Last Friday there was some major news from the WNBA and the players association about the status of the collective bargaining agreement (CBA). It’s official, the CBA “long form,” meaning the full fledged massive PDF that explains the new rules of the road in the WNBA has been finished and signed by both parties.
The WNBA and WNBPA have announced the following statement pic.twitter.com/ne9m4Zg7Mo
— WNBA (@WNBA) May 22, 2026
According to Breanna Stewart, she got an email in her inbox with the new CBA that was over 400 pages long. When Alysha Clark was asked to react to the news of the long form being done, she let out a giant yell and an “Amen.”
While I won’t be breaking down the full 400+ paged CBA yet, this week’s edition of WNBA notebook will revolve around two key areas of the game that came into focus during the period of time when the CBA was being negotiated: developmental players and the enforcement of “freedom of movement” principles.
Let’s dive in.
How are teams using Developmental Players?
The purpose of the developmental player (DP) system is to give teams across the league opportunities to try to grow their talent pool and give them more options to respond to unforeseen circumstances, mainly injuries.
As it’s been widely reported, WNBA injuries have been on the rise, and in the past, teams had to resort to hardship contracts in order to have enough healthy bodies to play and practice. Players would always be told to stay ready and would need to train on their own before signing a temporary hardship contract. Some teams would even bring back training camp players simply because they knew the playbook.
“…you’re two or three injuries away from calling someone that’s sitting at home,” Mercury head coach Nate Tibbets said about WNBA life before DPs. “And so to have those players in your system, in our league system, to be around the really good young coaches that get to work with them every day, I think it’s a benefit not only to the players, but it’s going to make our league better in the long run.”
Prior to the new DP system, teams like the Liberty and Dream used draft-and-stash picks and international scouting to try to build out makeshift farm systems, but the franchise could only be a steward of their players’ growth from afar while they played overseas. This also made it difficult to develop talent and try to win at the same time.
But with the introduction of DPs, some of that shepherding can actually happen in person and during the WNBA season, which is a luxury that teams just didn’t really have prior to 2026.
Fire head coach Alex Sarama believes that if these developmental players are used in “the right way” the result could yield many more serviceable rotation players, especially with the league expanding to three more cities by 2030.
The WNBA allows each team to have a maximum of two developmental players per team. They can practice and travel with the team and be activated for up to 12 games.
So, how are teams using these spots so far? It’s been a mixed bag.
Of the 15 teams in the W, 13 of them have at least one developmental player on their roster, while the Aces and Tempo have none.
“Some teams brought in like older veteran European players that haven’t had a lot of W experience, but can make an impact right away,” Fire guard Bridget Carlton said. “Some players, some teams are bringing in rookies that aren’t playing a bunch, but they’re learning. I think a lot of [developmental players] are being thrown into games early on [due to] injuries, or however teams are embracing that.”
For instance, the Liberty and Valkyries decided to make two players from Australia who have played a lot professionally but not a ton in the WNBA, Anneli Maley and Miele Sowah, into DPs.
The Fever and Sparks have mostly brought on drafted players from recent classes who they like, but don’t have roster space for. Indiana’s DPs are 2026 second-round pick Justine Pissott and 2025 second-round pick Bree Hall, while the Sparks have given the DP designation to undrafted 23-year-old Laura Ziegler and 25-year-old Kate Martin who was drafted in 2024.
The Fire upgraded their initial DPs in British guard Holly Winterburn and 2026 draftee Frieda Bühner to regular rostered players, something teams also can do with DPs. But as a result they waived Haley Jones, Sug Sutton, and Kamiah Smalls.
And then there are teams like the Aces and the Tempo that currently don’t have developmental players on their roster. The Tempo used to have two, but released Greek 28-year-old Mariella Fasoula and then converted Nikolina Milić into a hardship contract so she wouldn’t continue to burn games she can play as a developmental player, especially since the Tempo have Temi Fágbénlé and Isabelle Harrison out with injury for extended time.
While there are seemingly less hardship contracts floating around the WNBA, DPs haven’t led to an extinction of the roster mechanism.
“I mean, it’s crazy even though there’s still hardship contracts being thrown around because, some of the injuries,” Carlton said. “But I think it’s really nice just having extra bodies at practice, having extra bodies, you know, that we can lean on.”
Defenses impacted by freedom of movement rules
Changes in officiating will continue to be a storyline simply because there are so many ripple effects on the product we see on the floor. Less physicality leads to calling games more tightly, which then leads to more fouls being called, which leads to different defensive outputs (i.e. defensive rating) from teams, and that leads to defensive-minded players making adjustments.
The amount of fouls being called continues to be much higher than last year with only four teams of 15 averaging lower than 20 personal fouls per game. The month of May last year included eight teams out of 13 averaging less than 20 personal fouls per game. That’s a big difference.
Something else I looked at is how much the top defensive teams in the league foul and if those fouls correlate to having a better defensive rating.
As of now, the Valkyries have the best defensive rating in the league and are in the middle of the pack, fouling 21.5 times per game, while the Fever have the second-best defense in the league, and foul the second most. The Lynx and the Dream are the third and fourth best defenses in this league, and are within the top five of the group of teams that fouls the least.
How do head coaches and players around the league feel about how these new, more offensively-minded rules impact the ability to play the game?
Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts explained that there are going to be some things he’s going to have to change when it comes to teaching his players how to legally defend.
“On an off-ball screen, you used to teach getting into the body and using your hands, and now it’s more, we’re trying to play with more space, in pick and roll,” he said. “I’m guarding the ball, and I hear a [defensive] coverage. I mean, we’ve always taught to get into the hip, and you know, put your forearm there.”
Now, that has to change.
Even on the offensive end, coaches have had to make adjustments. Fire coach Alex Sarama has stopped running a ton of dribble handoffs in Portland’s offense as he picked up on how much officials are calling fouls on moving and off-ball screens.
Coaches aren’t the only ones being forced to make adjustments. Fire star guard Bridget Carlton, who has a reputation for being an exceptional perimeter defender, has been called for fouls on skills under the previous rules she mastered. She explained she was called for fouls on a defensive technique called a wall-up where a defender contests in the paint with their arms straight up, creating a vertical wall to force a difficult shot in the lane.
“I think everyone’s still adjusting a little bit, including the refs,” she said. “But yeah, it does make it a little more challenging on the defensive end, especially like when you’re guarding the… really great players in this league. Wanting to be physical with them, making things hard, but there’s a line that you can’t cross and we’re still figuring that out.”
But what about the players that are defensive stalwarts and have made their WNBA careers on being excellent defenders? Alysha Clark, a player known for her defense, explained that teams might not be as reliant on those types of players because of the new offensive focus. “It’s great if you have them, but it’s not as cherished as it once was back earlier on, when it was a very heavy, veteran, slower-paced league.”
Could this be why there have been early struggles from last year’s co-DPOY in Alanna Smith? What about Alyssa Thomas and the Mercury who have been struggling to defend at a high level to start this season? It’s all something to keep a close eye on as we move into June.
