Michael Voepel
Multiple Authors
As the WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association continue their monthslong negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement, the league is prepared for a historic offseason that will bring the first million-dollar salaries, among other landmark changes.
But it has also been an immense period of uncertainty for everyone involved, from team owners to the last player on the bench. And general managers, in particular, are in limbo as they prepare for a two-team expansion draft, WNBA free agency and the college draft before the season opens May 8.
They are evaluating college and overseas talent, thinking about their 2026 rosters and making any infrastructure moves needed for their franchises. But in a normal year, WNBA general managers would already be done with free agency and planning draft scenarios with a good idea of what their teams might look like for the coming season.
Instead, everything about personnel now is more theoretical than actual. The GMs hope an agreement comes soon, and they know that when it does they must be prepared to make decisions right away.
“This really applies to everything,” one GM told ESPN. “You do as much as you can, you create as many different scenarios as possible. So that when we are ready to go, you’re in a good spot to move really quickly.”
Last month, the WNBA told the WNBPA that a new CBA should be agreed to by March 10 in order to prevent any delay in the 2026 schedule.
“I wasn’t shocked by them setting a date,” a GM told ESPN. “I will say I was surprised [that] it was the first time they had used the timeline as a negotiation tactic. It’s like, what? You’re doing this in late February? We have been doing the reverse engineering math internally and thought [the date] would be way sooner. Like 10 days to a week earlier around [NBA] All-Star. We thought there was no way we could squeeze everything in in this timeline.
“For anyone to say they were surprised there was a date set, what do you mean? There are two teams without rosters — what are you thinking?”
The college draft is set for April 13 and training camp is supposed to begin April 19, 19 days before the season is scheduled to open. The expansion draft has yet to be scheduled, and is expected to feature different rules than last year’s Golden State expansion draft, when each team was allowed to protect six players.
“Whatever we have to do to get to a season, I’m like, ‘Hey, let’s do it,'” one GM said. “Even if nobody sleeps for like a month.”
The pressure will be on the GMs to act fast when the time comes. Here is how they’ve been getting ready.
How have you prepared for the expansion draft for Portland and Toronto?
GM: “That’s actually one of the few things where you can get to 80% or 90% [done] and then you’ve just got to close the loop once we get the final rules. We have all information about all of our own players — who’s healthy, who may have had a good year, things like that. It’s just once we get the rules, we’ve got to make a final decision.”
“Whatever we have to do to get to a season, I’m like, ‘Hey, let’s do it.’ Even if nobody sleeps for like a month.”
WNBA general manager on an April that might include an expansion draft, college draft and free agency
GM: “We’ve gotten a gist that we’re not going to be able to protect six. Most likely the rule will be five. You just run through a bunch of scenarios to try to be as prepared as possible … trying to project other teams and what their situation is going to be, who’s going to be available or who’s not. So a lot of it is preparing even more, because we can’t say ‘OK, here are our parameters. We just need to worry about this.’ It’s like, ‘We kind of know, maybe.’
“It’s limitless amount of possibilities that you can run through. And then you also think about, as best you can, as you’re guesstimating, what the free agent rule will be, because I think that’s going to be a really big indicator of how the expansion draft goes.”
GM: “We have shifted from [thinking about] the expansion draft … there is no point in anyone going through more mock drafts if everything is a question mark.”
“We are at a place where we feel the like the proposals the league has sent haven’t been good ones.”
– @TheWNBPA vice president @Alysha_Clark joins NBA Today to discuss where the latest negotiations stand pic.twitter.com/7JBmphHRv4
— espnW (@espnW) March 4, 2026
The salary cap hasn’t been set; how has that made it harder to plan for free agency?
GM: “A lot of it is still the same. We all know which players are up for a contract, which players are not. The two biggest nuances are we still don’t know the exact rules around the core [designation] and we obviously don’t know the exact rules about all player contracts and all cap regulations.
“What is the overall team cap? What’s the maximum salary, what’s the minimum? With player preference stylistically of who you are looking for, you can have a good idea. But we still need those final details to really feel confident in this role.
“To where you can say, ‘I know every number, I know every rule, these are the different scenarios we’re going to go in with.’ At the end of the day, the CBA is what makes this whole thing move. Those are the rules of the game. We can all do as much as we want, but without the rules, it’s hard to get past a certain level.”
“Unrivaled will be over. [Athletes Unlimited] will be over. There’ll be some players playing overseas, but the majority aren’t there anymore. Are we going to be doing, like, college home visits?”
WNBA general manager on how an April free agency could impact in-person communication between teams and players
GM: “Right now it’s all about ideal scenarios and worse-case scenarios and hopefully we meet somewhere in the middle. The numbers that are being thrown around for salary cap, we can play around those and project where players will fall. But nothing is set in stone, so we just have to be agile.
GM: “Ultimately a cap is a cap, no matter what the number is. So what you do is think in terms of percentages: ‘We can probably give this much percent to this player.’ Then you feel like you’re prepared to go have conversations when you’re finally allowed to do that.”
GM: “Especially with there being so many free agents, and if the unrestricted free agent rule stays the same, or if it changes, that could dictate who you could lose potentially on your roster. You have to at least take a look to try to get what your odds are … about what [players] could be of interest to an expansion team. That’s a really big piece of it. It’s just hard to know what your situation is, because it’s not totally just dependent on you. It depends on who else those expansion teams can select.
“Obviously, we’re super familiar with the players that are in our league, but then also in other leagues overseas, and the type of free agents that you want, the type of players. So a lot of it is just trying to get a feel and watch a ton of film. That’s where we really spend a lot of time, is like in the scouting space, because that’s all we can do really. We’ve had a longer runway to be able to watch. You know you’re going to be able to sign people. We kind of put them in tiers. Here’s tier one that we want to sign, and if not, here’s tier two, here’s tier three.
“Almost every team has some type of analytics department that has different ways that they go about it or different formats that they use to evaluate players. So obviously you use that when you’re trying to get a little bit more specific.”
1:29
Stephen A. calls for the WNBA to take care of its players
Stephen A. Smith says the WNBA must be fair and needs to take care of its players.
Do you think there will be less potential free agency movement because of the lateness of this free agency period, whenever it happens?
GM: “Agents are pointing in that direction. Players might look at a safer, one-year contract with a team they know. I think if the max goes up to $1 million, there will be movement. Who will turn down a max salary?
“Right now, I am just talking to agents and sharing our vision … just asking to please get us a seat at the table.”
“We have a countdown in our office, which is getting scarier and scarier to see. It’s the countdown to training camp, to the first preseason game and the first regular-season game. It’s getting close and getting very real.”
WNBA general manager on how many things need to get done before the 2026 season tips May 8
GM: “If this were not a CBA year, if this were a normal free agency cadence that we did in January and February, I think you would see more player movement than what we’re going to see given the delay and a shorter time frame.
“By the same token, had there not been a new CBA coming for 2026, then I don’t think this many players would be free agents now. Their contracts wouldn’t have been structured to end in 2025. So they kind of go together.
“But I do think all things considered, we will probably see less player movement than everybody expected 18 months ago.”
GM: “Whenever we do get to free agency, most players aren’t going to be playing anymore, right? Unrivaled will be over. [Athletes Unlimited] will be over. There’ll be some players playing overseas, but the majority aren’t there anymore. Are we going to be doing, like, college home visits? What is that going to look like in free agency?
“I do think it could lead to less movement, and I’m interested to see how that affects contract length and what people want to do. Because I feel like they’re going to probably want the longer contracts than what we’ve seen in quite a while, with the least amount of time to make a decision.”
How much has your workflow changed compared to what it normally would have been?
GM: “We’re trying to do things in reverse order. Usually, we hit free agency first, then we really get into finalizing any staff additions, and then really hone in on the draft.
“This offseason, we’re first trying to finalize anything organizational — whether it be staffing, infrastructure or things like that — as well as do draft prep. Hopefully we will get all that done so that when free agency hits, we can focus solely on that.”
GM: “It’s not that different other than, obviously, we’d be in contact with players and signing contracts by this point. It’s just been a longer time to watch film, look at analytics and have discussions about roster compositions.
GM: “A lot of meetings with coaches … let’s say we are making the most of the time we have on our hands right now without players. We have a countdown in our office, which is getting scarier and scarier to see. It’s the countdown to training camp, to the first preseason game and the first regular-season game. It’s getting close and getting very real.”
ESPN’s Kendra Andrews and Alexa Philippou contributed to this report.
Leave a Reply