The Portland Fire struck a deal with the Chicago Sky that will affect the WNBA Draft and the expansion draft
The Portland Fire have made a move ahead of the upcoming WNBA expansion draft.
On Wednesday, the Fire announced that they have received the No. 17 pick in the WNBA Draft from the Chicago Sky. Portland has agreed to not select a player from the Sky in Friday’s expansion draft and Chicago also gets the Fire’s No. 21 pick.
This means the Fire will have picks No. 7, 17 and 37 in the WNBA Draft, which will be held on April 13.
The Sky made sure to protect all of their players for the expansion draft, as they also struck a deal with the Toronto Tempo for a similar outcome. Toronto receives pick No. 26 in the WNBA Draft and will not select any players from the Sky’s unprotected list in the expansion draft.
Toronto has picks No. 6, 22, 26 and 36.
Coincidentally, the Fire and the Sky are set to play in both teams’ season opener on May 9 at the Moda Center.
Editor’s note: a previous version of this story stated that the Portland Fire gained a WNBA Draft pick from the Chicago Sky. The teams swapped picks in exchange for the Fire not selecting any Chicago players in the expansion draft.
