FILE – The WNBA logo is seen near a hoop before an WNBA basketball game at Mohegan Sun Arena, May 14, 2019, in Uncasville, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)
Jessica Hill/AP
The WNBA is expanding, and its two newest teams could acquire talent from the Dallas Wings.
For the 2026 season, the league will add its 14th and 15th franchises, the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo. Both teams will begin to assemble their rosters through the WNBA’s expansion draft set for Friday. Portland and Toronto can select from a designated pool of available players determined by each of the current 13 teams.
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The league required the Wings and the 12 other existing teams to submit on March 29 a roster list that includes every player the organizations had rights to on the final day of the 2025 regular season. Teams could protect up to five players who will not be available for selection in the expansion draft, but unprotected players will be up for grabs.
Paige Bueckers, Aziaha James, JJ Quinerly, Diamond Miller and Maddy Siegrist are all under contract. The team has reserved the rights to centers Luisa Geiselsöder and Li Yueru, as well as guard Grace Berger and guard-forward Haley Jones.
The Wings also have the rights to forward Awak Kuier, who has sat out of WNBA competition since after the 2023 season, and Lou Lopez Sénéchal, who elected to sit out 2025.
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Three Wings players — Arike Ogunbowale, Myisha Hines-Allen and Tyasha Harris — are unrestricted free agents. Toronto and Portland can each select one player in the expansion draft who was eligible to become an unrestricted free agent ahead of the 2026 season. More than 100 players are free agents in 2026.
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Dallas has the No. 1 pick in the regular draft set for April 13.
Bueckers probably a lock, but questions surround Ogunbowale
It’s not known who the Wings protected, but it’s very likely Dallas designated Bueckers as unavailable for the expansion draft.
Bueckers, the No. 1 pick and WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2025, averaged 19.2 points, 3.9 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.6 steals during her debut season. The Wings have given every indication that they will build around her.
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Fourth-year forward Maddy Siegrist, still under contract with the team, could be another player the Wings protected. A 2023 first-round pick, Siegrist averaged 12.7 points and 4.3 rebounds for Dallas in 2025.
Ogunbowale’s status might elicit more questions.
The four-time WNBA All-Star, drafted in the first round by the Wings in 2019, enters her eighth season in 2026. She averaged a career-low in points (15.5) and field goal percentage (36.4%) in 2025 and didn’t finish the season due to injury.
Ogunbowale had been the face of the Wings franchise for several years, but as an unrestricted free agent, she is no longer under contract with the team. The Wings had the opportunity to protect her from being taken in the expansion draft, but even if the team did, it doesn’t mean Ogunbowale will re-sign with Dallas.
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Protect the young core?
Dallas’ front office has often highlighted the team’s young core, which includes Bueckers, Siegrist, Miller and 2025 draft picks James and Quinerly.
James and Quinerly averaged 7.5 and 6.5 points, respectively, in 2025. But both players had breakout games last season, with James scoring a career-high 28 points in a 98-89 win over the Phoenix Mercury last July.
James scored in double figures in 12 of the 38 games she appeared in last season. Quinerly did the same in eight of 34 games before her season ended last August with an ACL sprain. She underwent knee surgery in October.
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Miller, who joined the team in August through a trade with the Minnesota Lynx, is under contract with the Wings like Quinerly and James. She was the second overall pick in the 2023 draft.
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But each of their statuses for the expansion draft is unknown. As are those of 6-4 center Luisa Geiselsöder and 6-7 center Li Yueru, who brought size to Dallas’ 2025 roster.
Geiselsöder missed stretches of last season due to overseas commitments and averaged 6.9 points and 4.8 rebounds per game. Yueru, whom the Wings acquired last June from the Seattle Storm in exchange for two future draft selections, averaged 7.4 points and 5.8 rebounds.
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