Welcome back to the WNBA everyone! Yesterday on the No Cap Space YouTube I broke down my WNBA Awards but there has been another thing that I have been waiting towards the end of the regular season to do, it is time to pocket watch.

This year’s free agency was one that was years in the making. Which teams made the most of it? Which teams got burned? I give you my top three best and worst WNBA contracts.

This article in video form…

Tyler’s WNBA Award Picks…

Andrew was joined by Noa Dalzell to discuss the WNBA’s return…

When you think about the idea of expansion drafts providing opportunities for players that wouldn’t have gotten them otherwise, Carla Leite is one of the players who is the best examples of players who have benefited. And the Portland Fire will be benefiting from her bang for your buck contract for several years.

While so many contracts in the WNBA are now in and around the seven figure mark, Carla Leite is on the cap sheet for no more than $360k/year through 2028. Rostering of the most exciting young guards in the WNBA at this price leaves the door wide open for the Fire in terms of how they want to proceed. Do you try and sign a big free agent? Do you take on bad contracts and build your draft capital? Either is a fine option because of how incredibly good Carla Leite has been for the Fire.

On a roster where it felt like they needed to splash in the draft for player to be the face of the franchise’s first year back in the WNBA, Carla Leite filled up everything the Fire needed and did so at a bargain price.

There simply hasn’t been a better story this season than Sydney Taylor. Credit where it it is due, the Chicago Sky found an absolute diamond in the rough with Taylor.

After her college career ended at Louisville in 2024, Taylor’s name was not one that was ringing loud in the WNBA Draft process. This took her overseas for two seasons before coming to the WNBA, with again very little outside noise or expectation, and now she is a potential cornerstone piece for the Chicago Sky long-term.

This season was filled with big time moments and clutch shots for Taylor as she has averaged nearly 14 points per game, and doing so on just a $270k deal. This was one of the most successful “prove it” years from an overseas player that I can recall and she will certainly have teams calling in the offseason. The Sky have her restricted free agency rights and will certainly be looking to keep her.

Cheryl Reeve just knows how to get the most out of players huh? It was a massive turnover this offseason for the Lynx roster with the departure of Alanna Smith and Jessica Sheppard, enter Natasha Howard.

Given how many names were in free agency this offseason, while certainly being a stamped WNBA player, Howard’s name was not one that was bringing a lot of discussion. Following her stint in Indiana that just never seemed to be comfortable, Howard entered free agency a bit underrated.

Now this season, when the Lynx desperately needed her production due to injuries of Napheesa Collier and Dorka Juhasz, Howard has returned to form. Her pick and roll connection with Olivia Miles has been one of the most dangerous duos this season. Her defense has helped this Lynx team be the dominant two-way team that they are. At $700k, her impact compared to players being paid similar amounts has been massive.

I don’t think it is really a question on what the worst contract in the WNBA is. If you have been watching No Cap Space for a while you know how I felt about the Ariel Atkins trade to Chicago. If you are a newer Ball-Knower than you still have probably heard how I felt about the Ariel Atkins trade to Los Angeles.

Ariel Atkins is on the Sparks’ books for the next three years and is making over a million dollars each season. Right now she isn’t a great defender, she isn’t an efficient scorer, she isn’t averaging double-figures scoring, she simply isn’t playing to the level of investment on her contract. It is a contract that feels impossible to move again, and as the Sparks look to kickstart a rebuild, it simply seems that they will be stuck with Atkins on the roster.

It has just been a struggle of a season for Alanna Smith. The 10th highest paid player in the league, on a three year contract, the expectations are rightfully high for Smith to produce. She also was brought in to be the solution to a big problem for the Wings which was their rim protection and general paint defense, that weakness has remained their biggest.

What makes Smith’s contract such a tough one is that it was a contract that was part of a wave of Wings contracts. Jessica Sheppard has certainly performed this season for Dallas, Arike Ogunbowale has been far from perfect, and Alanna Smith has had some of the most dramatic changes in minutes from game to game that I have seen in my time covering the WNBA. This wave of contracts was the Wings showing the WNBA that they felt they were ready to be a genuinely competitive team. For them to reach the heights of that they simply must have Alanna Smith performing at her pay, especially if her pay means that they cannot retain a player like Awak Kuier.

They are certainly other players that could go here such as a Jewell Loyd or Skylar Diggins who are players that are out of their prime but getting paid based on those years, but I want to take this a different route for the final selection with Sabrina Ionescu.

This is absolutely a take that could age poorly but in terms of what this season’s performance has been for Ionescu it feels fair to have her here. Injuries are certainly a variable in this dialogue on Ionescu’s performance this year, but this has simply been the worst year of her career.

She is shooting below 30% from three for the second year in a row while maintaining a high volume, her assists are down, there just hasn’t been any consistency. There certainly have been games where she goes nuclear, but are you really comfortable paying for a franchise player if you’re only getting a high end microwave scorer?

Ionescu’s contract alongside Stewart’s and Jones’ all fall tied as the fourth highest total money on contracts in the WNBA. Stewie has showed up all year, Jones can be up and down as well, but Sabrina Ionescu has been positioned as the face of the franchise since she arrived in New York. This year she hasn’t played like it.

New York Liberty (24-16) vs Minnesota Lynx (31-9), 7:30pm ET on ION

Well what a game for Sabrina Ionescu to potentially make me eat my words huh? This is a massive game for the Liberty to show that they mean business for a WNBA Playoff run. No better team to prove it against than the best team in the league. Immediately my brain goes to the star players here in Stewart and Collier to see how the World Cup games positively or negatively impact their WNBA performances in their return. And if the Lynx win this and the Valkyries lose, they officially lock up the #1 overall seed for the WNBA Playoffs. A massive game with massive playoff seeding implications.

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