2025 WNBA Free Agency: Early Returns
Big player returns and surprising trades are shaking up the 2025 WNBA season
Kelly Krauskopf leading the front office, Stephanie White heading up the coaching staff, #24 — well, sort of, more on that later — as a veteran presence for the title contender. It’s not the 2015 Indiana Fever, but ten years later it’s not too hard to picture another WNBA Finals between Cheryl Reeve’s Minnesota Lynx and White with the Fever.
This time, it wouldn’t be White’s first year as head coach, but it would be her first year back. And just like in 2015, Sandy Brondello and her squad — Phoenix then, New York now — will start the season looking to defend their title. Ten years ago, Brondello entered the season missing her star guard, Diana Taurasi, whose Russian team paid her to sit out; this year, it’s still a question if Taurasi will play.
Several stunning departures have headlined the league’s offseason so far. Brittney Griner decided to leave that same Mercury squad where she and Brondello won it all in 2014. Jewell Loyd and Kelsey Plum helped get things rolling in free agency in a trade that sent both multi-time champions to new starts.
Even with those changes, perhaps the bigger through line this offseason has been the returns. In retrospect, Krauskopf and White deciding to make their way back to the Fever portended a series of notable returns that have shaped the 2025 WNBA season.
In late November 2024, Cheryl Reeve and the Lynx brought back their own legend, adding Hall of Famer and four-time WNBA champion Lindsay Whalen to the coaching staff.
The aforementioned move that really got free agency started: Kelsey Plum starting over with the Los Angeles Sparks marks her return to California, where she grew up. She also gets to play for Lynne Roberts, the former Utah head coach who was on the opposite sideline when Plum put up 57 points for the Washington Huskies to become the leading scorer in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history.
On the second day of free agency, the Fever made two big moves, starting with signing Natasha Howard, the three-time champion who has changed teams a few times after being drafted in 2014 by Krauskopf and the Fever. Howard played for White in 2015 when Indiana last made the Finals.
Their other big move that day, arguably their largest of the offseason, was signing two-time champion and the league’s fourth-all-time leading scorer, DeWanna Bonner. It marks the return of #24, though Bonner will suit up as #25 given Tamika Catchings’ #24 jersey hangs in Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Bonner spent a key part of her life in Indiana; in 2017 she gave birth to her twins just north of Indy, living with then-wife Candice Dupree, who played for the Fever. Moreso, the signing reunites DeWanna with Fever Chief Operating Officer and General Manager Amber Cox, who was in Phoenix when Bonner was drafted and recruited her to come play in Connecticut. Bonner will also once again suit up for head coach Stephanie White, who she played for during her last two years with the Sun.
2009➡️2024
— Amber Cox (@AmberLCox) February 10, 2025
Take 3. 🤞❤️ pic.twitter.com/P4uJCXGHae
The next big free agency move — in fact, the biggest trade (by number of assets) in WNBA history — reunited a couple with Texas ties, as DiJonai Carrington and NaLyssa Smith were sent to the Dallas Wings. The pair overlapped for their 2020-21 season at Baylor, and now they’ll play together in the WNBA. They just may play with fellow Big 12 standout, Joyner Holmes, who played her college days at the University of Texas and returns to the Lone Star State on a training camp contract with the Wings.
When Courtney Vandersloot was drafted to the Chicago Sky in 2011, she focused on feeding the ball to the LSU great inside, Sylvia Fowles. After two years away and a title with the Liberty, Vandersloot has signed back with the Sky and will probably be perfecting her post entry passes to the LSU great inside, this time Angel Reese.
It was a 2014 draft night trade that sent Tina Charles from the Sun to the Liberty and landed draftee Alyssa Thomas in Connecticut, so it's fitting that the day the Thomas-to-Phoenix trade became official, Charles returned to the Sun team that drafted her. The league’s all-time leading rebounder and second-leading scorer makes her way back to the state where she won a pair of NCAA championships and WNBA MVP.
Lastly, Alysha Clark signing back with the Seattle Storm brings her back to the city where she started in the WNBA and won two titles. After winning Sixth Player of the Year and another title with the Aces in 2023, Clark caps off the long list of notable WNBA returns.
So far.
Odds and Ends
If you’re trying to keep up with all the moves in WNBA free agency, bookmark the following Across the Timeline resources:
All transactions: https://acrossthetimeline.com/wnba/transactions.html
Team-by-team movement tracker: https://acrossthetimeline.com/wnba/transactions.html#view=tracker
2025 WNBA Draft picks: https://acrossthetimeline.com/wnba/drafts.html
2026 WNBA Draft picks: https://acrossthetimeline.com/wnba/drafts.html#season=2026
2027 WNBA Draft picks: https://acrossthetimeline.com/wnba/drafts.html#season=2027
Unrivaled and Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball are both active in the midst of free agency. If you’re looking for stats and info:
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