The primary wave of WNBA preseason video games over the weekend additionally introduced the primary huge wave of coaching camp roster cuts. Because of the restricted variety of roster spots on WNBA groups and the wage cap restrictions, many WNBA training camp attendees don’t make teams. Groups will signal wherever from 18-21 (ish) gamers to camp, and minimize their rosters right down to 11-12 by the point the season begins.
Most groups will wait till after their first preseason sport to start to trim down their roster, a minimum of getting a take a look at everybody earlier than making selections. One transfer that bucked that development was the premature cut to Shyanne Sellers by the Golden State Valkyries. After being projected to be drafted within the first spherical of final month’s WNBA Draft, Sellers dropped to No. 17, the place Golden State snatched her. But, she was minimize from the roster earlier than even getting the possibility to play in Golden State’s first preseason sport.
Sellers was solely considered one of a number of cuts remodeled the weekend. On Friday, the LA Sparks cut Alyssa Utsby and Anneli Maley from their coaching camp roster, whereas New York made its first cut by waiving Kaitlyn Davis. All of those strikes have been made earlier than their groups have been capable of see these gamers in a preseason sport.
After Sellers on Saturday, a wave of cuts formally got here via the WNBA Transactions page on Sunday. After the Dallas Wings opened their yr with a preseason sport in opposition to Las Vegas on Friday, they waived McKenzie Forbes and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan. Chicago performed their first preseason sport on Friday as effectively, dealing with the Brazilian Nationwide Workforce at LSU. After that sport, they determined to waive Arella Guirantes, Tilly Boler and Sammie Puisis.
Not one of the gamers waived this weekend, aside from Sellers, have been anticipated to make last WNBA rosters this season. It’s simply the character of this cutthroat league — that you must be within the elite tier of expertise to even get a shot. The scenario appears to be getting a bit higher because the league expands, however the addition of the Valkyries this season isn’t fixing this drawback, because the Sellers transfer proved.
Golden State has opted to go along with an especially worldwide roster for his or her opening season. They used their enlargement draft picks to amass a ton of European expertise, and used their 2025 No. 5 choose on “draft and stash” European Juste Jocyte. With Sellers waived, the one 2025 draft choose nonetheless on the roster is Kaitlyn Chen, who they drafted thirtieth total out of UConn.
The fallout from waiving Sellers prompted an enormous debate on-line about WNBA enlargement and which gamers groups must be prioritizing with these new roster spots. Many expressed that they assumed WNBA enlargement would imply there can be extra up-and-coming NCAA-bred expertise within the WNBA, as a substitute of bringing over extra gamers from Europe. That was known as out as a really “American” take by different worldwide followers.
I’ve conflicting opinions concerning the above takes, being a basketball fan in Canada myself. For one, I understand how laborious it’s for worldwide expertise to be acknowledged in any respect — how there are so few alternatives for them to make it to the WNBA. The on-edge and defensive Canadian that 2025 has morphed me into desires to instantly name out Individuals for his or her perpetual single-mindedness. But, part of me additionally will get that the rhetoric being spewed for the previous couple of years was enlargement=extra probabilities for NCAA expertise to make it. Now that isn’t essentially occurring, as groups decide to as a substitute carry over these skilled worldwide gamers. It’s honest for followers of girls’s faculty basketball to really feel a bit misled.
Ultimately, I believe globalizing the sport is an efficient factor. For years, worldwide leagues have accepted American girls’s basketball gamers onto their rosters when there weren’t spots for them within the WNBA — why not now return the favor? If it’s a matter of American over extra proficient gamers… effectively, that’s not an awesome path to guide the league in. The results of these younger current faculty gamers getting minimize should not be “ban the Europeans,” however as a substitute making a system to develop younger expertise inside the WNBA that isn’t simply drafting them, letting them get pleasure from coaching camp for a couple of days, after which leaving them out to dry.
That is the place extra roster spots on groups might come into play, with the present official cap of 12 being too small now that there’s a lot extra expertise all over the world. Add in the truth that the WNBA’s laborious wage cap means most groups roll with 11 gamers, and the cuts go even deeper. The early wave of accidents within the WNBA has additionally uncovered holes within the present CBA relating to wage and roster spots. When Seattle Storm ahead Katie Lou Samuelson was recognized with a torn ACL final week in coaching camp, it meant that she’s going to nonetheless get her full season wage (which is nice), however that cash will nonetheless rely in direction of the Storm’s cap. That implies that the Storm have her wage going in opposition to their finances, and Samuelson will take one of many 12 accessible roster spots regardless of being out for the whole season with this damage.
These are all points that will likely be addressed within the new Collective Bargaining Settlement (CBA), which the players’ union is already negotiating with the WNBA.
The WNBA preseason continues Tuesday as Golden State performs its first-ever sport in opposition to the LA Sparks, Las Vegas performs Phoenix, and Minnesota performs Chicago. Extra roster cuts are positive to comply with, as groups work in direction of solidifying their 11-12 gamers. Opening day rosters are due on Could 15, the day earlier than the common season ideas off on Could 16.
Right here is everybody who has been minimize from coaching camp rosters to date:
- Mya Hollingshed (Connecticut Solar)
- Abbey Hsu (Connecticut Solar)
- Jordyn Jenkins (Las Vegas Aces)
- Kaitlyn Davis (New York Liberty)
- Alyssa Utsby (Los Angeles Sparks)
- Anneli Maley (Los Angeles Sparks)
- Shyanne Sellers (Golden State Valkyries)
- Arella Guirantes (Chicago Sky)
- Tilly Boler (Chicago Sky)
- Sammi Puisis (Chicago Sky)
- McKenzie Forbes (Dallas Wings)
- Mikiah Herbert Hannigan (Dallas Wings)
- Morgan Jones (Washington Mystics)
- Jojo Lacey (Washington Mystics)
- Bree Corridor (Indiana Fever)
- Jillian Alleyne (Indiana Fever)
- DeYona Gaston (Atlanta Dream)
