This WNBA offseason might wind up being a wild one, with the entire landscape of the league shifting. Every contending team could look wildly different next year, though one contender, the Lynx, feels like a lock to navigate the offseason effectively since the team has the stability of Cheryl Reeve.
Not every team is that lucky. Star players hitting free agency, as well as uncertainty about who will lead certain teams, have some teams facing a potentially scary offseason.
Here are four WNBA teams that could lose a lot in free agency. Shout out to Her Hoop Stats for providing their WNBA Salary Cap Database, the best public compendium of the league's salaries.
New York Liberty
We start with the 2024 WNBA champions, who suffered a surprise first-round exit and made the decision to move on from Sandy Brondello, the head coach who brought the team a title one year ago.
The Brondello situation is about the frustration of the first-round exit, but that's not all that's at play here. Liberty GM Jonathan Kolb told reporters that the team had considered a coaching move last season, citing the "influx of change on many teams" as part of his reasoning. Reading between the lines, Kolb seems to believe the league is moving in a direction that differs from how the Brondello Liberty have played, and making this move is an attempt to keep up with the shifting direction of the league.
It also seems obvious that this is going to factor into what the franchise does in free agency, but it's not clear exactly how. The wrong coaching hire or the wrong read on how the league is moving could put the Liberty behind the eight-ball heading into next season.
Seattle Storm
Seattle seems to be a team that exists on multiple timelines. There's the presence of veteran stars like Nneka Ogwumike, Skylar Diggins and Erica Wheeler, and then there's younger players like Ezi Magbegor, Dominique Malonga and whoever the team drafts with the lottery pick it acquired from the Sparks.
Balancing that is a tough task. It's made tougher by the fact that Seattle will be hiring a new head coach this offseason after opting not to renew Noelle Quinn's contract.
Does Seattle try to bring back the veterans and run things back with the addition of a lottery talent? Or does the team opt to start building more for the future? This is a crossroads for the Storm, and it's not clear which direction will yield the best results. That makes it difficult for the franchise to navigate this offseason and increases the likelihood that they make the wrong move.
Las Vegas Aces
Vegas really figured things out down the stretch of the regular season, with the team winning its final 16 games to finish as the No. 2 seed. Much of that came about because the move of Jewell Loyd to the bench unlocked something big for the Aces.
Will the team want to invest big money in Loyd again, though, when it was clear that she wasn't the right fit in the starting lineup? Do they pay NaLyssa Smith big money and hope her great half-season in Vegas is sustainable?
Also, four-time MVP A'ja Wilson is a free agent. You'd think she'd just stay in Vegas, and as long as the core designation remains in the new CBA, she probably will, but Vegas has a lot of moving pieces, and this front office doesn't have a great track record when it comes to making moves at the margins.
Golden State Valkyries
Unlike the three teams above, the Golden State Valkyries weren't title contenders this year. The expansion team managed to cobble together a playoff team, though, and a first-round exit shouldn't take away from the excitement for Golden State.
But now the team faces a difficult offseason. The only players under contract next year are Carla Leite and Kate Martin. The team will likely need to overpay Most Improved Player Veronica Burton and All-Star Kayla Thornton to keep them around, both of whom were really good in 2025 but who could end up as one-season wonders, especially after Thornton's season-ending knee injury.
Golden State might be trapped bringing back a lineup that won't be capable of capturing lightning in a bottle twice. Or, it could try to use the fact that much of the league is free agents to its advantage to go after a star, but there's no guarantee that any high-end talent will look at the team and think that's their best path to a title.