The first domino of WNBA hell week has fallen with a very antilimactic expansion draft having happened where the Fever say to Khloe Bby and Christy Wallace. Marina Mabberry is eligible to be paid a super max and the Portland Fire snake Bridget Carlton away from the Toronto Tempo. So, yes, the 2026 WNBA expansion draft has happened.
The Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo have set their rosters, which just as a reminder, these will probably not be the solidified rosters in even a week from now because of the free agency status of so many of the players in addition to drafting some pretty solid rookies and trades going to be commencing. But I got to say, this expansion draft, which aired on ESPN and was said to be a live expansion draft, was so antilimactic.
Essentially, they announced their two first draft picks, of which the Portland Fire selecting first picked Bridget Carlton and the Toronto Tempo picked Julie Alamond. But right after that, they just pasted the entire roster, first and second rounds that each team had chosen.
I mean, this could have been a tweet. And not only that, but the background of the graphic that they were using had the Lakers logo behind it, which as someone who has worked with a graphic background myself, someone actually created that. They actually took a background with the Lakers logo on it and overlaid the Portland Fire. And I don’t understand that.
Last year, they had an event. They had speakers go up to a podium, announce who’d be getting drafted. There were some laughs. It was kind of fun. And there was a little more anticipation about who would get taken next from each team. And this year it was legitimately a graphic, but I digress. Let’s get into the pics.
I mean, it was marketed as a live event. And I guess that people were alive in the studio talking about it, but there was no feeling that came along with it. And it did feel a little bit of a bait and switch vibe. So, the Indiana Fever did lose Khloe Bby and they lost Christy Wallace.
It’s kind of a bummer to lose a floor spacer like Khloe Bby, but I do think she is the type of player who can get replaced by another solid role player. Khloe Bby was pretty good beyond the arc. She could just pull up and shoot, catch and shoot three-pointers. She had pretty bad defense. Actually, I would say terrible defense, but there wasn’t a lot of time for Khloe Bibby to develop any chemistry.
So, it’s not totally clear the role that she could have played on the Indiana Fever. and Khloe Bby will now be on the Portland Fire. The Toronto Tempo did pick Christy Wallace, which when I say I’m not surprised, I’m not surprised that she was left unprotected. I do have to say I was a little surprised that it wasn’t Michaela Simpson or Sophie Cunningham chosen, but Sophie Cunningham is an unrestricted free agent.
They would have had to offer her the super max, which is 1.4 million. Because according to the rules of the expansion, each team can only pick one unrestricted free agent that they do have to offer a supermax to. And I think it’s pretty obvious that Sophie Cunningham ideally does not want to leave the Indiana Fever.
And if she did, that someone would have to pay her a pretty big bag. And it doesn’t seem like any of these teams are willing to do so because who the Toronto Tempo picked as their unrestricted free agent was Marina Mabry, which is kind of wild that Marina Mabry is now eligible to get the super max contract of $1.4 million.
But she is definitely deadly beyond the three-point line. She is a hooper and honestly a solid addition to a team. I would not consider her in supermax category of star players, but that’s the way the chips fell in this one. And of the two teams, I do think that Toronto Tempo did have some pretty interesting, really good picks.
Julie Alamon was their first pick and she played for the Sparks previously and she had some pretty great games with the Sparks. She would often play the point. Another great player that they got was Niara Sabi from the New York Liberty. She is a center. She is Satu Sabali’s sister and I believe she’s on her last year of a rookie contract.
The Tempo also snagged Aaliyah from the Aces. Now Ayana is someone that has come in and shown moments of brilliance. She’s a great three-point shooter and she was the only rookie on the Aces which is very odd that they just let her go as far as salary cap goes. But who else did they pick? They picked Lexi Held from the Mercury and who is also a rookie.
She had some insane games, dropping more than 20 points for the Mercury, but during the finals, she did not see the floor. I don’t even know if she played any minutes during the playoffs for the Mercury. She has a lot of potential. Maria Kai was picked. Maria Kindova, who is also a big from Minnesota, very solid bench big, she was picked.
Locka, that was another very good young player that was taken from the Mercury. and Christy Wallace. So, the Toronto Tempo has a lot of They have Cleandova under the basket as a big. They have Nara Sabi. Those are two solid bigs. Solid four fives, mostly five position center, and they have some threats beyond the arc.
So, I see this Toronto Tempo team maybe winning a few games. Now, the Portland Fire, their first pick, they actually got the first pick because the Toronto Tempo won the coin flip and the Toronto Tempo decided to go above the Portland Fire in the WNBA draft, which will be happening next week, I believe, on the 13th.
So, in order to pick first, they gave up they waved their rights to draft first in the expansion draft. They decided to take Bridget Carlton, who is a Canadian native, from I think it’s Ontario. But according to Kendra Andrews over at ESPN, she does say that Carlton was targeted by the Fire early, according to one of her sources.
And Portland didn’t want to give Toronto a chance to select the Ontario native. Probably the best player that they picked up though was Carlo who played for the Valkyries. I’m not very surprised because the GM over in the Portland Fire was with the Valkyries previously and actually helped bring Carla late over to the Bay Area.
But in addition to Carla, they also took Louisa Geosoder, which is a big from Dallas, Emily Angler, who is on the Mystics, Maya Caldwell, Khloe Bby, Haley Jones, also from Dallas, Nadu Push, don’t know who that is, Sarah Ashley Barker who’s hasn’t really shown that she can keep up with the W. She was a rookie last season.
Suge Sutton and Na Mule. Now, for those of you who don’t know, Nika Mule sat out the entire last season, her second year in the W, because she tore her ACL. And it has just come out that she tore her other ACL. So, she’s going to be out this season, too. Anika Mule was a bit of a fan favorite. She played over on Yukon. She’s very well known for covering Caitlyn Clark or sometimes not being able to cover Caitlyn Clark, but she is a popular player.
She’ll probably sell a lot of jerseys. I can’t fully understand why they did choose Nika Mule, though. But the Portland Fire, looking at their roster and the way that it’s constructed, it does not on appearance look like a roster that is as well constructed as the Toronto Tempos is. Their bigs are inferior outside of Bridget Carlton and outside of Carla late. Nobody else really did much in the season last year.
It does look like the Toronto Tempo did go more of the Golden State Valkyries route. They signed a lot of European players. Sabily played overseas. Lexi Held played overseas. Maria Kai and then the ones that I don’t know where their origin is. I’m sure are overseas players in addition to locka. Not to say that the Portland Fire don’t, but they did not go as heavy as the Tempo did.
So the two unrestricted free agents that the teams picked, Marina Mabry and Bridget Carlton, they were not cord. And because they are not cord players, they have the right to just walk away from the situation. but they also can get offered the super max. But Marina Mabberry not being protected by the Connecticut Sun did throw me for a loop.
I had to go back and look at the roster and I kind of get it to a degree and I guess depending on the direction you’re taking your team, that’s where they made their decision. Now, the Connecticut Sun was just sold and they will be going to Houston next season. And considering that Marina Mabberry could be making the Supermax, I don’t think that she’ll be joining them there. That’s just my prediction.
All in all, kind of an antilimactic expansion draft. Next up is free agency, which was supposed to be starting tomorrow, but because the CBA hasn’t actually technically been signed yet, it has been agreed upon and ratified, but the paperwork like name on paper hasn’t actually happened, free agency movement can’t start happening because training camp is still set to begin on April 19th.
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