WNBA free agency winners and losers: Fever surround Caitlin Clark with proven talent, Aces take step back

After an extremely busy few weeks, the 2025 WNBA free agency period has slowed almost to a stop. Some notable players remain unsigned, including Breanna Stewart (her return to the New York Liberty is a matter of when, not if), and a few more moves will trickle in over the coming weeks. 

For the most part, though, we have a pretty good idea of what teams will look like heading into the 2025 season. As the offseason settles down for a few months ahead of the 2025 WNBA Draft, here’s a look at the winners and losers from free agency. 

The Fever had no interest in slow-playing their rebuild and made a number of aggressive moves this winter in free agency and on the trade market to bring in veteran talent. Last season’s roster had 19 combined games of playoff experience. Their offseason additions of Bonner — the active leader in playoff appearances — Howard, Cunningham and Colson have a combined 179. 

“I’m really excited,” Caitlin Clark said of the Fever’s veteran additions earlier this week after Bonner’s introductory press conference. “They know what it takes to win, they know what it takes to get to the Finals, they know what it takes to win championships. I think it’s exactly what we needed.” 

With Clark leading the way alongside backcourt partner Kelsey Mitchell, offense is not going to be an issue for the Fever. But to truly compete for a title, they’ll need to be much better on the defensive end than they were last season, which is another reason why they went out and got Bonner and Co. All of the Fever’s new arrivals will bring an element of toughness and versatility on that side of the ball.

Can the Fever actually win the title this season? That will be a tall order, but doubting Clark comes at your own peril. 

Notable additions: Tina Charles, Natasha Cloud, Diamond DeShields, Leila Lacan, Jacy SheldonNotable departures: DeWanna Bonner, Veronica Burton, DiJonai Carrington, Tyasha Harris, Brionna Jones, Tiffany Mitchell, Alyssa Thomas 

Early in the offseason, Stephanie White decided to leave the Sun to take the Fever’s coaching job, which was a harbinger of things to come. In recent weeks the team has lost its entire starting lineup from the playoffs last season and multiple key role players. Of their top eight scorers from last season, only Marina Mabrey remains, and she’s requested a trade. 

The Sun have long been one of the most consistent and competitive teams in the league. They’ve made eight consecutive playoff appearances, winning at least 20 games in each of those seasons — save for the 22-game COVID-shortened campaign in 2020. In the last six seasons, they’ve made it to at least the semifinals every single time, with two Finals appearances along the way in 2019 and 2022. 

Those days are now over. This is the beginning of what figures to be a long rebuild in Uncasville. In terms of location, facilities and resources, the Sun have long been well behind the rest of the league, and now the same is true in terms of talent. 

The Mercury made a number of big moves last offseason that didn’t really work, so they ripped it all up and started over with even grander ambitions. 

They traded for Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally, two of the most versatile forwards in the league, who are less than two years removed from both being on the All-WNBA First Team. There’s really not much more you can do in one offseason from a talent perspective, and that doesn’t even take into account adding veteran role players like Kalani Brown and Sami Whitcomb.  

Of course, sacrifices had to be made to add two max players. Franchise icon Brittney Griner walked in free agency, while Rebecca Allen, Natasha Cloud and Sophie Cunningham were all traded away. Depth once again looks to be a concern, though less of one than last season given their upgrades at the top of the depth chart. There’s also a lot riding on Satou Sabally’s health, which has historically not been a wise bet. 

There are certainly ways for this to go wrong, but the Mercury’s ceiling is much higher than it was last season now that they have three of the top 15-20 players in the league. 

The Aces made one of the first major moves of the offseason when they traded Kelsey Plum for Jewell Loyd in a major three-team deal with the Storm and Sparks. If Plum wanted to leave, which seemed to be the case, getting Loyd in return was much better than nothing. But even if you assume that Loyd can’t possibly be as bad as she was last season, the Aces got the worse end of that swap. 

It seems that the Aces also made some miscalculations with the expansion draft and their own free agents. Back in December, they left Kate Martin unprotected and lost her to the Valkyries. In a vacuum that was not an egregious decision, and everyone assumed it was made with an eye on keeping Tiffany Hayes and Alysha Clark. But come February, both of them walked. The Aces ended the offseason down their two most important veteran role players and one of their few young talents. 

Since then, the Aces have taken a few swings by signing Cheyenne Parker-Tyus and Tiffany Mitchell and trading for Dana Evans. Entering this winter, the primary goal for the Aces was improving their depth, which was a major issue last season. Instead, it arguably got worse. 

As long as A’ja Wilson is leading the way, the Aces are going to be in the mix, but this was a disappointing winter in Las Vegas. 

Winner: Los Angeles Sparks

The Sparks haven’t made the playoffs since 2020, which is the longest playoff drought in franchise history and the longest active one in the league. Over the past five years, they’ve been bleeding talent: Candace Parker, Nneka Ogwumike, Chelsea Gray, Kristi Toliver, Jordin Canada, Brittney Sykes and Chiney Ogwumike have all walked out the door. 

This winter, they finally reversed that trend by acquiring Kelsey Plum in a blockbuster three-team trade involving the Aces and Storm. Plum is coming off something of a down year by her standards and still finished 10th in the league in scoring. She gives them a true No. 1 option on offense who will command defensive attention and help the development of Rickea Jackson and Cameron Brink. 

The Sparks are not suddenly a contender, but they could compete for one of the last playoff spots. At the very least, Plum’s arrival makes them a much better team than they were last season. And if she sticks around long-term, she could help put one of the league’s original franchises back on the map. 

What a strange offseason in D.C. The Mystics waited forever to make new hires on the general manager (Jamila Wideman) and coaching (Sydney Johnson) fronts after closing the book on the Thibaults era way back in October. Other than that, the organization has essentially sat on its hands. 

They lost Julie Vanloo in the expansion draft and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough in free agency and have made no notable additions. 

With no guaranteed money on the books past this season, and Aaliyah Edwards (unprotected rookie deal), Sike Kone (team option) and Jade Melbourne (team option) the only players under contract for 2026, it appears the Mystics are heading toward a complete reset. But if that is indeed the direction, why not look to trade some of their veterans this winter to help jumpstart the rebuild? It’s clear from all of the activity around the league in the last few weeks that teams were willing to do business, and the Mystics have a number of players who could help contenders this season. Surely they could have added some future picks or young talent.