The Golden State Valkyries became an actual team on Friday night during their long-awaited expansion draft. In the end, the WNBA’s newest franchise selected 11 players from around the league, including Kate Martin from the Las Vegas Aces and Temi Fagbenle from the Indiana Fever, to build their initial roster.
Now, the Valkyries can act like any other team this offseason. That includes making trades, signing players in free agency and participating in the 2025 WNBA Draft, where they’ll have the No. 5 overall pick. Come May, they’ll take the court for the first time on opening night against the Los Angeles Sparks.
There will be plenty more to come from the Bay Area this winter, but for now, let’s take a look back at the winners and losers from the expansion draft.
Winner: WNBA
Expansion has been in the works for a number of years now, and has been a primary goal for the league and commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Adding a new franchise for the first time since the Atlanta Dream in 2008 is a monumental achievement, and the expansion draft was the first time that it felt real.
Since they were officially introduced back in October of 2023, the Valkyries have just been a concept. On Friday night, they finally became a team. The roster won’t look exactly the same come opening night, but most of these players will be there. At the very least, we have an idea of how the Valkyries will play and fare during their inaugural season.
Big picture, this was a great night for the WNBA, and a first step toward the league’s new future. Soon, there will be two more teams in the mix — the Toronto Tempo and a yet unnamed Portland franchise will join in 2026 — as well as a new television deal and collective bargaining agreement. It should only be upwards from here.
Loser: WNBA
Zooming in to the actual process and event, the WNBA also has to be written up as a loser. From start to finish, this has been frustrating for fans and the media, and likely even the players to some extent.
First and foremost, the league decided not to reveal the protected lists that each team turned in late in November, which eliminated almost all of the drama and excitement. Every single discussion, article and podcast about the draft in the build up was complete guesswork, and even in the aftermath it’s hard to fully gauge the Valkyries’ selections without knowing who was available. The National Women’s Soccer League made their protected lists public last December before their expansion draft, and there was no reason the WNBA could not have done the same.
In part due to the league’s decision to withhold the names of the players available, Friday’s event in the Bay Area was lackluster. This was one of the biggest nights for the league, certainly off the court, in the past 15 years and the lack of that transparency was an enormous missed opportunity in the weeks leading up to the announcement.
Last winter, Billings signed a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Sparks in free agency, but was cut in stunning fashion during training camp. She eventually linked up with the Dallas Wings on a hardship contract, and while she had some big games, the team was forced to release her once their players got healthy. From there, it was off to the Phoenix Mercury on a seven-day contract, and eventually a rest-of-season deal.
Billings ended up playing 37 games for the Wings and Mercury last season, but was due to hit unrestricted free agency again this winter and had an uncertain future. That all changed on Friday when the Valkyries made her their choice as the one unrestricted free agent they were allowed to take in the expansion draft.
While negotiations are yet to take place between the two parties, the Valkyries could now decide to use the core designation on Billings, giving them exclusive negotiating rights. The core designation comes with an automatic guaranteed, one-year, supermax contract offer (though the two sides could come to a long-term agreement). For 2025, the super max is $249,244.
Again, it’s unclear if Billings will actually get that deal, but at the very least this was a sign that she’s valued around the league, and an exciting end to a year that started off in frustrating fashion. The news is even sweeter for Billings considering she’s from California and went to UCLA.
Easily the biggest surprise of the night was that the Indiana Fever left veteran center Temi Fagbenle unprotected. Every single projected list had Fagbenle penciled in for the Fever alongside their five primary starters, but the team’s new braintrust obviously saw things differently.
Prior to returning last season, the 32-year-old Fagbenle had not played in the WNBA since 2019 with the Minnesota Lynx. It did not take her long to reacclimate, though, and she quickly became a key part of the Fever’s rotation because of how well she played alongside Caitlin Clark.
Fagbenle’s ability to run the floor and play in the pick-and-roll made her a favorite of the 2024 Rookie of the Year. Clark assisted on 21 of Fagbenle’s 54 made field goals and the Fever had a plus-6.2 net rating in the 346 minutes they played together. After the Olympic break, they were even better, posting a plus-14.7 net rating in 158 minutes as the Fever surged into the playoffs. About the only downside to Fagbenle’s season was that she was limited to just 22 games due to injuries.
It would be interesting to hear from the Fever’s front office on why they were willing to let Fagbenle go and break up one of the best connections on the team. Clark is an adaptable player, but this is certainly a loss for her heading into her second season.
Of the other 12 franchises, the Liberty had arguably the most to lose heading into Friday night given their impressive depth. After winning their first championship last season, they were set to lose a key member of that title team or a player they held the rights to who could have helped their repeat attempt.
Sure enough, the Valkyries selected veteran forward Kayla Thornton, who had some big moments last season, particularly in the title-clinching Game 5 win over the Lynx, when she helped change the energy of the contest. While losing Thornton isn’t good for the Liberty, it was probably the team’s best-case scenario.
The wing is where the Liberty have the most depth, especially with Leonie Fiebich’s emergence and Rebekah Gardner’s expected return. They could easily re-sign Kennedy Burke as well, and have last year’s first-round pick, Marquesha Davis, waiting in the wings.
Plus, Thornton was under contract for the 2025 season at $112,000. Taking her off the books frees up some valuable extra cap space for the Liberty this offseason.
A rough offseason for the Storm continued on Friday when the Valkyries decided to pass and did not select anyone from Seattle’s roster. The Valkyries were not required to take a player from each team, but it was a bit embarrassing for the Storm that they were the only team to get that treatment. Sure, they didn’t lose a player, but it’s an indictment on their roster situation that they had no one the Valkyries wanted.
Though the Storm’s roster stayed intact for now, that won’t be the case by the end of the winter. Franchise icon Jewell Loyd requested a trade earlier this week after an investigation into claims of harrassment and bullying against coach Noelle Quinn and her staff went nowhere. Furthermore, they have a number of key players hitting unrestricted free agency, including Nneka Ogwumike, Gabby Williams, Sami Whitcomb and Mercedes Russell.
It appears the Storm’s superteam experiment will be short-lived.
