WNBA News Roundup Pre-Draft Lottery Edition

The big upcoming event in the WNBA is Sunday’s draft lottery to determine the order of the first four picks in the 2025 Entry Draft, but it is far from the only important news in the league since the New York Liberty were crowned champions to cap off last season. The Golden State Valkyries will not participate in the lottery, but once it is conducted, the next major items will feature the team as they select their first players in the Expansion Draft. The order of the picks could see some trades being made as other teams consider the value of selections below the first pick. Here are some other recent news items and how they affect the Valkyries:

The Players Opt Out of the CBA

The first piece of news right after the WNBA Finals was the players’ association opting out of the collective bargaining agreement, meaning that a new agreement must be negotiated between the end of the 2025 season and the start of the 2026 season. There was nothing unexpected about this decision after the players had exercised similar options in the middle of previous agreements, but they did not wait very long to do so as either side had until the end of October to start the process for ending the existing agreement.

Unlike previous negotiations that occurred in periods of instability or uncertainty for the league, the upcoming negotiations will happen in a clear growth phase for the league, including the already announced expansion teams set to join after the Valkyries take the floor. As a result, the players have been very clear that they expect vastly improved terms from previous deals in the next agreement. This may include a complete paradigm shift in compensation, which has been at a fixed scale in recent years in the middle of contraction and teams being virtually given away instead of sold for the fees that expansion teams are now drawing, to a percentage system like the NBA, which increases salaries by the proportion that selected league revenue increase by each year.

Regardless of the eventual agreement, the Valkyries should be poised to be competitive when it comes to attracting free agents to the team and the timing of the end of this CBA should help them build their initial roster. Many players have been making sure that their contracts do not run past 2025 in order to sign a new contract when salary caps rise. Players who are free agents right now will be making a decision for just the upcoming season and not necessarily trying to create a long-term commitment. Joining a new team with available playing time could be attractive to a number of players who want to position themselves for that next contract rather than making them feel like the uncertainty involved would be too much of a risk.

The Coaching Carousel Keeps Spinning

The Golden State Valkyries were able to start the process of finding a head coach before the other teams, which decided to wait until after their seasons were over. Even as Natalie Nakase was announced, teams were parting ways with their coaches and it ended up being a record number of openings that are still in the process of being filled. All four of the non-playoff teams, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington, and Chicago, will have new coaches along with playoff teams Atlanta, Indiana, Connecticut.

Some of the teams have already hired new coaches as Stephanie White immediately moved to Indiana after her tenure with Connecticut ended. Chicago went the same route as Golden State, hiring Tyler Marsh from Las Vegas, where he had been an assistant for the same length of time as Natalie Nakase. Atlanta made a surprise hire, Karl Smesko, the longtime head coach of Florida Gulf Coast University, who had been linked with a number of higher profile college jobs over the years, but had not moved from the program that he built from scratch.

Two of the coaching vacancies also involve a change at general manager, which would delay the coach hiring process. Dallas opted to hire a GM instead of having a member of the ownership group fill the role and was able to bring in Curt Miller after he was dismissed from his head coach position in Los Angeles. There was no surprise that both roles were opened at the same time in Washington since Eric Thibault was coaching under his father Mike. GM roles have opened up in Las Vegas and Minnesota as well as a more planned transition in Indiana so there will be more new key personnel for the upcoming season as expansion draft decisions need to be made soon.

The Valkyries should be happy that they had the ability to move quickly on their coaching search as, even if Natalie Nakase preferred joining them, she would have had to consider other openings with teams that would have also considered her a top choice. All of the movement in the league does affect staffing in Golden State as there could be assistant coach candidates who are in play for head coaching positions while assistant coaches could also be looking for new positions if they are not retained at their current gigs.

Offseason Play Continues

The focus on WNBA players playing elsewhere during the offseason has increased in recent years and there has been even more attention to various options this year. WNBA players Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart started a second US-based competition called Unrivaled that will allow American players to remain in the country and play a short season from January to March. The resources that they were able to gather, including the recently announced media deal, meant that they were able to make competitive offers to bring in WNBA stars who would otherwise play overseas as well as those who have historically not played competitively during that time.

The emergence of Unrivaled has affected Athletes Unlimited, which has had basketball as one of its sports in recent years. While they have been able to sign fewer stars over the years, they have had a number of WNBA players and have been especially helpful for younger players who need time to adjust to the professional ranks before considering overseas options. The league has also helped launch overseas careers for players who have demonstrated their abilities against active WNBA players. Their full roster for this season has not been announced yet, but it figures to be a mix of veterans of the league and newcomers to the format, including current WNBA players.

Even with the local options, plenty of active WNBA players continue to join the large number of Americans who head to other countries to play for overseas teams. The European season is well underway and started during the WNBA playoffs in many countries. Australia has been a popular destination for WNBA players even though salaries tend to be lower than elsewhere and their league started after the WNBA season. The league in China will also be a major destination this season after expanding to a new high in terms of number of teams and foreign player spots, with each team being allowed to sign three players to those slots as the season is about to begin for all the teams.

National team play also occurs during this time as major tournaments are usually held during the summer during the WNBA season, but qualification games often occur during two FIBA windows. During these designated periods in November and February of each year, teams in leagues that are part of the global basketball ecosystem must release players to their national teams. In the most recent November window, European national teams competed in qualifiers for Europe’s championship next summer and national teams from Central America and the Caribbean played a qualifying tournament to secure spots in the Americas championship next summer.

Once the Valkyries have players at the conclusion of the Expansion Draft process, we will provide coverage of their offseason activities, including a weekly update of players who are playing in other competitions.