Free Agency Starts Today in WNBA

....and now it gets interesting. Teams are not allowed to communicate with free agents and make offers. Players can begin signing offers on February 1st.

ucdt3 over at RebKell gives us some definitions of free agent terminology.

Unrestricted Free Agent:
6 or more years service in league
Able to sign with any team unless designated as CORE player

Restricted Free Agent:
4-5 years service in league
Able to sign with any team, but prior team as 10 days to match qualifying offer
(becomes UFA if no qualifying offer is made from prior team)

Reserved Free Agent:
3 or less years service in league
Able to sign with prior team only
(becomes UFA if no qualifying offer is made from prior team)

Rookie:
3-year contract + 1-year team option

The full list is over at the WNBA website.

Coco Miller is an unrestricted free agent. Erika de Souza and Jennifer Lacy are restricted free agents, and Ivory Latta and Yelena Leuchanka are reserved free agents.

Let the fun begin!

Free Agency Begins January 15th

Friday for those of you who don't have a calendar. Teams can negotiate with players and agents. Teams, however, may not sign contracts with free agents until February 1st, 2010.

Our only free agents are Erika de Souza and Jennifer Lacy - at least, I believe they are both restricted free agents. There's a whole bunch of stuff about RFAs and qualifying offers in the WNBA Player's Assocation Collective Bargaining Agreement (2008), but it all depends on the players' salaries and how many years of seniority each player has and if they're core players or not.

My conclusion: re-sign Erika de Souza, at all costs.

De Souza, Lacy Free Agents?

The esteemed SportsGuru over at RebKell suggests that Erika de Souza and Jennifer Lacy of the Atlanta Dream might be free agents of one kind or another - restricted or unrestricted.

Of course, the WNBA hasn't provided a list of free agents, unlike every other sports league in the country. What do they think they gain from keeping that information secret? Most likely, they've assumed that their fans don't care.

With a decreased salary cap for 2010, this leads to questions about whether or not de Souza can be re-signed. Would de Souza ask for more? Would this put Atlanta over the salary camp?

There is also the hypothesis from the Atlanta Dream Message Board that GM Marynell Meadors could decide not to sign Lacy - if a) she wanted to get rid of Chamique Holdsclaw because b) she concluded that Angel McCoughtry was the wave of the future.

Once again, the fans of other leagues have meat to chew on during the off-season. We get table scraps.

Free Agency Starts...Next Month?

According to Kevin Pelton at the StormTracker Blog, free agency has been pushed back to mid-January. Teams may begin negotiating on January 15th; new contracts can be signed on February 1st.

I wonder what necessitated such a change? The good news is that Lauren Jackson will be back next year.

Sky Sign Erin Thorn

How will she look in Chicago?

Well, it looks like I spoke too soon about Free Agency. Erin Thorn was signed by the Chicago Sky to open up the Free Agency signings. It looks like since 2001, Thorn's signing is the earliest signing of a free agent - most signings don't take place till February.

Here are Erin Thorn's Player Efficiency Ratings (PER), followed by year of play and age (on July 1st of the indicated year)

8.83 - 2003 - 22
4.17 - 2004 - 23
11.77 - 2005 - 24
17.31 - 2006 - 25
13.22 - 2007 - 26
8.37 - 2008 - 27

The best year for Thorn was 2006, when she was a third banana on the Liberty. Since 2006, her stock has fallen to at least remaining in the rotation in 2007, but falling below replacement level in 2008. She's played at least 150 minutes in all of her years. Back problems might have played a part in her falloff in productivity.

Now, let's look at the 2008 Chicago Sky:

Jia Perkins 22.94
Candice Dupree 21.41
Sylvia Fowles 19.87
Chasity Melvin 16.53
Dominique Canty 13.56
Armintie Price 13.52
Cathy Joens 10.05
Quianna Chaney 8.33
Tye'sha Fluker 8.27
K. B. Sharp 7.74
Brooke Wyckoff 5.77
Brooke Queenan -11.13
Leah Rush -11.45

Well, you can't say that the Chicago Sky don't have room for her. The Sky had six players performing below replacement level. Thorn can certainly work her way into that that low-performing group of players.

The big question is "will she be better or worse in 2009?" I've been working on this, but I'm not ready to post on the topic of performance vs. age. I think I can say with about 70-30 odds that Thorn will be approximately the same as she was last year, with the 30 being a better-or-worse proposition. The Sky, apparently, like those odds.

Elsewhere:

* Seattle re-signs Tanisha Wright. I don't know if I would have made this choice. Do they really think Wright will become a better ballhandler with another year of experience? Maybe they just can't afford to sign someone better.
* Sophia Young is re-signed by San Antonio. That's a no-brainer.

Free Agency Now Officially Opens in WNBA

We have now moved up to the next benchmark on the WNBA calendar - we were formerly in the period where a team could talk to free agents; we are now in the period where free agents can be signed.

Do I expect anyone to be signed right away? No. Ever since the WNBA began listing their complete team transactions (2001), no free agent has ever been signed in January.

You'll just have to wait till February for the excitement. Then again, this is the Atlanta Dream, baby! Anything can happen in the ATL!

Free Agent With Every Box of Cornflakes

Some recent free agent pickups:

a) The Connecticut Sun pick up Svetlana Abrosimova.
b) The Los Angeles Sparks pick up Margo Dydek.

Abrosimova can only add to the Sun. As for Dydek, I'm glad to know that the Dream don't have the monopoly on tall, clumsy centers.