The WNBA’s next expansion draft could be a mess for Toronto and Portland

As we wait for the WNBA and the Players’ Union to reach a new contract ahead of the 2026 season, there is a looming sense of anxiety about what comes next. Being able to fit everything in before the WNBA’s scheduled May 8 season tip-off won’t be easy, even if a deal is reached soon.

The priority will, of course, be an expansion draft for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire. The league’s two expansion teams are currently grasping at straws for any information they can get about their first step in team building. While the league held its last expansion draft just over a year ago for the Golden State Valkyries, that was not only under the last CBA, but also only involved just one team instead of two.

That expansion draft was held at the beginning of December that year, months before the rest of the WNBA entered free agency. The league gave teams over a month to prepare their protected player lists, and the Valkyries to review those lists and make their choices. The reality now is that Toronto and Portland will have a fraction of that time to prepare for their expansion draft, not to mention they are in the dark about what the rules will be and which players will be available as a result.

Here are a few of the main rules from the Valkyries’ expansion draft:

• The other 12 teams in the league could protect 6 players from being drafted.
• The Valkyries could core one unrestricted free agent from around the league.
• Golden State could choose one player from each team in the league, but was not required to draft a player from every team.
• Players who were free agents could be drafted, but would still need to go through free agency and sign contracts.
• Golden State inherited the contracts of any player they drafted, including the rights of players they drafted that hadn’t yet come to the WNBA.

Things change, of course, when you think about this upcoming draft having two teams involved. Golden State could just pick whoever they wanted without having to prepare for another team taking those players first. That, mixed with the shortened amount of time Toronto and Portland will get to prepare when knowing the rules, puts both at a disadvantage in comparison.

The WNBA has only had three other expansion drafts with more than one team in the league’s 30-year history. These were in 1998, 1999 and 2000. While the ones in ‘98 and ‘99 were two-team expansion drafts, the one in 2000 was a four-team expansion draft. In that one, teams could pick multiple players from the same team, but in the previous two, only one player total was taken from each team.

The last NBA expansion draft with two teams was, ironically, the one involving the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies in 1995. With 27 other NBA teams at the time, only one player could be taken from each team total.

So while it feels likely (based on precedent) that only one player from each current team will be able to be selected, there are also an uneven number of teams in the league right now, meaning one expansion team would have fewer players available to them.

A few big differences we could see in this next expansion draft:

• The first and most prominent is preparation time. It really depends on when the CBA is signed, but going from over a month to potentially just days to prep for this is a huge difference.
• The core designation may not even exist in the next CBA, so Toronto and Portland could lose the ability to retain the negotiation rights for a single player.
• While teams could protect 6 players last time, that number may change. It probably wouldn’t dip below 5 players, though, allowing teams to keep their core starters at least.
• Toronto and Portland will need to create plans and backup plans, given that they have to account for another team taking players they want before they can select them.
• There’s no knowing who will get the first pick, and how that will be determined, before knowing the rules.
• A huge difference from last year is how many players around the league are free agents. Last season, it was a smaller number; this year, there are over 100 players who are currently free agents, meaning the pool of draftees could be smaller despite two teams participating instead of one.

It’s likely been hard for these two teams to do any sort of preparation without knowing when they will do the draft, when each of them will pick, and who will be available when they do so. Whenever a CBA is agreed upon, the league will probably try to make fast work of planning the date of the expansion draft and setting things in motion. But whenever that does happen, it’s going to be quite the scramble for its two newest organizations.