WNBA Expansion Draft: How the Golden State Valkyries pose a threat to the Liberty’s depth

The WNBA finally released details for the Golden State expansion draft, and the rules in place could pose a threat to the Liberty’s current depth.

On Monday, the league announced the draft that’ll begin assembling the WNBA’s 13th franchise is set for Dec. 6. The draft will allow the Valkyries to select from a designated pool of available players as designated by each of the current 12 teams.

If a player not signed to a contract for the 2025 season is selected, Golden State shall receive whatever rights to such player that the existing team would have had if that player was not selected in the expansion draft.

Approximately 10 days prior to the date of the draft, the Liberty and the other 11 current franchises will send a roster that includes every player to whom the team has rights to — players on the team’s active, suspended, draft list/reserved, core, and retired lists.

That roster will include six protected players that won’t be eligible to be picked in that December draft.

The rest — which will include key reserve players Liberty GM Jonathan Kolb has assembled to make deep postseason runs — are free to be selected by the Valkyries.

There’s no total guarantee as to who Kolb, head coach Sandy Brondello and the Liberty front office will deem as untouchable, but some choices are obvious.

Stars Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton are all main contributors signed to deals through the 2025 season, making them likely candidates to stay in Brooklyn on a championship-contending team.

Breanna Stewart, who is an unrestricted free agent at the end of this 2024 postseason run, is in MVP form and projects to be an untouchable player, too. The Liberty used a core designation, which functions similarly to the NFL’s franchise tag, while negotiating with the 2023 MVP at the end of last season. If the two sides are unable to reach a deal before roster lists are due for the draft, the Liberty could core Stewart again and then designate her as a protected player.

Unrestricted free agents can be designated as a protected player, too.

Players that have played two seasons under a core designation in their WNBA careers can’t be cored again. Golden State is allowed to sign one player set to be an unrestricted free agent in 2024 as long as they haven’t been cored twice, leaving the current franchise not needing to designate them as protected. Seattle’s Nneka Ogwumike and Connecticut’s DeWanna Bonner and Phoenix’s Brittney Griner are a few players that fall under that threshold.

Now, that leaves two hypothetical protected spots for eight current active Liberty players: Courtney Vandersloot (2025 UFA), Kennedy Burke (2025 UFA), Ivana Dojkić (2025 UFA), Jaylyn Sherrod (2025 Kayla Thornton (2026 UFA), Nyara Sabally (2027 RFA), Leonie Fiebich (2028 RFA) and Marquesha Davis (2028 RFA).

As stated in the release, Liberty players on the reserved list — Marine Johannes and Rebekah Gardner — can be protected. The likelihood of that happening, however, could be low. Johannes, a key contributor to the team’s WNBA Finals run in 2023, dealt with prioritization issues in the past and chose to stay in France for the entirety of the 2024 WNBA season.

Gardner, whom the franchise acquired via trade in March, is set to return to action in 2025 after suffering a torn right Achilles in February while playing for Spanish club Spar Girona. There have been no updates on her status since, and the team’s additions on the wings — Fiebich and Burke — have already made a case to be higher in the pecking order after solidifying roles in Brondello’s rotation in the 2024 season.

Out of the remaining active players, Fiebich holds the most value, owns the biggest role and is likely the most coveted. Kolb took a chance on an overseas star that is now acclaimed amongst WNBA coaches and is under contract for the entirety of the Liberty’s current championship window. Her restricted free agent status in 2028 gives the Liberty a chance to match any offer sheet by another WNBA franchise, an added plus for the Liberty’s front office.

With just one spot remaining, several key bench players are at-risk of being shipped out of Brooklyn to the Bay Area.

Losing Thornton means departing with one of Brondello’s trusted reserve defenders. Thornton appeared in every regular-season game and started in 11 of them, filling in for injured teammates. She made the cut in the head coach’s shortened postseason lineup, and even played minutes down the stretch to secure Sunday’s Game 1 semifinal win over the Las Vegas Aces.

She even showed her own commitment to the Liberty last season after forgoing free agency, possibly leaving more money on the table, and signing two-year extension.

Losing Burke means missing out on a starting-level player available off the bench. Vandersloot, in her 14th WNBA season, still finds success getting downhill and embraced a bench role as she continues the second half of her career.

If Sabally is drafted, the Liberty would need to hit the market for a backup center. The team benefitted from Sabally entering 2024 healthy, picking up a bigger role after Stefanie Dolson’s departure. And she’s gradually been making strides since missing the entire 2022 season after being selected fifth overall out of Oregon.

If Stewart, Jones, Ionescu, Laney-Hamilton and Fiebich are designated, that leaves just one remaining protected player spot for four rotation players who each played a role in the Liberty winning 32 games while securing the No. 1 seed. That top seed stayed in possession while the team dealt with injuries mainly because of the loaded bench unit.

Thornton slotted into the starting lineup while Vandersloot and Sabally missed games due to back injuries. She notched a season-high of 20 points twice, and even made six treys in a June 22 win over the Los Angeles Sparks. In a July 13 road win against the Chicago Sky without Stewart and Laney-Hamilton, Burke imposed her will on defense — three steals and a block — in a game her team were down two All-WNBA Defensive Team members.

The conundrum poses tough decisions ahead for the Liberty front office.

They’ll have the coming months to decide who’ll be untouchable.