WNBA expansion draft: Everything you need to know about the Golden State Valkyries' big night
The WNBA’s first expansion team in more than a decade has a location, a nickname and very soon will finally have a roster. The Golden State Valkyries will build their inaugural team via an expansion draft scheduled for Friday night (6:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) ahead of their league debut in May.
Golden State, the league’s 13th team, can select one player from each of the other 12 teams while following certain guidelines and with an eye on a complete and balanced roster. The Toronto and Portland franchises will build their rosters next year in an expansion draft ahead of their debuts in 2026. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said a 16th franchise is the goal in the coming years, but while there are at least a dozen bids in the works, one has yet to be named.
Here’s everything to know about the Valkyries’ expansion draft, including how it works, who might be available and what the franchise will consider with its picks.
How does the draft work?
The existing 12 teams each submitted to the league a full roster list of every player they have the rights to as of the final day of the 2024 regular season in September. It includes active, suspended, draft list/reserved, cored and retired lists. Teams were able to choose up to six players on their lists to protect and make them ineligible to the Valkyries. The league will not be releasing the lists.
Golden State can choose the rights to one available player from each team to build its initial roster. It can also choose to select none from a team, though the Valkyries can waive a player ahead of the season without taking a salary cap hit. Only one player total can be an upcoming unrestricted free agent (UFA), but the player can’t have played previously under the core player designation.
That rule makes a group of championship-tier superstars unavailable to Golden State, allowing teams to leave them off their “protected” lists to make room for other players. DeWanna Bonner (Sun), Tina Charles (Dream), Brittney Griner (Mercury), Natasha Howard (Wings), Brionna Jones (Sun) and Nneka Ogwumike (Storm) have all been cored before and cannot be cored again per the collective bargaining agreement.
Who is available to the Valkyries?
Heading into Friday night’s draft, we’re not 100 percent certain who is and isn’t available to the Valkyries. But some decisions are clear without needing to see the lists.
The very best players on your favorite team aren’t going anywhere. The Fever, for example, will surely protect Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell, NaLyssa Smith and Lexie Hull (with a sixth player less certain).
Even though Mitchell will be an unrestricted free agent when the period begins in January, the Fever can core her to keep her in town or pull off a sign-and-trade if she demands to leave. Smith fell out of favor in Indiana’s system, but even if the new regime isn’t interested in keeping her rostered, it doesn't want to let the former No. 2 pick go for nothing. The Fever would rather work a trade for the return of draft stock or a player’s rights.
It’s the same idea throughout the league. The champion New York Liberty aren’t going to part with Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton or Leonie Fiebich. (Veteran point guard Courtney Vandersloot, who came off the bench in the playoffs, presents a conundrum we’ll get to in the next section.) Las Vegas is holding on to A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum, who is an unrestricted free agent.
What Golden State will consider
Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase said she and general manager Ohemaa Nyanin each made their own lists and started evaluating players shortly after Nakase’s hiring. The former Aces assistant said she wants to dig deep into each potential player’s background, college success and who they are as a person.
The Valkyries will have to use their one UFA choice wisely. A whole host of standouts, including Vandersloot, could be left off the Liberty’s protected list, given the franchise’s glut of rights to international talent. In that case, the Valkyries have to consider age (Vandersloot will be 36) and a player’s will to join the franchise (an international player like Marine Johannès may consider playing in the WNBA as with the Liberty or nothing).
Elena Delle Donne, who sat out last year and is another conundrum of a situation, is a potential UFA selection should the Mystics not protect her. But she’s been vocal in the past about staying within close distance of her family in Delaware and might opt to sit out again if asked to play across the country.
Sixth Player of the Year Tiffany Hayes came out of retirement specifically to play for a championship with the Aces. If she’s left off the protected list, would she want to play for Golden State? (Nakase coaching the team might help.)
Choosing to select the rights to an international player whom teams drafted and stashed might also be tricky. The CBA’s prioritization clause already makes it difficult for a player to participate in her domestic league as well as the WNBA. If a player hasn’t joined her team, or if she’s waffling on coming to the States, it may be a risk not worth taking when Golden State needs to fill out a competitive roster.
One major thing to keep in mind is the WNBA’s newest front office isn’t taking one lone shot at building a competitive roster. It can negotiate with the UFAs who are currently under protection when free agency opens in January, same as any other team. It can make trades, same as any other team. And it has the collegiate draft to build toward the future.
Fine. Give me names
The selection from the Liberty, where Nyanin was assistant GM during its superteam-building seasons, will be the most interesting to follow. Han Xu, a 6-foot-10 center from China, didn’t report to New York last season while with her national team. She averaged 9.7 points and 6.7 rebounds in 12.5 minutes over three games in the Olympics and would be a building block in the frontcourt. Her appeal in the Bay Area shouldn’t be overlooked. Veteran Kayla Thornton and Johannès, the dazzling French guard, could be available.
Finals runner-up Minnesota is in a similar position. Head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve built a deep well of talent and opted not to play 2023 No. 2 draft pick Diamond Miller after she returned from injury. Assuming the team protects its starting five, Miller would likely be left available, as could 2023 draft steal Dorka Juhász. Italian forward Cecilia Zandalasini, of whom Reeve spoke highly after she helped clinch the Finals Game 4 win, could also be up for selection.
The Mystics are another interesting group, for opposite reasons. Washington, which has yet to hire a new head coach or general manager, is in a full rebuild around young talent Shakira Austin and Aaliyah Edwards. It’s difficult to project whom the front office will protect, but Golden State might have its pick from the upside of former lottery selection Emily Engstler, the 3-point shooting of Karlie Samuelson or the championship experience of Stefanie Dolson.
And then there’s always Iowa fan favorite Kate Martin, whose status in Las Vegas could fall either way as that franchise undergoes rapid change.
Is this different from past expansion drafts?
The Atlanta Dream drafted using the same rules in February 2008 ahead of their franchise debut. The team held the fourth pick in each round of the collegiate draft in April, but traded the No. 4 and No. 18 picks immediately after the expansion draft. The Dream went 4-30 in their first year before reaching three Finals in their first six seasons.
Way back in 2000, four teams hopped on a conference call to select their initial rosters. Teams could protect five to start, then three more once one of their players was drafted.
There were two expansion drafts in the NWSL over the last four years. The league released the protected lists in each case and enacted more specific rules aligning with its unique situation, such as omitting players under the age of 18 as well as all free agents. Bay FC selected five players and the Utah Royals picked two of 12 in the 2023 draft.
The NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights followed more strict position-specific rules in their June 2017 selection process. The Seattle Kraken followed in 2021 with the same rules, except they couldn’t select player rights from Vegas. The Golden Knights reached the Stanley Cup Final their inaugural season and lifted the trophy in their seventh season. The Kraken have one winning season in four years.
