Now that the first season under the new WNBA is complete, a lot more is known about the practical application of the two new developmental player spots that each team is able to utilize. This is the first of a two-part series on the new rules, covering some of the specifics in the process and some of the areas that have not been covered as much elsewhere. Both players and teams did not have much idea about the strategies of utilizing these picks at first, so some of the decisions in this first year that could affect their use in future years are also covered. The second part will cover more of the downsides that the details of the rules have created as well as discussion on under-utilization of the spots.
Revenue Split Effect
One of the key messages early was that these contracts would not count towards the team salary cap, meaning that there would be no impediment to the team’s ability to make other moves if they were to utilize both of the spots at all times. While that part is true, the team costs of having a developmental player do get added to the amount of total player compensation league-wide when the calculation of whether players have received their percentage of revenue dictated by the split according to the CBA is done. The early assumption is that there will be a need to give the players more money than the base salary in their contracts to meet that obligation, so not spending money on developmental players would mean more money for the rest of the players in the league.
Draft Picks
Players drafted in the second and third rounds can sign a development contract instead of a rookie scale contract. Four players did so before training camp this year, Marine Fauthoux from the 2021 Draft, and Frieda Buhner, Justine Pissott, and Darianna Littlepage-Buggs from this year’s draft. While it might seem like those players are giving up the potential for a higher salary from being on the rookie minimum for the whole season, it can be a better long-term play instead when it comes to getting more opportunities in the future. Teams could certainly release these players and replace them with other players on the roster who started on rookie scale contracts, but they tend to show some loyalty in these situations and give these players more of a chance after agreeing to make the sacrifice of starting on this type of contract.
When teams sign rookie developmental players to regular contracts, they sign the same rookie scale contract as an undrafted player would sign instead of the contract that drafted players sign with set terms for the first four years. This has two effects for players as it means that the contracts do not have second and third years that guarantee after training camp of those seasons, a feature which could make a team choose to waive players on their draft rookie scale before the season in order to maintain salary cap flexibility. The contracts after an upgrade would also expire sooner, which could allow players to make more than the amount of a draft rookie scale contract in a given season on teams that have reasons to offer more. Three of the players who went this path have already signed regular contracts. Buhner signed the version of the undrafted rookie scale contract that only covers this year so her team will have exclusive signing rights after the season. Pissott was signed by another team and the deal was also just for this year. Fauthoux signed the two-year contract instead, which locks her salary in for next year, but she would be able to sign a new contract after that.
Signing Players from Other Teams
There have been five developmental players who have received contract offers from other teams that they desired to accept, creating plenty of examples of what can happen as part of that process. The first such deal was when Los Angeles offered Kiana Williams a contract and Phoenix decided not to match. The big lesson from this first move was that the player could move teams before the deadline if the original team made a decision not to match or negotiate a different contract, allowing the move to happen nearly immediately. There was similar timing when Las Vegas signed Justine Pissott away from Indiana.
After the contract guarantee date passed, there were some strategic moves as Chicago did not have the salary cap space to match any contracts offered to their developmental players. As a result, Minnesota was able to sign Chloe Bibby and Phoenix was able to sign Maddy Westbeld. The only contract that ended up being matched was Connecticut retaining Ashlon Jackson after she had agreed to accept an offer from Los Angeles. The Sparks had to clear a roster spot in order to get the possibility of adding her so it was Williams who ended up being waived as part of another historic transaction.
There is an interesting subparagraph in the section governing these contracts, although it has not come into play this season and seems difficult to trigger. If a player gets signed by another team, but that contract is terminated in its first 24 days, the original team can reinstate the developmental contract, which would preclude the player signing such a contract with another team, but only have one day to do so. Given that teams cannot sign players away before two weeks of the regular season have passed, and there is a contract guarantee date at the midpoint of the season that might make it harder to teams to waive players later in the year, there is a pretty narrow window for this feature to be exercised.
Season Expansion
The 12 game limit for a given player per team and the 24 game limit for the team as a whole have been pretty clear for this season. The league has already announced the expansion of next year’s regular season to the 50 games allowed by the new CBA and there is no reason to believe that they will not increase that to 52 games when they are allowed to do so in 2029. Developmental players do get the chance to get an added game to their limit as it is set at 25% of the regular season total as the season expands. If the season is longer in terms of weeks, the base salary for players will increase, although it is still $750 per week, even in future years. The per game rate when those players are activated does scale each year based on the minimum salary for regular contracts.
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