I am desperate to get into the meat of the WNBA offseason. Now that we have finally discussed all of the league’s coaching changes as well as the WNBA draft order, there is little else for fans to do until the expansion draft and free agency begin. The WNBA and the Players Association still have not reached a new collective bargaining agreement, but they appear to have taken a step forward by agreeing (again) to extend the current agreement. While this may appear to be business as usual, and is in some respects, there are some important things we can take away from this extension.

1. This is the last extension before things get uncomfortable.

Extensions are not new in contract negotiations, especially for this league. The current CBA was ratified January 17, 2020 after the previous agreement was extended multiple times months while negotiations continued. I have seen this described as a prolonged extension but unless they were extremely close to a new deal, this was realistically the shortest extension they could agree to. With the upcoming holidays, another month-long extension wasn’t happening. Nobody would want the pressure to have to come to an agreement between Christmas and New Years. Likewise, anything before Christmas would also add increased pressure. I’ve written previously about how the league should change its schedule but one advantage of the current model is that there is still time for the league to conduct all of its offseason business before the season starts.

That being said, another extension would lead to an extremely condensed offseason. In a typical offseason, beginning in February wouldn’t be much of a problem, but this offseason is not typical.

Two expansion teams are joining the league in 2026, and the league cannot hold its expansion draft until after the new CBA has been ratified. Teams can’t even fully prepare for the expansion draft because they don’t know for certain what the rules will be or who will be eligible. I suspect teams will need at least a week after the CBA is ratified to decide which players they will protect, and the expansion teams will need at least a week to prepare for the draft and also negotiate any trades. If this negotiation goes until the deadline, we’re looking at an expansion draft in late January.

That would delay free agency, which typically begins in January. Delaying free agency wouldn’t be the end of the world, but with only two veteran players currently under contract, this will be the busiest free agency period we have ever seen. With the WNBA draft looming in April, another delay would lead to an extremely condensed offseason.

2. This extension is good news.

While negotiations have been quite contentious since at least when the WNBPA opted out of the current agreement, things have been relatively quiet since the two sides agreed to the first extension. We did learn that the league was offering huge increases to the minimum and maximum contracts, but not the revenue sharing the players are looking for.

I think the league was hoping to get public opinion on their side by offering a lot more money, but I think fans are savvy enough to know that players in every other major American sports league split revenue with the owners roughly 50/50. The players aren’t budging, and the fans appear to be on their side. The league is as popular as ever, making more money than ever, and new owners are lining up to pay $250 million expansion fees for a new franchise. Even the owners aren’t going to risk all of the league’s positive momentum fighting against what is pretty standard revenue sharing.

I don’t think they would have agreed to such a short extension if they weren’t close to getting something done. That these negotiations have essentially followed the same pattern as last time also gives me reason for optimism.

3.  The shortened offseason favors bigger front offices.

We outlined above all of the business that needs to get done in a short period of time. I think the teams with professional staffs and robust front offices will have an advantage. For a team like the Dallas Wings that revamped its front office last offseason, this should be their time to shine. If there are any loopholes to be found in the salary cap or an advantage to be gained in the expansion draft, those teams should be able to find it.

Its going to be a challenge for some teams to negotiate free agent contracts and trades and prepare for the WNBA draft all at the same time. The better-run organizations could have an even bigger advantage than usual.

4. Could we see less player movement than we expect?

If there is less time for free agency, I wonder if players and teams will be more inclined to stick with what they know, perhaps on a shorter contract, and then test out free agency in a year or two when there are even more teams to compete for their services. The veterans around the league will not have very much time before the season starts to acclimate to a new city, team, and home. Teams won’t have much time to figure out how all of their new pieces will fit together. It may be easier to try to bring back players they are already familiar with rather than piecing together than entirely new roster.

5. Is this the last time so many players compete during the offseason?

We know WNBA salaries will skyrocket no matter what the final CBA looks like. Players may be incentivized to rest and work on their game rather than playing overseas or even in Unrivaled. While those salaries are not insignificant, they will no longer be comparable to WNBA salaries. It may be more important for players to maximize their performance in the WNBA than to play year-round. This will certainly benefit the league in the long run, and could stem the tide of increased injuries the league has seen in recent years.