Overview
- Chicago, which completed two trades Wednesday, sent No. 17 to Portland for No. 21 and dealt No. 26 to Toronto in exchange for both expansion teams agreeing not to draft any Sky players, leaving Chicago with picks Nos. 5, 21 and 32.
- The two-round expansion draft begins Friday at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPN, using a snake format with Portland picking first in Round 1 and Toronto opening Round 2 as the teams alternate through 24 total selections.
- Incumbent clubs submitted five-player protection lists to the league that are not public, and expansion teams may select only one player from any single franchise in each round.
- Portland and Toronto may each draft one potential unrestricted free agent and then hold the exclusive right to offer that player a supermax deal worth up to about $1.4 million, though the player can still sign elsewhere.
- A compressed offseason after the mid-March CBA has left more than 100 players headed for unrestricted free agency, shrinking the pool of signed veterans and prompting side deals, with Breanna Stewart saying she will stay with New York despite any expansion selection.