Rapid-fire WNBA free agency opens as league barrels toward regular season

A frantic WNBA free agency period began Monday after a brief delay due to the league’s now-resolved labor dispute with players. A process that typically spans about a month will be condensed into a week.

Most years, WNBA free agents have plenty of time to vet their options and visit several teams throughout the winter and spring before signing a new deal. They will not have the same luxury this year.

“From a player standpoint, I’m imagining they’re already thinking about their priority lists,” Hall of Famer Sue Bird, who spent her entire career with the Seattle Storm, told Front Office Sports. “So when the decision does come and they’re getting all of those calls, they’ll be ready.”

Teams could offer qualifying offers to their own restricted free agents on Monday and Tuesday. On Wednesday, teams can negotiate with any player on the open market. Deals can become official on Saturday.

The rapid-fire nature of this year’s setup is only intensified by the fact that almost all of the league’s veterans — any player who is not on a rookie deal — is slated to test free agency. Only two veterans, Seattle’s Lexie Brown and Phoenix’s Kalani Brown, are under contract for next season.

“It creates a little bit of excitement, like everyone’s in it together,” New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu told reporters at a Team USA basketball camp. “No one knows what their teams look like. No one knows a lot.”

But early reports have indicated that this offseason, which had the ingredients to remake the WNBA, will lack earth-shattering levels of player movement.

Star free agents like Ionescu, her Liberty teammate Breanna Stewart and four-time MVP A’ja Wilson have already announced plans to return to their original teams.

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“I love Vegas,” Wilson told reporters. “I’m not leaving Vegas, so I’m not looking anywhere. I’m looking to win another one. I’m looking to defend a championship that we have in Las Vegas.”

“I will be staying in New York,” Stewart said on a recent episode of her “Game Recognize Game” podcast. “I’m not planning on taking any free agency meetings, even though I am an unrestricted free agent. My family is set up here; we’re solid here.”

The lure of a new “supermax” extension under the freshly ratified collective bargaining agreement could prove too enticing for many top players.

As part of a widespread pay bump for players, the league’s top athletes can make a fully guaranteed $1.4 million salary by signing a one-year contract this season. The highest-paying extensions will be reserved for players given the “core” designation by their franchise.

With little time to make a decision and higher salaries a foregone conclusion, the prevailing theory is that most players will opt to return to the teams they played for in 2025. The anticipated free-agent frenzy could be postponed to next offseason.

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“I’m curious if there are going to be more one-year deals than long-term deals,” Bird said.

Some players won’t have the same flexibility about their home for the upcoming season.

The WNBA welcomed two new expansion franchises this offseason, the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo. The fresh teams added 22 unprotected players from other rosters on Friday, including guard Sug Sutton and forward Emily Engstler from the Washington Mystics.

Time is ticking for the WNBA’s general managers to assemble their rosters. The league’s two-round draft is scheduled for April 13. Training camps open on April 19.

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The Mystics are among the best-equipped to emerge with a stacked roster as the WNBA enters its new era. Washington has just three unrestricted free agents: 38-year-old Alysha Clark, Jade Melbourne and Stefanie Dolson. Center Shakira Austin will be a restricted free agent, who could receive a qualifying offer this week that would allow the Mystics to match any contract offered to her.

But Washington’s rebuild is anchored by the duo of Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen, who took the league by storm during their rookie season last year. The pair are both under contract through 2027, though they’ll receive a raise under the new labor agreement.

“I think that we have to explore all avenues,” Michael Winger, the president of basketball operations for Monumental Sports, which owns the Mystics, told reporters in January. “I think that we have to explore trades. I think that we have to explore free agency. But at the very end of the day, we are firmly committed to building a team around Sonia and Kiki.”

The Mystics also have three of the first 11 picks in the upcoming draft as they look to rebound from a 16-28 record last season.

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The WNBA regular season begins on May 8 after a brief preseason.

• Liam Griffin can be reached at lgriffin@washingtontimes.com.