Make it two trades in three days.
On Sunday, a blockbuster three-team commerce began the wheels spinning. On Tuesday, ESPN reported that the Phoenix Mercury are buying Alyssa Thomas from the Connecticut Solar.
Thomas, a perennial MVP candidate, spent her complete profession in Connecticut after being drafted fourth in 20214.
And a longtime face of the Mercury, Brittney Griner, is headed to the Atlanta Dream in one of many largest free company strikes in league historical past.
Sunday’s commerce — the primary WNBA commerce involving a number of No. 1 draft picks — is sending Jewell Loyd to the Las Vegas Aces and Kelsey Plum to the Los Angeles Sparks. The Seattle Storm obtained a number of draft picks in addition to ahead Li Yueru from the Sparks.
From Jan. 11-20, groups have been allowed to increase reserved, restricted and core qualifying gives to gamers. Some notable stars — Thomas, Plum, the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart, Dallas Wings’ Satou Sabally and Seattle Storm’s Gabby Williams — obtained a core qualifying provide, what’s sometimes called “being cored.”
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Negotiations formally opened final Tuesday, and gamers can signal contracts beginning Feb. 1. With a brand new CBA that includes huge wage bumps anticipated to return into impact in 2026, count on to see gamers signal solely one-year offers.
Loyd is not a free agent however requested a commerce from the Storm. And earlier this month Sabally introduced she had performed her final recreation for the Wings and is working to discover a new residence. As a result of she has been cored, that must come through commerce.
Different big-name free brokers to observe embrace Solar teammates DeWanna Bonner and Brionna Jones, who’re each unrestricted free brokers, as is the Storm’s Nneka Ogwumike.
And questions nonetheless encompass the way forward for WNBA legend Diana Taurasi, who indicated towards the tip of the 2024 season that it could possibly be her final within the league. There’s additionally uncertainty surrounding the way forward for Elena Delle Donne, who’s technically an unrestricted free agent but hasn’t appeared within the league since 2023.
Preserve it right here all offseason lengthy for the newest buzz, information and stories surrounding the WNBA. The 2025 season — the league’s twenty ninth — will tip off Could 16.
Commerce grades | Prime free brokers | Predictions | Core designation | Offseason guides
Jan. 29 updates
4:54 p.m. ET: Free agent Courtney Vandersloot is predicted to signal with the Chicago Sky on a one-year deal when contracts may be executed on Saturday, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne confirmed.
11 a.m. ET: Guard Kelsey Mitchell will return to the Indiana Fever for 2025, the workforce introduced Wednesday. Mitchell has performed all eight of her WNBA seasons in Indiana since being drafted No. 2 in 2018. She averaged a career-best 19.2 factors per recreation and shot a season-high 46.8% from the sector in 2024.
Jan. 28 updates
8:33 p.m. ET: Brittney Griner has agreed to a one-year take care of the Atlanta Dream, ESPN’s Alexa Philippou and Shams Charania reported. Griner has spent her complete 11-year WNBA profession with the Phoenix Mercury.
MORE: How Griner suits in Atlanta and the legacy she leaves behind in Phoenix
MORE: How trades will impression fantasy girls’s basketball
5:44 p.m. ET: Natasha Cloud, Rebecca Allen and the No. 12 choose within the 2025 draft are headed to the Connecticut Solar in return for Alyssa Thomas, ESPN’s Alexa Philippou confirmed. Tyasha Harris can also be headed to Phoenix within the commerce.
2:03 p.m. ET: The Phoenix Mercury are finalizing a commerce to accumulate five-time All-Star ahead Alyssa Thomas from the Connecticut Solar, sources advised ESPN’s Alexa Philippou on Tuesday.
MORE: Commerce grades: Alyssa Thomas an unlikely star for Phoenix — however here is why the commerce is smart
Jan. 26 replace
8:21 p.m. ET: Within the first commerce in league historical past involving a number of former No. 1 draft picks, the Las Vegas Aces acquired Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd whereas sending Aces guard Kelsey Plum to the Los Angeles Sparks, sources advised ESPN’s Shams Charania, Alexa Philippou, Ramona Shelburne and Kendra Andrews.
Within the three-team commerce, the Storm are additionally buying the No. 2 choose within the 2025 WNBA draft and ahead Li Yueru from the Sparks, in addition to Las Vegas’ 2026 first-round choose, sources advised ESPN. Los Angeles receives the 2025 No. 9 choose and a 2026 second-round choose from Seattle. The Aces obtain the 2025 No. 13 choose from the Sparks.
The deal will probably be made official Feb. 1, sources stated.
MORE: WNBA commerce grades: How Plum-Loyd blockbuster shakes up three groups — and presumably the Paige Bueckers sweepstakes
MORE: Fantasy Basketball: Plum, Loyd set to shine on new groups
Blockbuster WNBA deal: The Seattle Storm are buying and selling six-time All-Star Jewell Loyd to the Las Vegas Aces in a multi-team transfer that sends three-time All-Star Kelsey Plum to the Los Angeles Sparks, sources inform me, @ramonashelburne, @alexaphilippou, @kendra__andrews. pic.twitter.com/OlRb37RKIA
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 27, 2025 Jan. 20 replace
Brittney Griner, who has spent 11 seasons in Phoenix because the Mercury drafted her No. 1 in 2013, is testing the free agent marketplace for the primary time in her profession, based on The Related Press. The middle is assembly with a number of groups whereas in Miami competing for Unequalled, based on Griner’s agent.
Jan. 17 replace
The Connecticut Solar prolonged a core qualifying provide to Alyssa Thomas.
Jan. 16 replace
The Indiana Fever prolonged a core qualifying provide to Kelsey Mitchell.
Jan. 14 replace
The Seattle Storm designated Gabby Williams as their core participant, that means she won’t grow to be an unrestricted free agent, ESPN’s Kevin Pelton reported.
Williams joins Kelsey Plum (Las Vegas Aces), Satou Sabally (Dallas Wings) and Breanna Stewart (New York Liberty) as gamers with the core designation, which permits them to signal the one-year qualifying provide on the WNBA’s highest doable wage ($249,244) however prevents them from signing with one other workforce as a free agent.
Jan. 9 replace
Unrestricted free agent Satou Sabally will probably be transferring on from the Dallas Wings after spending the primary 5 years of her profession there, she advised reporters Thursday from Miami.
“I am working with (the Wings) and discovering a subsequent residence for me,” Sabally stated. “I’ve already performed my final recreation in Dallas.”
What’s the WNBA’s core system?
The WNBA’s core participant designation is akin to the NFL franchise tag. A workforce can “core” a participant to stop them from turning into an unrestricted free agent by retaining their unique rights.
A core qualifying provide is a assured one-year contract on the supermax, however the workforce and participant can negotiate totally different phrases to a deal. Every workforce can core just one participant, and the 2020 CBA lowered the variety of occasions gamers may be cored of their profession step by step from 4 to 3 and, as of 2022, to 2, a significant change that opened up free company motion all through the league.
Six gamers — Sabally, Plum, Stewart, Mitchell, Thomas and Williams — have been cored up to now in 2025, essentially the most in a single offseason beneath this present CBA. However that does not imply these gamers will return to the groups that cored them. Sabally has already stated she’s transferring on from Dallas. With the Wings coring her — which they doubtless did to make sure they’d get some return for Sabally leaving — the one method for her to vary groups is through commerce.
In response to monitoring through Throughout the Timeline, the final time a number of gamers have been cored and traded in a single offseason was 2020 (Tina Charles and Skylar Diggins-Smith), however count on different huge names to hitch Sabally in departing their franchises this free company through that mechanism. And that does not even embrace a commerce that is suspected to return when Seattle elements with Loyd, because the star requested out in December. — Alexa Philippou