The new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for the WNBA has brought a recognition of all of the money pouring into the league, and starting last offseason, players began cashing in. The supermax was introduced, the cap skyrocketed, and players now have more access to life-changing money.
Many players locked up long-term contracts last winter, but a few stars will hit free agency this offseason with the opportunity to choose their new home -- and sign a lucrative new contract. That list of stars is headlined by Napheesa Collier and Kelsey Mitchell, a pair of recent MVP finalists.
How much can Collier and Mitchell make if they stay with their current teams? How much less will they make by leaving for a new team? It's time for another edition of Salary Cap 101!
Max salaries keep rising
The new CBA pushed the salary cap up by a factor of three, leaping from $1.5 million to $7 million this past season. That means, among other things, a significant increase in the max contracts available to star players.
The standard max contract in 2025 was around $214 thousand; last season it shot up to $1.19 million. The supermax contract was even higher at 20 percent of the salary cap, clocking in at $1.4 million for players such as A'ja Wilson and Kelsey Mitchell.
Whereas Wilson and most other stars signed long-term deals, Mitchell and Cillier signed one-year pacts to remain with their current teams. They now hit free agency with a lot of optionality available to them.
How much can Mitchell and Collier make?
The salary cap for 2027 is not yet known, but the maximum it can rise is 13 percent. Given the growth of the league, it is reasonable to project that it will indeed grow by the maximum amount, raising the cap from $7 million this season to $7.91 million next year.
That growth will apply to max and supermax contracts as well, which are tied to the salary cap as a percentage. If Kelsey Mitchell decided to leave the Indiana Fever for, say, the Washington Mystics, she would be eligible for a max contract. If the cap checks in at $7.91 million, that max salary will start at $1.34 million.
The same would go for Collier if she elected to forge a new path and sign with a team such as the Golden State Valkyries. Because of the rising cap, the new "max" salary is just below this past year's supermax. It would be a lot of money and allow them to forge a new path.
Staying put would be even more lucrative, however, because they would be eligible for the full supermax salary, which is 20 percent of the salary cap in year one. That would translate to $1.58 million, or $235,000 more than the max salary available if they leave. It's a weighty financial decision for Mitchell, Collier and their fellow star free agents to make.
Action | Contract Type | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Sign with a new team | Max Contract | $1.34 million |
Re-sign with current team | Supermax Contract | $1.58 million |
It also opens up the question of whether they lost money by signing one-year deals. The supermax deals signed by players such as Wilson will rise to $1.65 million, or about $70,000 more than starting a new supermax. The flexibility to decide between staying or leaving may have been worth losing out on that locked-in money and signing a one-year deal.
In the end, a lot of things will factor into the decisions of Kelsey Mitchell and Napheesa Collier in free agency, not merely money. As teams try to line things up to make a pitch to them in free agency, and as fans hope for a superstar infusion, the CBA gives us clear numbers on what these star players can make.
Now we wait and see where they will go.
Add us as a preferred source on Google