WNBA Free Agency 2026 News on Sabrina Ionescu, Napheesa Collier, Kelsey Plum Contract and More

The WNBA free agency's two-day designation period continued on Tuesday, and eight players received core qualifying offers, per the league's transaction sheet.

Those players are as follows: New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier, Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum, Atlanta Dream guard Allisha Gray, Seattle Storm forward Ezi Magbegor, Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale, Toronto Tempo guard Marina Mabrey and Portland Fire forward Bridget Carleton.

A core qualifying offer, per WNBA.com, is "a fully guaranteed one-year deal worth the supermax that both unrestricted free agents and restricted free agents are eligible for. If a player receives a Core Designation, the team that designates them as such is the only team with which a player can sign or negotiate a contract during the free agency period. But the team and player can still negotiate a move elsewhere via a sign-and-trade agreement if both parties desire."

The designation period ends Tuesday, and the negotiation period runs from Wednesday through Friday. Signings can begin on Saturday.

Obviously, teams that extend core qualifying offers put great value on those players and want them to stick around.

That's no surprise given the resumes of the players.

Ionescu, for example, is a four-time All-WNBA player who averaged 18.2 points, 5.7 assists and 4.9 rebounds last year. She's also an Olympic gold medalist.

Collier has been the WNBA's MVP runner-up each of the past two years and has been an all-league first teamer each of the past three. She just averaged a career-high 22.9 points, 7.3 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 1.5 blocks.

Plum is an All-Star four years running and just excelled for the Sparks in her first year with a new team (19.5 points and 5.7 assists) after spending her entire career with the Las Vegas Aces franchise.

Gray just averaged a career-high 18.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 3.5 assists for the Dream. Magbegor is a defensive superstar who has made All-WNBA Defensive teams each of the past four seasons for the Storm. Ogunbowale is a four-time All-Star who has averaged 19.9 PPG over her seven-year career.

Mabrey and Carleton are seen as cornerstones for their new expansion franchises. Mabrey just averaged 14.4 PPG, 4.2 RPG and 4.0 APG for the Connecticut Sun. Carleton was a starter for a Lynx team that finished first in the WNBA with a 34-10 record last year.

Other players have been extended reserve qualifying offers and restricted qualifying offers.

A reserve qualifying offer is defined as follows, per WNBA.com: "Any player who is out of contract with three years of service or fewer will become a reserved player if their previous team extends them a reserved qualifying offer and thus would be subject to that team's exclusive negotiating rights."

A restricted qualifying offer is defined as follows in part, per WNBA.com: "An RFA is a player with four years of service whose contract has expired and who receives a qualifying offer from their previous team. A player who is out of contract and has four years of service in the WNBA (coming off their fourth-year team option in a Rookie Scale contract, or otherwise), the team can send a restricted qualifying offer to the player. If the team decides not to offer a qualifying offer (QO), the player will be an unrestricted free agent."

The WNBA season begins on Friday, May 8, marking the league's 30th campaign. This season will feature 15 teams with the introduction of the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, a pair of expansion squads.