{"id":679700,"date":"2026-03-26T07:56:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T07:56:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/679700\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T07:56:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T07:56:26","slug":"wnba-sets-expansion-draft-for-april-3-as-toronto-and-portland-begin-to-build-rosters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/679700\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA sets expansion draft for April 3 as Toronto and Portland begin to build rosters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Paige<\/p>\n

Paige Bueckers was selected first in the 2025 WNBA Draft by the Dallas Wings. Vincent Carchietta \/ Imagn Images<\/p>\n

March 25, 2026 7:38 pm EDT<\/p>\n

The WNBA is moving quickly to help its two expansion teams build their rosters after the approval of a new collective bargaining agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The league announced Wednesday that an expansion draft for the WNBA\u2019s two newest teams \u2014 the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo \u2014 will take place April 3.<\/p>\n

The expansion draft will be two rounds, with Toronto and Portland making six picks per round. A coin toss will be held between the teams, with the winner having the option to pick first in the expansion draft or sixth (instead of seventh) in the regular draft. Portland and Toronto will \u201csnake\u201d picks in the expansion draft, meaning the team that gets the first pick in the first round will have the second pick in the second round.<\/p>\n

The teams will choose from a pool of players on the unprotected list of each of the current 13 teams. The expansion teams will have the right to acquire the player contract or the rights to one player from each of the existing teams.<\/p>\n

Current teams must submit a roster list by Sunday and can designate a maximum of five protected players who can\u2019t be chosen in the expansion draft.<\/p>\n

The WNBA\u2019s college draft<\/a> will follow April 13. Whichever team picks first in the expansion draft will pick seventh in the regular draft, with the other expansion team picking sixth. The teams will alternate the sixth and seventh picks in subsequent rounds of the college draft.<\/p>\n

Portland and Toronto will also be permitted to make certain trades ahead of the expansion draft. The teams can agree to select a particular player from an unprotected list and trade that player to any team other than her current team. They can also strike a deal to select \u2014 or not select \u2014 a particular player from another team\u2019s unprotected list.<\/p>\n

The draft is set to begin at 3:30 p.m. ET April 3 on ESPN.<\/p>\n

WNBA training camps are set to open April 19, with exhibition games beginning April 25 and the regular season tipping off May 8.<\/p>\n

\"Connections:\"Connections:<\/p>\n

Mar 26, 2026<\/p>\n

Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n

Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n

Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n

Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paige Bueckers was selected first in the 2025 WNBA Draft by the Dallas Wings. Vincent Carchietta \/ Imagn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7689,7,456,3910,6074,4705,459,3750,6201,10983,6,12,3801,6908,52082,10985,44728,4518,458],"class_list":["post-679700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-draft","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-basketball","tag-chicago-sky","tag-connecticut-sun","tag-dallas-wings","tag-golden-state-valkyries","tag-indiana-fever","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-minnesota-lynx","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-phoenix-mercury","tag-portland-fire","tag-seattle-storm","tag-toronto-tempo","tag-washington-mystics","tag-wnba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116294411947075402","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}