But Minnesota had already "cored" her. The Core Player designation guarantees the player a one-year offer at the league’s maximum salary, but blocks her from negotiating or signing with any other team. The team and the player are also allowed to negotiate a longer deal at any value from the minimum to the maximum. The franchise’s core designation is then tied to that player for the length of that contract.
- Under Section 7(e) of the CBA, if a Core Qualifying Offer is neither withdrawn nor accepted and the deadline for accepting it passes, the team’s exclusive negotiating rights continue, subject to Section 7(d) of the CBA.
- Section 7(d) of the CBA provides that if the Core Player and the team have not entered into a contract, the Core Player Designation will terminate and become available to the Team again upon the earliest of: (a) the withdrawal by the Team of the Core Qualifying Offer; (b) the renunciation by the Team of the Core Player Designation (discussed in Section 7(g) of the CBA); (c) the retirement of the Core Player; or (d) November 30 of the salary cap year in which the Core Player Designation was made by the team ("salary cap year" being defined by the CBA as the period from January 1 through the following December 31).
The Core Player designation be placed up to four times on the same player throughout their careers. So if a player is drafted to a particular team, under the current CBA, she will have four seasons under her rookie-scale contract. After that, the franchise could conceivably core her for the next four seasons. If a player enters the league at age 22, this means that she would be 30 before entering free agency.
This was Maya Moore's first Core Player designation. As I mentioned above, the distinction can be placed up to four times on the same player throughout their careers. This is why there is very little player movement (at least among superstars) in the WNBA and why you see players demanding trades (e.g., Tina Charles, Sylvia Fowles, Elena Delle Donne).
Moore could have simply sat out this year and have been given the Core Player designation next year (2020), the year after (2021), and the year after that (2022), though this might be changed under the new CBA, since the players opted out of the CBA and the current CBA now is effective through October 31, 2019 (or on the day following the final playoff game of the 2019 season, if that is later)
In other words...
Maya did NOT have to sign a contract with Minnesota, much less a multiyear deal with the team.
From Minnesota's perspective, the only reason that the team would have "locked" her into a deal (and a multiyear one) is if the Core Player designation would be eliminated in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. And frankly, that is NOT a likely scenario (though I could see the number of times a Core Player designation being used for the same player being reduced from four to three or two).
If you examine the history of WNBA/player labor negotiations, the first CBA was in April 1999. Free agency was not introduced until the 2003 CBA. The Core Player designation was there. In fact, it was only in the 2008 CBA that the number of designated core players per team was decreased from two to one (this started in the 2009 season).
So while there was
some risk that the Core Player designation would go away, I would argue that it was extremely minimal.
But getting back to the points...
- Maya did NOT have to sign the contract, much less a multiyear deal.
- Minnesota still could have traded her rights -- this year, next year, etc. (again, assuming the Core Player designation is kept, which, based on history, there are no signs of it going away).
I guess you have a life. I don't! (straight line for anyone)
