested a trade, but before it happened, I wrote an article questioning whether the Storm should build around Ezi Magbegor. This was obviously well before they drafted Dominique Malonga. Nowadays, the consensus is that the Storm will build around Dom. But it wasn’t that long ago that I was writing the same thing about Ezi.

We have to remember that despite Ezi having already played six seasons in the WNBA, she is only 26 years old. Realistically, she should be entering her prime right now and should stay there for at least five years. During the only season in which she was the primary post player on the Storm, she was named to the WNBA All-Star team while averaging nearly 14 PPG on over 50% FG shooting and 39% 3-PT FG shooting, 8.0 RPG, 2.6 APG, and 2.0 BPG while she was 23 years old. In the best league in the world. Those numbers are pretty comparable to Napheesa Collier’s age-23 season in 2020.

Now I’m not here to say Magbegor is going to start putting up MVP numbers as Collier did. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to believe that her best basketball is still ahead of her, and that she has the talent to put up impressive numbers. Protecting Ezi is protecting an investment in the Storm’s future. She is nearly 10 years younger than Skylar.

Ezi is the team’s defensive anchor and rim protector. Gabby Williams has talked about how much Magbegor does to clean up everyone else’s mistakes. Magbegor has earned All-WNBA 1st or 2nd Team honors in four of her six seasons. She is one of the league’s best defensive players.

If the Storm are looking to build around youth, Magbegor is an important piece to keep around. Even though I expect Seattle to try to retain Nneka Ogwumike, we don’t know if that will be for just one more season, two, or could it be more than two? If Nneka decided to go elsewhere, the Storm could build around Magbegor and Dominique Malonga as the team’s frontcourt. Being able to replace Nneka, whether that’s this season or in a couple of years, with another player with All-Star potential (Magbegor) is important.

Decisions

I have a couple of thoughts on this. I believe Ezi Magbegor will be a hot commodity in Free Agency. I see other fan bases from places like Dallas and Minnesota that are hoping they sign Magbegor this offseason. There is also the obvious connection with Toronto Head Coach Sandy Brondello and Magbegor due to their time together on the Australian National team.

I do wonder if the Tempo and the Storm could agree to some type of trade that would leave Ezi exposed in the expansion draft, but then Toronto trades the Storm a draft pick. I’m not sure they’d be willing to part with the 6th overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, but that could be something GM Talisa Rhea explores.

That might be a bit complicated, as Portland has the first choice in the expansion draft because Toronto opted to take the earlier pick (6th instead of 7th). I’m not sure how either Seattle or Toronto could guarantee that Magbegor would still be available for the Tempo. And the problem is that the protected list is due today (Sunday, March 29th).

Ultimately, I think the Storm should protect Magbegor unless they work out some type of trade, as I wrote above. There are a couple of reasons why I would protect Ezi over Skylar. She is the team’s best defensive player. She is nearly 10 years younger than Diggins. Ezi is insurance in case, for some reason, the team doesn’t re-sign Ogwumike.

Lastly, I think leaving Skylar unprotected is the “safer” move. The players who are Unrestricted Free Agents that are selected in this year’s expansion draft are not obligated to sign with the new expansion team. Toronto and Portland may not want to “waste” their pick on Diggins if they aren’t confident that she’ll want to sign with them. While it’s true that the Tempo or Fire would then be the only team that could offer her a Supermax salary, I feel that contract would be more important to Ezi than Skylar, knowing all of Diggins’ sponsorship deals.

We don’t know exactly what direction the Seattle Storm want to go in this year with a fresh slate and a new coaching staff, but my prediction is that they protect Dominique Malonga, Jordan Horston, Gabby Williams, Nneka Ogwumike, and Ezi Magbegor.

The Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire Expansion Draft on Friday, April 3rd at 12:30 PM PT.

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