Nearly half of the WNBA offseason has come and gone, and a new collective bargaining agreement is nowhere in sight. I remain hopeful that the WNBA and the WNBPA can avoid the first work stoppage in the 30-year history of the league, but time is running out. There is still plenty we don’t know about what the league and its 15 teams (and counting) will look like in 2026 and beyond. One thing that is certain is that whenever the two sides agree on a new contract, the remaining offseason business will be conducted at breakneck speed.

Under the previous CBA, free agency would have begun January 11 with core designations and the extension of qualifying offers. We don’t even know if the core designation will exist in the new CBA, and the league must conduct a two-team expansion draft before free agency opens. Then the league will need to hold the WNBA draft and training camp before the season begins (hopefully) in May.

I’m not sure it can be overstated how difficult a test this will be for WNBA front offices. They obviously have more insight into contract negotiations than what is publicly available, but they won’t know for certain what the new league rules are until the contract is signed. I am certain they are preparing for the offseason as best they can, but how do you prepare for an expansion draft when you don’t know what the rules are? How do you get ready for free agency when you don’t know how much money you have to spend, what the minimum or maximum contracts are, or if any of the unrestricted free agents are able to be cored?

This offseason was going to be challenging enough, even if it played out over the full six months. It has been 26 years since the WNBA has seen a multi-team expansion draft, so this is going to be a new challenge for everyone involved. On top of that, the salary cap is set to be at least three times larger in 2026 than it was in 2025. The players’ latest proposal would see the cap rise to approximately $12.5 million, over eight times larger than the 2025 cap. This won’t be quite the same as when the NBA salary cap spiked in 2016 and a bunch of teams signed really terrible contracts, but it will almost certainly take some time for teams to adjust to the new cap environment; time that these teams simply will not have.

I’m not sure if it's accurate to say that any team will benefit from the truncated offseason, but I do believe some teams are better-equipped to handle it than others. First and foremost, I believe the teams with a large and experienced front office staff will likely make fewer mistakes when the offseason starts in earnest. A team like the Dallas Wings, which revamped its front office last offseason by hiring General Manager Curt Miller and Assistant General Managers Travis Charles and Jasmine Thomas, could be the first to pick up on some of the nuances in the new rules. Similarly, a team like the Minnesota Lynx, with a long track record of success in the drafting and development of young players as well as in free agency, should handle this offseason better than most.

On the other hand, I believe this offseason will give bad, inexperienced, or unaligned front offices even more opportunities to make mistakes. The good news for the Chicago Sky is that they are unlikely to have many difficult choices to make when it comes to protecting their players in the expansion draft. Unless the rules turn out to be a lot crazier than we are anticipating, they’re only going to have a handful of players worth protecting. That’s not a concern. It's all the other offseason business that terrifies me as a Sky fan. GM Jeff Pagliocca had all the time in the world last offseason and still made the disastrous trade for Ariel Atkins. I have no confidence he will do better this time around.

Perhaps obviously, the expansion teams especially will begin this offseason behind the eight ball. The expansion draft will be a challenge for everyone, but most teams only need to worry about protecting their own players and potentially negotiating a trade with one or both of the expansion teams. The expansion teams have 13 potential trade partners to negotiate with, as well as a pool of dozens of players to choose from. And as soon as they finally add some players to their rosters, then they’ll have to do it again in free agency. I feel like it might be slightly easier for the Toronto Tempo because they have an experienced head coach in Sandy Brondello, who likely has a clear vision of how she wants to play and which players can fit that style. That may be more of a challenge for the four first-time head coaches hired this offseason.

I feel like another advantage the Wings will have this offseason is that they have 10 players on rookie contracts or restricted free agency. Even after they lose two players in the expansion draft, they will still have a ton of young, cheap talent. While some teams will need to remake their entire rosters, Dallas will likely have a ton of cap space to throw at a few roster spots. The Golden State Valkyries are in a similar spot, as most of the players they selected in last year’s expansion draft are still under contract. I feel bad for any player who gets selected in the expansion draft two years in a row, but the remaining players should give Golden State a strong base from which to build another roster that can reach the playoffs.

Finally, I believe the teams with All-WNBA talent on rookie deals will have an even greater advantage than usual. The Indiana Fever may have a ton of unrestricted free agents, but at least they know they have Caitlin Clark to build around. Nearly all of the Las Vegas Aces’ rotation is entering free agency. Even if they bring back their core, that will take time and money that teams like the Fever and Mystics will be spending building around their young cores.

As a WNBA fan, I am preparing myself for an offseason that is nearly impossible to keep up with. I can’t imagine what this time must be like for the people in WNBA front offices. Because so much offseason business will be crammed into such a relatively short period of time, I think we should be prepared for teams to make a lot of mistakes in the expansion draft, free agency, trades, and the WNBA draft. Hopefully, you root for one of the teams that should have an advantage in navigating these uncharted waters.