So Richard Cohen did his usual great work, and came up with this potential list of expansion draftees. (And since the TBAs won't get a lottery pick, this is probably the pool from which the starters will be chosen.)
G Shaneice Swain
G Natasha Cloud (who might immediately ask for a trade, but would have value)
G Lou Lopez Sénéchal
G Leigha Brown G Maya Caldwell G Kia Nurse
PF Kadi Sissoko PF Nikolina Milić
P Han Xu
P Cayla George P Laeticia Amihere P Ruthy Hebard
Positions are provisional, and toss in a No. 5 pick and you have a roster that should be able to win 10 games out of 40.
Of course, there are other roster/expansion draft options. Thoughts?
fun exercise. that said, i can imagine half of those names being out of the league by 2025.
we’ll know a lot more next year with regards to which semi-valuable young players are [still] on rosters and who Prioritization ultimately keeps out of the league. with the player landscape potentially changing quite a bit next year as it so happens, it really reduces any usefulness such an expansion draft exercise has.
Skylar will 100% sign with them right? SDS and Steph marketing would be big. I used to long for the SDS and Cambage era Wings to get relocated to San Francisco.
Skylar will 100% sign with them right? SDS and Steph marketing would be big. I used to long for the SDS and Cambage era Wings to get relocated to San Francisco.
🫡 welcome!! and that’s sort of what a couple of us were hoping would happen to Indiana once upon a time – and quite frankly, still could someday, depending on what 88-yr-old Herb Simon’s succession plan might be.
Skylar will 100% sign with them right? SDS and Steph marketing would be big. I used to long for the SDS and Cambage era Wings to get relocated to San Francisco.
🫡 welcome!! and that’s sort of what a couple of us were hoping would happen to Indiana once upon a time – and quite frankly, still could someday, depending on what 88-yr-old Herb Simon’s succession plan might be.
As much as I’d hate for Indiana to lose their team, they have fallen so far behind the rest of the league in attendance and performance that I cannot fathom them turning it around even with 3 #1 picks in a row. Maybe Indiana could be relocated to Philly?
Expansion teams always have interesting decisions to make ...
So presumably Lacob doesn't need to generate income immediately, so he has little need to bring in stars to try and sell tickets. Even so, however, bringing in an SDS kind of player to win a few more games in 2025 and 2026 might make sense. After all, you're not going to be any good for three years anyway (barring extraordinary luck).
On the other hand, you can just throw a bunch of young players onto the court and see which of them can actually play at this level. Again, you're losing anyway.
And finally, who's going to coach? It's a doomed job, as you get to go through all the growing pains, and then you get replaced when the team gets good.
again, re: expansion teams: ya gotta start somewhere. no better time than now with how deep the 2025 Draft will be. there’s always veteran talent available to sign, whether it be the usual league mainstays or the more hidden gems overseas. building a team from scratch can be done – if you make savvy hires who can then make savvy moves.
For Dunn, one of the major difficulties in building a competitive roster in Seattle was the design of the 2000 expansion draft. There were four teams, all without names or logos yet, based in Indianapolis, Seattle, Miami and Portland who took part in the draft held via conference call in December 1999.
It was a six-round draft of four players each round and unlike the two prior expansion drafts, there were no allocated players for new teams. The 12 existing WNBA teams were allowed to protect five players, which was one fewer than the expansion draft the year prior. Once an existing team’s player was drafted by an expansion club, the team could then protect three more, according to an ESPN piece published days before the draft.
Expansion teams always have interesting decisions to make ...
So presumably Lacob doesn't need to generate income immediately, so he has little need to bring in stars to try and sell tickets. Even so, however, bringing in an SDS kind of player to win a few more games in 2025 and 2026 might make sense. After all, you're not going to be any good for three years anyway (barring extraordinary luck).
The W has had 10 expansion teams in its history. Seven were in the playoffs within their first three seasons. The most recent one was in the finals in their third season.
History suggests that immediate success is not only possible, but likely.
But some of those expansion teams had very good luck landing elite players quickly. We'll see if that happens now.
And of course, the depth of talent isn't as great as it was 15 or 20 years ago. A significantly bigger percentage of elite female athletes played basketball then than they do now. All those soccer players came from somewhere ...
Presumably the expansion teams don't participate in the 2025 lottery but will in 2026. An MVP-level player can obviously change everything so the 2026 draft is going to be big for the TBAs.
(Expanding by two teams is scary -- even the optimists would have to concede that the talent would be spread very thin in two new teams took the court in 2025.)
(Expanding by two teams is scary -- even the optimists would have to concede that the talent would be spread very thin in two new teams took the court in 2025.)
There are 50 players who played in the league last season but didn't this year. Add in what looks like a strong draft and the drop off will be minimal.
SAN FRANCISCO — Joe Lacob was on the stage. Next to him was his partner in ownership, Peter Guber. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert was up there, too. And London Breed, mayor of San Francisco. And Warriors president Brandon Schneider. Even ESPN’s Malika Andrews flew in to host.
Hall of Famer Sheryl Swoopes was in the front row, as was legendary Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer — whose career is very much the seed that sprouted into what blossomed Thursday at Chase Center. Professional women’s basketball is coming to the Bay in 2025.
The WNBA announced it had landed its Golden State goose. This is what the league wanted all along. Engelbert waited patiently for Lacob to give the green light. And then she held firm until Lacob agreed to pay the $50 million expansion fee.
Now, it’s official. The league’s 13th team will be owned and operated by the Warriors, one of the glamour franchises in sports. In the first five hours, 2,000 season-ticket deposits were made.
But of all the dignitaries gathered on behalf of the team-to-be-named-later, hopes are high about this expansion announcement in part because of a key figure who was not on the stage.
Mike Kitts.
Unlikely you’ve heard of Kitts. In July, he was promoted to chief commercial officer of the Warriors. Basically, he is the head of the Warriors’ corporate partnerships juggernaut, which brings in more money than any other team in America, and at least up there with any team in the world.
You can’t walk anywhere near the Warriors’ universe and not see the branding of several Fortune 500 companies. From Chase to Rakuten, from Google to United, from Accenture to Kaiser. This is what they do — build relationships with top companies who have the capital and credibility to be connected with the Warriors. If the world of sponsorships were like the playing field, Kitts would be the one yelling, “I’m him!”
OK, this is the part where Kitts blushes. This is where he’d say it’s not just him. It’s the people behind him. While that’s probably true, it’s Kitts who the WNBA wants. And Amanda Chin, senior vice president of marketing, the master promoter responsible for the branding and presentation of the Warriors. And John Beaven. He is the chief revenue officer who is known as a ticket guru and obsessed with the fan experience.
They are pillars in the Warriors’ mint, which prints so much money the franchise is paying more than $400 million in player salaries and luxury tax penalties and still can fund an expansion franchise. This front office has accrued years of managing a dynasty, opening a new arena and running a G League team. It’s learned some tough lessons. It’s well-oiled now.
This is what the WNBA is getting, and what it desperately needs: the machine of the Warriors, which maximized their captivating superstars, especially Stephen Curry, along with the passion and affluence of the area to historic levels. Yes, the Warriors have a sparkling new arena. They still have their old practice facility in Oakland, which they kept thanks to the sweet deal they were grandfathered into, and used for their basketball camps. But the market and the machine are why the league zeroed in on Golden State. For a massive diehard audience and an infusion of expertise, validity and capital the WNBA perhaps hasn’t seen since it launched in 1997.
The league is growing and still loaded with yet-tapped potential. It’s hard to argue that the Warriors aren’t the ideal partner to take the WNBA to a new level.
“It’s time,” Lacob said, pausing for emphasis, ramping up the drama. “It’s time for women’s sports in general, and women’s basketball, specifically, to take a big leap.” Joe Lacob, Cathy Engelbert, Peter Guber “It’s time for women’s sports in general, and women’s basketball, specifically, to take a big leap,” Joe Lacob, left, said during Thursday’s announcement. (Eric Risberg / AP)
Based on conversations with Warriors executives, the process of building their expansion franchise will likely begin with selecting a team president to manage the business side. The WNBA squad needs its Rick Welts, who looks at near-impossible tasks like Danny Ocean looks at robbing casinos. Among other things, Welts, the former Warriors’ president, led the Chase Center efforts from start to finish. Then retired he like Michael Jordan did after his shot against Utah.
The president will likely report to Schneider. A head of basketball operations will likely be selected next. Expect a similar structure to what the Warriors have now — a basketball side and a business side, with Lacob at the top of the org chart.
The trick will be the balance of taking advantage of the Warriors’ established infrastructure while also giving the WNBA team its own operation. Some stuff will remain under one umbrella — GSW Sports, LLC — such as finances. Especially early on, while things are being established, the Warriors will lean on the incumbents. But eventually, the likelihood is they will have to find executive playmakers for the WNBA team, trained in the ways of Golden State.
As the Warriors do, they’re talking a big game of big expectations.
“I am telling you right now,” Lacob said, “we will win a WNBA championship in the first five years of this franchise.”
They believe they will change the way the league does business, create a blueprint for other franchises to follow and turn the W into a cash cow.
We know, following the Warriors’ game plan, they’ll want stars. The Warriors grew from a $450 million fixer-upper to a $7 billion behemoth on the phenomenon that is Stephen Curry and the captivating excellence of Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, Kevin Durant and Andrew Wiggins. Golden State loves big splashes.
Just dropping this right here: Iowa guard Caitlin Clark, one of the most popular players in all of women’s basketball, could stay in school for a fifth year. The COVID-19 waiver grants an extra season of eligibility to players whose college careers were affected by the pandemic. So Clark could enter the 2025 WNBA Draft — the first for the new Golden State franchise.
Also dropping this right here: Sabrina Ionescu, the Bay Area’s own and a two-time WNBA All-Star, is under contract for two more seasons.
By the way, how much is Dawn Staley making at South Carolina again?
No, Warriors exceptionalism doesn’t think small. And the Bay is accustomed to stars.
“This gives (us) a huge platform for the next generation of players,” Engelbert said. “We’ll add 12 roster spots to a league that needs to grow, that is growing in viewership. … This gives us a big media market, a big place where I think our players are going to want to live and work.” go-deeper
It is irrefutable that the popularity of the WNBA is increasing. What’s always been lacking is the execution of capitalizing on that fervor. What’s always been lacking is the proficiency to avoid the missteps and blunders that drown out their success. What’s been desperately needed is some operational legitimacy.
Not on the court. The league has always had game. If only the younger, modern fans could have seen Tina Thompson play live. Ditto for Chamique Holdsclaw, Deanna Nolan and Ticha Penicheiro. And players now are better than ever.
The game has grown. The style of play is even more entertaining. The product is doing its part, as will be evident during this epic WNBA Finals between the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty.
But where the WNBA needs maturation is off the court, on the business side. In fan engagement, merchandising, public relations, media access and technological improvements. As Guber would say, in telling a compelling story. The star power on the court is No. 1. But all these other areas are critical ingredients to increasing revenue — which then increases player compensation, which then makes the league even more of a destination, which feeds the cycle of producing more stars.
“Technology is driving our economy,” Engelbert said, “and the tech center of your country doesn’t have a WNBA team. That doesn’t seem right to me. That was why I thought that this market would be so great. The data proves it out. But also this ownership team, these operators, all of the leverage off the huge success of the Golden State Warriors …”
To Engelbert’s credit, she seemed to know what the league needed. Multiple sources involved in the process said she had tunnel vision for the Warriors. Thursday, she said the league talked to other groups who expressed interest in a Bay Area expansion team, but the talks never matured to the level of an actual bid. That includes the group led by Alana Beard, the four-time All-Star and WNBA champion who was working to bring a team to Oakland with the African American Sports and Entertainment Group (AASEG).
The viability of the Oakland bid was repeatedly called into question. Multiple sources who were briefed on the process said Engelbert never met with the Beard-led group.
No doubt, if the WNBA was laser-focused on the Warriors, any other option surely felt less substantial. Everyone involved understood if Lacob wanted the team, it was his. Period.
But Beard — who congratulated the Warriors on Instagram — is a Black woman entrepreneur with venture capital connections and a stellar reputation who played in more than half of the WNBA’s seasons. AASEG is a Black group backed by a legit firm in Loop Capital and featuring successful Black executives like Shonda Scott and reputed agent Bill Duffy.
Obviously, these things have an assortment of unknown factors and behind-the-scenes variables at play. But it feels counter to the WNBA’s ideology for it to even appear that a group led by Beard wasn’t truly taken seriously.
Beard and AASEG were blindsided by the news of the Warriors being locked in. Imagine working to secure funding only to find out a week before the announcement a deal with the Warriors was pretty much done. And the revelation came from this reporter seeking a comment.
The smart move by the WNBA would have been to honor the possibilities in Oakland by, if nothing else, giving an honest assessment of their chances. The WNBA is a league that prides itself on inclusiveness, a league powered by Black women who have a reputation for being serious about justice and equality. Even if the Warriors were the no-brainer choice, the execution was shy on savvy.
But it’s tough to see all the angles when you’re trying to survive. It’s hard to plan seven steps ahead when the one in front of you feels a little wobbly.
It was clear from all parties this was a major step toward security. The WNBA didn’t need just any ol’ NBA team that would treat the women’s game as an obligation, a tax write-off. That road has been traveled. The WNBA needed a game-changer, to be attached to a juggernaut. A market that could set a new bar along with a new price and a franchise that can create a blueprint for the upward trajectory of the league.
That’s definitely the Bay Area. That sounds like the Warriors.
it was a bit surprising to me at first to see that Engelbert didn’t really give AASEG the time of day. but then, if Alana Beard & Co. didn’t establish that their financial situation was viable & sustainable, why would Engelbert pay them more attention & nearly lead them on when another group with much bigger influence & much deeper pockets was right there? in that way, it all makes sense.
Beard’s statement on IG was pretty classy. hope she can accomplish her dream one day of being a franchise owner.