WNBA Expansion Draft Details Released

The WNBA has revealed more info on the upcoming Expansion Draft.

Earlier today, the WNBA sent out a press release detailing the upcoming Golden State Valkyries Expansion Draft. It is the first WNBA Expansion draft to occur since the Atlanta Dream came into existence in 2008.

The draft will take place on December 6th, 2024. Each of the 12 existing WNBA teams will be required to submit a list of their six protected players roughly 10 days before the expansion draft (around November 26th). Per the league, the list of players includes all active, suspended, reserved, cored, and retired players. The Valkyries are allowed to take one player from each team. I do not believe they are required to take a player from each roster but at most, they’re allowed one player.

One of the biggest pieces of news is that Golden State can take one Unrestricted Free Agent from a team if they designate the Core tag on that player. That means WNBA franchises will have to protect players who will become Unrestricted Free Agents in 2025.

Players that have already had the Core Franchise tag placed on them (twice) will not be eligible and therefore their teams will not be required to protect them. Per Richard Cohen of HerHoopStats, those players include DeWanna Bonner, Tina Charles, Brittney Griner, Natasha Howard, Brionna Jones, and Nneka Ogwumike.

For the Storm specifically, that means they won’t need to use one of their six protective slots on Nneka Ogwumike. But they would need to use one on Gabby Williams if they didn’t want to risk Golden State taking her as their Core player. Considering most of the elite players in the WNBA will be protected and the ones that won’t be, can’t be Cored again, I think there would be a pretty high chance that the Valkyries would take Gabby Williams, even if it meant giving her the Supermax contract that comes with a Core tag.

Other Unrestricted Free Agents that will almost certainly be protected include Breanna Stewart, Kelsey Plum, Kelsey Mitchell, Satou Sabally, Alyssa Thomas, Diana Taurasi (unless she officially retires), Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, among others.

When looking over the Seattle Storm’s projected 2025 roster, the team has five players under contract. That includes guaranteed contracts to Jewell Loyd, Skylar Diggins-Smith, and Ezi Magbegor. As well as rookie-scale contracts for Jordan Horston and Nika Mühl.

Seattle also has six players who will be Unrestricted Free Agents heading into 2025. I’ve already mentioned Nneka and Gabby. That group also includes Sami Whitcomb, Mercedes Russell, Joyner Holmes, and Victoria Vivians.

Knowing what we know, the Storm are almost certain to use their six protection slots on Jewell Loyd, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Ezi Magbegor, Jordan Horston, Nika Mühl, and Gabby Williams.

I supposed there is always a chance they could use their protection slot on another Unrestricted Free Agent on someone like Sami Whitcomb or Joyner Holmes over Mühl. But Unrestricted Free Agents are only at risk of being selected if the Valkyries want to use their Core tag on them. I can’t picture a player like Whitcomb, Holmes, or even Mercedes Russell being Golden State’s lone Core franchise player.

If this scenario plays out as I’ve written, it feels like the Valkyries would either not end up taking any Seattle Storm players at all, or maybe they’d “steal away” Mackenzie Holmes. That is the player that Seattle still owns the draft rights to and wouldn’t likely protect with much higher-priority players to protect ahead of her.

There is always the chance the Storm could make a trade with the Valkyries for one of their protected players but I’m not sure how likely that would be. Seattle did make a trade with the Dream in the expansion draft that allowed Atlanta to acquire Izi Castro Marques and the Storm’s 8th overall pick for their 4th overall pick.

Per Ari Chambers, the list of protected players will not be made public. Only the teams, presumably the players themselves, and the Golden State front office will be informed. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if some names got leaked out. I’m sure the WNBA wants to keep that information private so that more people watch the Expansion Draft which is scheduled to air on one of the ESPN networks.

WNBA teams and fans will have to get used to this because we’re going to likely have two more expansion drafts before the 2026 WNBA season and at least one more in either 2027 or 2028.

For those interested, they can read the official WNBA Press Release below.

Notes:
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