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One reason why the WNBA league office and the players’ association need to agree on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in the relatively near future is that both the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire (both of whom are entering the league in 2026) need to have their respective expansion drafts to round out their rosters.
The league is already running behind in this regard, given that the Golden State Valkyries had their expansion draft in early December of 2024. Assuming that a CBA is ratified, figuring out the date and rules of these expansion drafts will quickly become a top priority.
The belief is that instead of the 13 existing teams protecting six players like they did last year when the Valkyries made their picks, they’ll only be able to protect five players, so that the two new teams have more options available to them. This causes an interesting predicament for the Indiana Fever, who have four clear players (Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston, Kelsey Mitchell, and Lexie Hull) they’ll protect.
Since Natasha Howard is ineligible to be selected in an expansion draft because she has exhausted her core designation, most feel like either Sophie Cunningham or Makayla Timpson will be the Fever’s fifth and final protected player.
Sophie Cunningham Continues to Get Left Off Fever Protected Predictions
In a December 11 article, ESPN’s Kevin Pelton predicted that the Fever would protect Timpson over Cunningham, as she seemingly has a brighter future than Cunningham (although Cunningham is a bigger star by far).
And Pelton isn’t alone in this sentiment, as Bleacher Report’s Jordan Robinson also predicted that Cunningham wouldn’t be protected in a December 18 video.
“For the Fever, on who they’re going to protect, they could protect Sophie. They could. But if they don’t, I definitely think she gets snatched up,” Robinson said after predicting that the Portland Fire would select Cunningham.
Robinson then noted that since Cunningham is an unrestricted free agent, she could theoretically get selected by one of the two expansion teams and then leave for another team in free agency (or perhaps come back to the Fever) shortly thereafter, so long as the WNBA doesn’t decide that a free agent player who’s selected in the expansion draft must remain with that team.
While this could convince either expansion team against selecting Cunningham if she isn’t protected, the hard truth is that almost every WNBA veteran is also a free agent and would therefore be in the same position as Cunningham. So these teams might as well take the best player available and deal with free agency afterwards.
Regardless, this prediction serves as further proof that Cunningham’s future with the Fever is uncertain right now, even if there’s a mutual desire for her to return.
