The first order of business after the WNBA league office and the league’s players’ association agree on a ratified Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) will be to schedule the expansion drafts for the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire, both of whom are slated to enter the WNBA in 2026. There’s a decent understanding of how these expansion drafts will play out, given that the league did the same thing for the Golden State Valkyries last December. However, the fact that there are two expansion teams this time around instead of one makes matters different. The most notable difference is that all 13 of the existing WNBA teams will likely only get to protect fie players, as opposed to protecting six for the Valkyries’ expansion draft. For the Indiana Fever, there’s no question that they’ll protect Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, and Kelsey Mitchell as three of their five, and most would assume that Lexie Hull would be their fourth protected player. Natasha Howard is ineligible for another team to take her in the
