2025 WNBA Free Agency List
2025 WNBA Free Agency List
We once again bring you a complete list of impending WNBA free agents, plus explanations of all the terms and statuses involved
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With the 2024 WNBA regular season completed - and therefore the possibility of any further signings or contract extensions now closed - welcome back to what's become an annual Her Hoop Stats tradition: the full WNBA free agency list. Unless they allow the Golden State Valkyries expansion draft to affect their calendar, the WNBA will wait until January to release their official list. You could also collate your own from our consistently updated salary cap sheets, but we're here to do the work for you.
The league waits until January because the statuses of individual players don't become 100% official until then. The dates were changed slightly in recent years but the process remains the same. From Jan. 11 to Jan. 20, teams are required to send out qualifying offers to make applicable players restricted or reserved (terms explained below). However, the vast majority of eligible players will receive those qualifying offers, because it’s non-guaranteed money that teams can cut at a later date if they want to. So the list below assumes each relevant player will have a qualifying offer extended. If they do not, we will update the list and cap sheets on the site at the appropriate time. The status of impending unrestricted free agents won't change, outside of the possibility of core designations. Players are included on our lists if they received qualifying offers this year or were involved in some way in the 2024 season.
As with everything in the cap sheets, all the information in this list has been carefully gathered and checked via league sources. However, in such an extensive list, it is possible that mistakes can be made. For any issues, questions or corrections please contact us at Her Hoop Stats or @RichardCohen1.
The WNBA players that are free agents and/or out-of-contract heading into the 2025 season essentially fall into four categories: Unrestricted Free Agent, Restricted Free Agent, Reserved Player, and Suspended - Contract Expired.
Unrestricted Free Agent (UFA): Players who have just completed a contract need a minimum of five years of service in the WNBA to gain this status. Players can also become a UFA before their fifth season if they are cut by a team and pass through waivers without being claimed. UFAs are free to discuss terms and sign a contract with any team of their choice, unless cored (explained below).
Restricted Free Agent (RFA): This applies to players with four years of service in the WNBA. Most commonly, players fall into this category when they have just completed their rookie scale contract. They can talk to and sign with any team they like, but their previous team has the “right of first refusal” to match any offer sheet they sign with another team and thereby retain the player.
Reserved Player: If a player’s contract has expired but they have three or fewer years of service in the WNBA, they become “reserved”. That means that they can only negotiate with their previous team and are not allowed to discuss terms or sign with anyone else (unless released).
Suspended - Contract Expired: This status came to the fore in 2021 because of how many players skipped the 2020 bubble season and fell into this category as a result. If a player's contract expires while they are suspended, they are deemed to have been "withholding services" in the language of the WNBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement. Their previous team then retains their rights and the player is not allowed to talk to or sign with any other team. In practice, it's very similar to the reserved status described above, although no qualifying offer is required.
In order to make a player restricted or reserved, their previous team has to send out the relevant qualifying offer sometime from Jan. 11 to Jan. 20. If they don't, the player becomes an unrestricted free agent. Players can then talk to teams from Jan. 21 onwards and begin signing on Feb. 1. Some players may immediately sign those qualifying offers, which is why we sometimes see players being signed even before Jan. 21. That's the only type of signing you'll see before Feb. 1, although as we’ve seen in recent years, trades can still happen in January.
Each team also has their core designation, which can be used on one UFA to prevent them from becoming a true free agent. The tag blocks the player from negotiating with anyone else, but comes with a one-year guaranteed supermax contract as the core qualifying offer. The team and player are free to negotiate a contract that lasts longer and/or costs a different amount, but the tag sticks to that player for the length of the contract (not including extensions) unless the player is traded, waived or retires. No teams currently have their core spot occupied by a signing from a previous year, so all of them have the option available to them this offseason. It can be used on UFAs or RFAs, but in practice is virtually always used on UFAs as teams already have control of their RFAs. However, an increasing number of players have reached the limit of two seasons played under a contract signed while cored, and are therefore ineligible to be cored again. DeWanna Bonner, Tina Charles, Brittney Griner, Natasha Howard, Brionna Jones and Nneka Ogwumike are all in that position this year, where they will become true unrestricted free agents because their teams are no longer allowed to core them. But several teams may still make use of their core designation with the likes of Breanna Stewart, Kelsey Mitchell, Kelsey Plum, Satou Sabally and Alyssa Thomas all scheduled to become UFAs but eligible to be cored. Elena Delle Donne may well also be cored again by Washington to retain her exclusive rights.
There are a few quirks specific to this year's free agency that are worth bearing in mind. Firstly, that Golden State expansion draft could affect things. The league has said they hope to hold it in December, before free agency would begin. We don't have an official set of rules for it yet, but certain types of rights to players - maybe all types, maybe just certain kinds - will be draftable. So some of the rights listed below may well be controlled by Golden State before we reach true free agency in January and February. The new broadcast deal and likely new Collective Bargaining Agreement which will start in 2026 means that virtually no one has been signing contracts that extend beyond 2025 (there are currently only two veterans in the entire league who signed deals into 2026). Everyone's expecting a big salary-scale jump, so no one wants to be locked in at the current levels. Therefore, expect a lot of one-year deals to be signed in the upcoming offseason. In 12 months, the next version of this list is going to be absurdly long.
On to the names.
Unrestricted Free Agents
Morgan Bertsch
Monique Billings (PHO)
DeWanna Bonner (CON)
Jakia Brown-Turner
Kennedy Burke (NYL)
Emma Cannon (LVA)
Jessika Carter (LVA)
Tina Charles (ATL)
Alysha Clark (LVA)
Sydney Colson (LVA)
Crystal Dangerfield
Kaela Davis
Elena Delle Donne (WAS)
Diamond DeShields (CHI)
Liz Dixon
AD Durr
Dyaisha Fair
Dulcy Fankam Mendjiadeu
Kysre Gondrezick
Brittney Griner (PHO)
Isabelle Harrison (CHI)
Tiffany Hayes (LVA)
Destanni Henderson
Natisha Hiedeman (MIN)
Myisha Hines-Allen (MIN)
Joyner Holmes (SEA)
Natasha Howard (DAL)
Brionna Jones (CON)
Ezinne Kalu
Kelsey Mitchell (IND)
Tiffany Mitchell (CON)
Astou Ndour-Fall (CON)
Kia Nurse (LAS)
Nneka Ogwumike (SEA)
Cheyenne Parker-Tyus (ATL)
Kelsey Plum (LVA)
Aerial Powers (ATL)
DiDi Richards
Mercedes Russell (SEA)
Satou Sabally (DAL)
Odyssey Sims
Taylor Soule
Breanna Stewart (NYL)
Diana Taurasi (PHO)
Alyssa Thomas (CON)
Brianna Turner (CHI)
Courtney Vandersloot (NYL)
Victoria Vivians (SEA)
Shatori Walker-Kimbrough (WAS)
Erica Wheeler (IND)
Sami Whitcomb (SEA)
Gabby Williams (SEA)
Kiana Williams
Restricted Free Agents
DiJonai Carrington (CON)
Chennedy Carter (CHI)
Dana Evans (CHI)
Temi Fagbenle (IND)
Aari McDonald (LAS)
Michaela Onyenwere (CHI)
Reserved Players
Amy Atwell (PHO)
Caitlin Bickle (CON)
Jaelyn Brown (DAL)
Veronica Burton (CON)
Maya Caldwell (ATL)
Lorela Cubaj (ATL)
Ivana Dojkić (NYL)
Queen Egbo (LVA)
Emily Engstler (WAS)
Olivia Époupa (MIN)
Rebekah Gardner (NYL)
Bernadett Határ (WAS)
Mikiah Herbert Harrigan (PHO)
Marine Johannès (NYL)
Li Meng (WAS)
Li Yueru (LAS)
Natasha Mack (PHO)
Nikolina Milić (CHI)
Charisma Osborne (PHO)
Jaylyn Sherrod (NYL)
Sug Sutton (WAS)
Celeste Taylor (PHO)
Sevgi Uzun (DAL)
Julie Vanloo (WAS)
Cecilia Zandalasini (MIN)
Suspended-Contract Expired
Maite Cazorla (ATL)
Maria Conde (CHI)
Han Xu (NYL)
Awak Kuier (DAL)
Kiara Lundquist (PHO)
Jessica Shepard (MIN)
Iliana Rupert (ATL)
Maria Vadeeva (LAS)
Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site, our podcast, and our social media accounts on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
I think Temi is restricted, not reserved. She has 3 years with the Lynx and 1 with the Fever.
Are sign-and-trades possible? How do they work with the different types of free agents, cap space, etc?