Will GSV sign-and-trade for Satou Sabally, Gabby Williams or another Cored star?
so you're saying there's a chance
The whole 2025 Valkyries Free Agency series is indexed here.
Can you trade for a Cored free agent?
While we’re at it, here are some remarks on the Cored free agents on other teams. As of 2025-01-15:
Seattle Storm cored Gabby Williams
Dallas Wings cored Satou Sabally
New York Liberty cored Breanna Stewart
Las Vegas Aces cored Kelsey Plum
A team whose player becomes a free agent is able to designate one of them as a Core Player. (This is like the Franchise Player tag in the NFL.) You can only have one Core Player until that player’s contract expires or they are traded. Players cannot be Cored more than twice in their career. The Core minimum contract is a one-year supermax, but teams are allowed to negotiate longer contracts.
Satou Sabally
Sometimes the Cored player does not want to stay, such as the case of Satou Sabally. Sabally in theory has to play for DAL on a super-max contract unless she either convinces DAL to trade her, or she sits out the whole WNBA season. If she sits out, then the core designation will expire in November.
The threat of sitting out the season is a possibility to take seriously, since WNBA players can make plenty of money in other leagues (often more than in the WNBA). For this reason, DAL is expected to try to find a sign-and-trade with another team. Sabally would presumably only sign a one-year deal (due to the upcoming raises in 2026), so the trade cost might not be that high, since there will be no long-term benefit.
“I’ve already communicated with Dallas how grateful I am because they’ve made this a home for me for the past years,” Sabally said Thursday at an Unrivaled — a new 3x3 offseason league — news conference. “I’m working with them together to find the next home for me because I’ve already played my last game in Dallas.”
Gabby Williams
Gabby Williams is another target for a trade. She had fully intended on becoming a free agent:
After her late arrival in August, Williams said she re-signed with the Storm in part because the team promised not to designate her a core player and allow her to test free agency this year.
So Williams will not be happy with SEA’s coring her, and it’s unclear what will happen next. SEA was already in turmoil due to the harassment investigation and Jewell Loyd’s situation:
Since then, the Storm’s situation has changed dramatically considering six-time WNBA All-Star Jewell Loyd made allegations of harassment and bullying by the coaching staff, then asked to be traded when the team said an independent investigation failed to find evidence to support her claims. For now, Loyd remains with the team.
It seems most likely that Williams will try to force SEA to sign-and-trade her.
Is a trade worth it?
There is some speculation that GSV could go for the short-term one-year deal to get star players into the locker room, and once they are here, they will be swayed to stay by attractions such as: the ownership group has a track record of putting winning first, paying top dollar payroll, and having the old Oakland Warriors practice facility to show off as legit infrastructure. That makes GSV an attractive site for star players to gather and stay.
On GSV making big trades in general: I think it would take a really good trade to get GSV to part with draft picks. Right now, the 2025 draft picks are gold because they will lock a player into a rookie contract based on the current, cheaper contract.
Furthermore, any star you trade for is not going to be signing an extension, and I would assume they will be going into the new higher priced free agency market.
And because this reasoning applies to every team, I would guess we’ll see fewer trades in the WNBA than expected.