Explaining the WNBA's Core Player System
Breaking down one of the most misunderstood elements of WNBA free agency, how it works, and how it might come into play in 2022
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. You can also buy Her Hoop Stats gear, such as laptop stickers, mugs, and shirts!
Haven’t subscribed to the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter yet?
Here at Her Hoop Stats, we spend a lot of time breaking down aspects of the WNBA. From player and team analysis to our CBA FAQ and free agent list, we try to make things simpler and easier to understand for fans of a league that often doesn't explain itself all that well. However, this means we also receive plenty of questions, and are therefore aware of the topics that confuse people again and again. One of the most common is the league's Core Player system, which you're going to hear plenty about over the next couple of weeks. So let's break down exactly how it works, and the slight differences from previous years to be aware of in 2022.
For a long time, my first statement in explaining the core designation has always been that "it's like the WNBA's version of the NFL's franchise tag". Obviously that requires you to be at least vaguely aware of how NFL free agency works, but given the wild popularity of that league it's often a safe bet. The comparison still stands. As with the franchise player system, coring in the WNBA allows teams to hold on to the rights of a player who would otherwise become a free agent. It can technically be used on unrestricted or restricted free agents, but in practice it's virtually always used on the unrestricted variant. Teams already have the right to match any deal a restricted free agent signs elsewhere, so the core designation is unnecessary for them.
From January 1 through January 14 each year, WNBA teams can extend qualifying offers, including those which make make a player cored. Teams can place the core designation on any player who would otherwise become a free agent on January 15 and was on their roster at the end of the previous season. The player then isn't officially even allowed to talk to other teams, never mind sign with them. As we've seen in recent years, sometimes some leeway is allowed with this - the Los Angeles Sparks cored Nneka Ogwumike but then openly allowed her to speak to other teams anyway, just so that she could see what was on offer elsewhere - but the key element is that the team retains the player's exclusive rights. She can't sign anywhere else.
When placing the core designation on a player, the team is required to accompany it with a core qualifying offer. I've done some explaining on Twitter in recent weeks about qualifying offers, but the core version is a little different from Reserved or Restricted qualifying offers. As with the others, the core qualifying offer is a procedural element which establishes that the player is now under that particular designation. It also has to be sent out in the same window, from January 1 to January 14. However, the core qualifying offer is a one-year, guaranteed, supermax contract. This year, that would be $228,094.
When being cored, the player is perfectly within their rights to simply sign that offer, then show up and play under a one-year supermax deal. But crucially - and this is one of the elements that is often misunderstood - the player is by no means required to do that. Once cored, the team and player are free to negotiate different terms. The salary could be anything from the minimum up to that supermax number, and the length could be anything from one to four years.
There are several restrictions to this system. Each team can only core one player, and if you sign a player when they are cored then they remain designated as your core player for the length of that contract - as long as they stay on your roster. For example, Phoenix cored Brittney Griner in 2020. She signed a three-year contract, and remains their core player for that whole three years - unless they trade her away, cut her, or she retires. This is why teams have to consider future implications when making core decisions. Part of the reason Connecticut didn’t core Alyssa Thomas last year was because they knew that if she then signed a long-term deal, their core spot would be tied up for all of those seasons. They’d then have had no way to prevent Jonquel Jones from becoming a true unrestricted free agent when her contract expired at the end of 2021. Griner in Phoenix and Nneka Ogwumike in LA are the only players who currently occupy their team’s core player spot, preventing those franchises from coring anyone else in 2022.
Phoenix also helps to explain another element of the rule. It's not a tag that just sticks to the player, preventing a team from having more than one cored player on their roster. Like Griner, Skylar Diggins-Smith was also cored in 2020, in her case by the Dallas Wings. She was then signed-and-traded to Phoenix, which is perfectly legal because she wasn't the Mercury's cored player. As soon as she switched teams, Dallas's core designation opened up again and they had it available to use on other players in future years.
Once a player has played for at least two seasons under a contract or contracts that they signed while cored, that player can't be cored again. That's a threshold that has been steadily dropping - teams used to be able to restrict the movement of star players for much longer - and has only fallen to two this year. It means that 2022 has one of the longest lists of 'uncoreable' unrestricted free agents we've ever seen. Sue Bird, Tina Charles, Candice Dupree, Sylvia Fowles and Angel McCoughtry are all UFAs who were on rosters at the end of last season, and all have played at least two years under core contracts in the past. So they cannot be cored again. Importantly, this does not limit the length of contract a cored player can sign. For example, Liz Cambage was cored and signed for only one year in 2021, so is a free agent again. As that was the only year she’s played under a cored contract, Las Vegas may well core her again. If they do, it can be a multi-year contract - the two-year cored limit does not restrict the length.
Diggins-Smith illustrated the same thing, signing for the full four years when she was cored. The years continue to count as "seasons player under a cored contract" even though Diggins-Smith isn't technically a specific team's cored player due to the Wings-Mercury trade. At the end of her current deal, no team will be able to core her for the remainder of her career.
Of course, as we've seen many times over the years, being cored doesn't necessarily mean a player is going to stay with the team that cored them. Technically, the team can say "you either come and play for us or you don't play.” But as always in the WNBA, where many top players still make more money playing basketball elsewhere, the player always has the leverage of "well I’ll just play overseas then.” Generally speaking, the team will then work out a trade. The player has to sign a contract as part of the deal, so has to approve any move, and therefore retains a lot of power over where they're going to go. In just the last two years we've seen Diggins-Smith, Tina Charles and Natasha Howard essentially force trades to their chosen destinations while cored. The designation is often about retaining value rather than necessarily retaining the player themselves. The previous teams got packages in return for those three players when they otherwise would've lost them for nothing.
Taking a look at 2022 free agency, there are a lot of differing situations where the core designation could be used. Connecticut has one superstar free agent who they won't want to lose in Jonquel Jones, so there's every chance they use it on her. As mentioned above, Las Vegas cored Liz Cambage last year and she's an unrestricted free agent again, so they may well repeat the action. That could be in order to retain her services, or as one of those value moves we just discussed. Atlanta has so much cap space that Tiffany Hayes might be cored, even though a supermax offer would probably be an overpay for her (Courtney Williams might well have been cored, if the team hadn't already stated they won't be bringing her back).
Some teams have multiple viable options to core this year, which is where things get tricky. In Chicago, both Courtney Vandersloot and Kahleah Copper are unrestricted free agents who would draw huge interest and big contracts on the open market; in Seattle, both Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd are UFAs who any team would love to have (not even mentioning that Sue Bird could also leave if she wanted to). This is where core decisions get complicated. Which players are teams confident will return anyway, even without the tag? Which players are simply too valuable to allow to become UFAs when you're in a position to block it, even if you're 99% sure they'll re-sign anyway? Do you lock in the younger player, or the crucial veteran? And will simply being cored annoy the player and push them away? Some players just want the experience of being courted during free agency, even if they're ultimately going to come home anyway.
Hopefully that answered any questions you may have in regards to the WNBA's core system. Our CBA FAQ is there if you want some more plain language explanations of the league's rules, and we're always available via social media if there’s any lingering confusion. Enjoy the upcoming rollercoaster of WNBA free agency.
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.