The Women’s National Basketball Association is poised for a historic 30th season after a transformational new collective bargaining agreement was reached in March.
Now the league can focus on the action on the court, which will feature the Las Vegas Aces looking for a fourth championship in five years, the return of popular Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark after the league’s 2025 rookie of the year missed most of last season with injuries, and the debut of two more expansion teams: the Portland Fire in Oregon and the Toronto Tempo in Canada.
That pushes the number of active WNBA franchises to 15 in 2026, and it will continue to grow with teams coming to Cleveland in 2028, Detroit in 2029 and Philadelphia in 2030.
Preseason play wrapped up last weekend, and the regular season tips off with a trio of games Friday. Other openers are set for Saturday and Sunday. A record 216 WNBA regular-season games and events will be available on multiple broadcast and streaming platforms throughout the year. The league will have games on Amazon Prime Video, ABC/ESPN, CBS, ION, NBA TV, NBC and USA Sports.
Clark played in only 13 games last year after a series of injuries cut short the second pro season for the top pick of the 2025 draft. The Fever star spent the offseason getting healthy and stronger, though, and is ready to go.
As for the Aces, they have their core intact from last season’s title run, including 6-foot-4 superstar A’ja Wilson. The four-time WNBA MVP was picked by a national media panel as the AP’s preseason player of the year for the league. Last month, the 29-year-old Wilson became the highest-paid player in WNBA history, receiving a $5 million supermax contract extension over the next three years.
Las Vegas, preparing for its fifth season with Becky Hammon as coach, has won three of the past four championships, with the New York Liberty taking home the crown in 2024.
Las Vegas was the preseason No. 1 team in the AP WNBA power poll, which is in its 10th season, The Liberty were second, followed by the Atlanta Dream, the Fever, the Los Angeles Sparks, the Minnesota Lynx and the Phoenix Mercury. The Dallas Wings were eighth, with the Golden State Valkyries picked ninth. The Chicago Sky, the Washington Mystics, the Tempo, the Seattle Storm, the Connecticut Sun and the Fire rounded out the poll.
New York exited in the first round of last year’s playoffs, but the Liberty look poised to challenge the Aces again with their big three of forwards Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart and guard Sabrina Ionescu all returning. However, Ionescu will miss at least the first couple of weeks of the season with a foot injury incurred in the team’s preseason finale.
The Liberty added another All-Star by signing Satou Sabally during free agency and made a coaching change in the offseason. They replaced Sandy Brondello with Chris DeMarco, a former assistant for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. He’s one of five new head coaches in the league.
Brondello didn’t stay unemployed long as she is now the head coach of the Tempo, who are the league’s first team based outside of the United States.
Meanwhile, the Sun will play their final season in Connecticut as the franchise will move to Houston next year after the team was sold to Tilman Fertitta, the owner of the NBA’s Houston Rockets. Connecticut has said that it will honor its past players and coaches over the course of the season, which will end a 23-year run for the team in New England after moving to Connecticut from Orlando in 2003.
The expected payday of the new CBA led to 80% of the league’s players being free agents this offseason, but a handful changed teams with coming home a major reason why. Sabally came to New York, where she was born, Nneka Ogwumike returned to Los Angeles, and Skylar Diggins went to Chicago, putting her closer to her hometown of South Bend, Indiana.
While the entire league should be boosted by the return of Clark, Ionescu won’t be the only big name missing at the start.
Lynx star Napheesa Collier, who was the runner-up in MVP voting last year, will be out until at least early June while she recovers from ankle surgery she had in March. Collier also had surgery on her right ankle in early January.
“Right now, I’m just working as fast as I can with my doctors and my (physical therapy) staff, just trying to get back on the court,” Collier told reporters in training camp. “But everything is going well, so you’ll see me soon.”
The Lynx are expected to rely on rookie guard Olivia Miles, who was the No. 2 pick in the WNBA draft last month — behind Azzi Fudd, taken by the Wings as they had the top selection for the second year in a row — and was voted the AP preseason rookie of the year.