WNBA Trade Deadline winners and losers roundtable

The WNBA trade deadline passed at 3 p.m. ET on Thursday, closing out one of the most active deadline’s in recent memory.

The reason for this? In previous years, 12 teams for eight playoff spots meant that teams had ample chances to try to squeeze into those final couple of spots. Teams that probably should have folded their playoff chances and became sellers didn’t because they still believed could go on a late season playoff push.

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Also, it was often difficult for certain trades to go through because the WNBA operates on a hard salary cap rather than a softer one, which is the status quo in other professional leagues. Three years ago the Phoenix Mercury were trying to trade Skylar Diggins after there were tensions between her, Diana Taurasi and their head coach at the time, Vanessa Nygaard. Trading Diggins never went through because the math didn’t work and general managers around the WNBA didn’t manage their caps as intentionally as they do now in 2025.

This season, however, trades were much more intentional with clear buyers and sellers. Franchises like the Dallas Wings and Washington Mystics embraced their roles as sellers stacking their assets for the future, especially leading up to a 2026 free agency period where around 80 percent of the WNBA will be unrestricted free agents.

While this year’s deadline resulted in four different trades, including one that came in late June, it still didn’t match the typical excitement that often comes on deadline day in the NBA or MLB. This could change as soon as next season. The current iteration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement expires on October 31 and a well-reported goal of the players association is to bargain for a softer salary cap.

How much did the sellers like the Mystics and the Wings accomplish their goals? And what about teams like the Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm who were clearly buying at the deadline? Our staff answers some of those questions in the roundtable discussion…