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In two days, the Fire will play the first real game of their second era in the WNBA. Ahead of their inaugural game on Saturday against the Chicago Sky, the expansion team made their final moves to trim their opening-night roster from 17 players to 13—12 regular roster spots and one of two developmental spots filled.
Portland managed to get their roster down to the required size without making any outright cuts outside of Peyton Williams, who was waived last week. On Wednesday, general manager Vanja Černivec traded Chloe Bibby to Phoenix for the rights to Julia Ayrault, who was in camp with the Mercury last year and hasn't played professionally anywhere (Bibby was later cut by Phoenix), and also traded Maya Caldwell to Minnesota for the Lynx's 2028 third-round pick.
This got the Fire's roster down to 15, and on Thursday they temporarily suspended the contracts of Teja Oblak and Kamiah Smalls, both of whom have missed training camp and preseason with injuries. Doing that puts off the decision on roster cuts by a few weeks. Players on suspended contracts don't take up a roster spot, but when they get healthy and are un-suspended, they have to either be waived or somebody else has to be waived to make room for them.
Eight of the 11 players the Fire took in the April 3 expansion draft made the final roster: Bridget Carleton, Haley Jones, Sarah Ashlee Barker, Carla Leite, Sug Sutton, Emily Engstler, Nyadiew Puoch and Luisa Geiselsöder. Bibby and Caldwell were traded, and Nika Mühl is out for the season recovering from an ACL tear, which means her contract is suspended for the entire year. Portland's two outside free-agent signings, Megan Gustafson and Karlie Samuelson, are also on the opening-night roster.
The only one of the Fire's three draft picks that made the team on a standard roster spot is their third-round pick, former Wisconsin and UConn center Serah Williams, who has impressed in camp and preseason. Their second-round pick, Frieda Bühner, is on a developmental roster spot, meaning she can only play in 12 games this season before the Fire have to convert her to a standard contract. Portland's No. 7 overall pick, Iyana Martín, is not coming over to the WNBA from Spain until next season.
Rookie guard Jordan Harrison, who went undrafted out of West Virginia, made the roster after coming to Portland on a non-guaranteed camp invite. Despite being undersized (she's listed very generously at 5-foot-6), she made an impact in camp and in the Fire's two preseason games with her disruptive defense.
"Jordan just earned her spot," head coach Alex Sarama said after practice on Thursday. "She's been incredible from day one in terms of the way we play, she couldn't have been a better fit. The full-court defense and the relentless ability to get paint touches offensively. Not only the basketball, but an incredible attitude. She learned so much in two weeks. I've been really pleased with Jordan. She deserves this."
Portland has one more developmental roster spot open, which can go to any player with up to three years' experience, or players with four to five years' experience who played fewer than 160 minutes in the previous season.
