Sophie Cunningham, the Indiana Fever's popular wing player, is heading toward free agency.
There's one way that journey could be interrupted, though, and that's because of the WNBA expansion draft.
Toronto and Portland will be partaking in that draft this offseason to begin to build their rosters as the league's new teams. Each existing team can protect players from being picked, which ESPN estimates will be five players protected per team.
Free agents can't be protected, so the Fever won't be putting Cunningham on such a list.
But free agents can actually be chosen in the expansion draft, with a specific designation.
ESPN's Kevin Pelton notes that an expansion team could see Cunningham "as a core candidate." That essentially would allow them to take Cunningham in the expansion draft and offer her a huge one-year contract.
Does she fit the mold as that type of player? Not necessarily, although Cunningham's general popularity went through the roof in 2025 after joining Indiana and teaming up with Caitlin Clark.
The core player designation is also a contentious point in the current CBA, which is heading toward its negotiations between the league and the players, so maybe it's not even a rule that will get to be carried out as it may have previously.
Most likely, Cunningham will be a part of the league's massive free agent class.
But it's interesting that Pelton mentioned her in the core player possibility. Maybe there's still a twist in Cunningham's offseason to come.
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