What the Valkyries Need to Do Before Free Agency Opens

After the Golden State Valkyries got their first players through the expansion draft process, focus turned to free agency when the contract status of some of those players for the upcoming season could be finalized and the team could aggressively pursue players who are free to sign with any team. Before that part of the process starts on January 21st, all of the teams still have decisions and transactions to make, with the Valkyries having to make one big decision and some more obvious choices during that time.

Qualifying Offers

Even though the Valkyries selected eleven players during the Expansion Draft, only three of them have an existing contract for 2025. Some of those players have contract statuses that will require the team to extend a qualifying offer in the period between January 11th and 20th.

One of the players selected was Temi Fagbenle, who is now eligible to be a restricted free agent after her fourth season in the league. There are complications with various interpretations of rules relating to her transaction history in the league, but that is her status now. As a result, the team must offer her the restricted qualifying offer, a one-year unguaranteed contract with a base salary of $78,831 in order to then have the right to match any offer sheet that another team gets her to sign. Both sides can also agree to a contract without involving other teams.

The team also has three players with restricted status who they currently have exclusive negotiating rights with, but they also need to be extended qualifying offers during this time in order for that status to continue. With exactly three years of service in the league, Veronica Burton and Cecilia Zandalasini would be receiving offers of one-year unguaranteed contracts with a base salary of $78,831 to stay reserved. Since she has only completed one year in the league, Julie Vanloo’s offer would only have an unguaranteed base salary of $66,079 for that year. While the team and player could ultimately agree on a higher salary, players do usually end up signing for that amount since the team has exclusive rights. That means that we could find out that the player has signed their qualifying offer before free agency fully opens after the offer is extended.

Core Qualifying Offer

While the decisions in the last section are obvious, the team does have to make a big decision on Monique Billings. Since she is an unrestricted free agent, the only way to guarantee that she will be on the team this year is to offer her the core qualifying offer as not giving it to her in the designated period would allow her to negotiate with other teams and join them instead. While she had a good season, she was out of the league on opening day and had to earn her way back to a full roster spot with strong play under a hardship contract. Her qualifying offer would be a guaranteed one-year contract with a base salary of $249,244 and it would be an easy decision for her to sign that immediately.

Ohemaa Nyanin made it clear after the expansion draft that, as the General Manager, she and the rest of the front office had made the selection without knowing for sure that they wished to extend the core offer to Billings. From their perspective, it made sense to give themselves the option if there were no other eligible unrestricted free agents that they preferred to choose instead or if none of the other options on the Phoenix Mercury were a higher priority. It is unclear what criteria they would use to make the final decision, especially before they had the chance to pursue other free agents.

Required Tender

The Valkyries selected one drafted player who had never signed a contract when they picked Carla Leite. Regardless of whether she intends to play this season or not, the team does have to follow a process every year to keep those rights, though none of it occurs during this part of the free agency calendar. There is a complex list of steps when all of the rules are listed out, but the team has no reason not to go through them and retain her rights for now.

No Offer Needed

Golden State selected two players who are not under contract whose rights they hold indefinitely regardless of what happens during this free agency period. Maria Conde signed her rookie scale contract, but has never reported so that contract expired while she was on suspended status. Iliana Rupert opted to not play at all last season to prepare for the Olympics with France so her contract also expired while being suspended.

The Valkyries do have three players with contracts for this season already so no transactions are necessary for any of them. Both Stephanie Talbot and Kayla Thornton have one year remaining on their deals at $125,000 and $112,000 in base salary respectively and those amounts are fully guaranteed as long as they report. Kate Martin is in the second year of her rookie contract, which carries a $68,595 base salary that is not guaranteed.

Player Availability Questions

In order to maintain some flexibility, the Valkyries selected some players who might not play in the league at all this season and they will be hoping to have more insight by the time they start making big free agency moves. The biggest event that will affect plans is EuroBasket, the national team tournament that will be played in June to determine which teams will advance in qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The full lineup of teams will be filled after the conclusion of qualifying in early February, but some teams have already earned spots. For the players who are not under contract yet, they can sign when available if they do not wish to play the first part of the season in order to rest before their national team begins training camp. Other players will want to play part of the season before joining their national team and their contracts can be suspended during that time, meaning that they are not paid and their roster spot is open, but their base salaries are still counted for salary cap calculations.

Negotiating and Signing Timeline

All of the teams in the league have the same schedule from January 11th through 20th where they need to extend offers to players or to decline to do so and let them become unrestricted free agents. Once all the players have their statuses finalized, the negotiating can be started on the 21st. For the rest of the month, there will be plenty of rumors about which teams are interested in which players and some final decisions are likely to be communicated, but those new contracts for players that are not just the signing of qualifying offers will not be signed until February. Trades can also happen during January, but those can be tough to arrange early with so much other movement.