After months of agonizing wait, WNBA fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief. A new CBA is in place and we have ourselves a WNBA season!
Now, get ready for an absolute sprint to the inaugural Toronto Tempo season – starting with the expansion draft which takes place THIS Friday, April 3, at 3:30 PM (EST).
For folks needing to catch up on all the updates to prepare for the expansion draft this Friday, we got you!
Here are the rules of the draft:
- Last Friday, Tempo won the coin toss to determine the order of the expansion draft and rookie draft. The Tempo opted to select second in the expansion draft, but will draft 6th (ahead of Portland who will draft 7th) in the upcoming rookie draft.
- The draft will have two rounds with six picks each round. Toronto picks second in the first round (i.e. they get picks 2, 4, 6, etc.), then they start the second round with the 13th pick.
- All existing WNBA teams can protect 5 players who cannot be selected by Toronto/Portland
- Existing teams cannot lose more than two existing players in the expansion draft.
- Note: one of Toronto or Portland could select two players from one team. In this case, the other expansion team can select no players from this existing team.
- Toronto and/or Portland can also choose to select no players from any existing team.
- Toronto/Portland can select only one unrestricted free agent in the expansion draft.
- Interestingly, however, even if a player can no longer be designated as a “Core Player”, they are still eligible to be selected in this draft. This is different from the Valkyries’ expansion draft where this type of player was ineligible to be drafted.
- For example, while extremely unlikely, if Breanna Stewart (who has been cored twice) is not protected by New York, she COULD be selected by Toronto.
- This adds a wrinkle where existing teams do need to protect these players to ensure Toronto or Portland does not make this type of hail mary move.
- Importantly, this rule opens up possibilities for Toronto or Portland to be able to get more established rotation players through the draft.
- Interestingly, however, even if a player can no longer be designated as a “Core Player”, they are still eligible to be selected in this draft. This is different from the Valkyries’ expansion draft where this type of player was ineligible to be drafted.
- Trades are allowed. Toronto/Portland can select a player and trade them to a team other than their previous team, or they can make an agreement with an existing team to select or not select a player.
So, who will the Toronto Tempo select?
There has already been some excellent mock expansion drafts released by experts who cover the W, including:
- The Athletic’s Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman
- Raptors HQ’s Chelsea Leite
- Bleacher Report’s Jordan Robinson
To save you some time, we have rounded up all their picks below (and threw ours in there for fun).
(Editor’s Note: The Athletic, Raptors HQ, and Bleacher Report mock expansion drafts took place before the writers knew about all of the expansion draft rules.)
Will any of these players make the inaugural Toronto Tempo roster? We will find out this Friday!
Stay tuned on tempo.basketball! We will be posting our reactions to the actual expansion draft results!
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[…] that the rules for the expansion draft are out, new mock expansions drafts have been released by WNBA writers […]