The WNBA released the full text of its new Collective Bargaining Agreement with the WNBA Players Association. The entire 350-page document can be found here. The agreement will drastically change the WNBA landscape in every aspect and, hopefully, usher in greater investment in the league. A crucial piece of increasing the league’s footprint will be increasing interest in WNBA Free Agency.
The NBA has found success, at least in terms of buzz, by promoting and encouraging player movement. The new CBA tries to push the WNBA in that direction. Players will get paid more, will hit unrestricted free agency sooner, and generally face less restrictions on their movement between teams.
These changes will affect the 2021 and 2022 offseasons more than 2020 because all of the changes to free agency go into effect by 2022. For now, I’d like to focus on how the new CBA affects the top players of this year’s class. Several WNBA superstars, including Elena Delle Donne, Brittney Griner, and Angel McCoughtry, are unrestricted free agents and they will all likely benefit from the new system.
Gabe Ibrahim 