The FA market for women's professional basketball, which began on the 26th, will it be a surprise recruit again this year?
Mar 26, 2025
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In the case of women's professional basketball, transfer contracts have not been actively carried out due to the lack of a thick base of players, but interest has grown as BNK has rushed to win after recruiting Park Hye-jin and Kim Sonia in the FA market, where a large number of players were poured out last year.
On top of that, compensation players recruited on behalf of transfer students are also immediate key players, so it is also a good opportunity to reinforce weak positions depending on the team's situation.
First of all, the number of FA targets is small this year. Last year, a total of 15 subjects were released to the market, and if more than 10 people, including Park Hye-jin and Kim Sonia, were the main players in the best 5, this time only nine.
Still, three main players are Kang Yoo-rim (Samsung Life Insurance), Lee Myung-kwan (Woori Bank) and Jung Ye-rim (Hana Bank) in the first FA target, while the second target has veteran key players such as Jihyun Shin Lee Kyung-eun (Shinhan Bank) and Kim Jong-un (Hana Bank).
Among them, Kang Yoo-rim and Lee Myung-kwan play a serious role in defense as well as in shooter roles within the team, so they are certainly of interest not only to the original team but also to other teams. However, Lee Myung-kwan's contribution in the year is 13th and Kang Yoo-rim is 14th, so if he moves to the FA, there will be four protective players for the transfer team. It can be said that the burden is great because one of the best five has to be given up, but depending on the team's situation, they can be said to be players who can bet as much as they want. Both players joined after graduating from college relatively 'late', so Kang Yu-rim became an FA at the age of 28 and Lee Myung-kwan at the age of 29. Jung Ye-rim is good at defense and has a good shooting ability to occasionally hit three points when it's important, so it's worth considering recruiting.
Of course, the original team will start negotiations with the aim of staying. This is because the first target must first negotiate with the original team from the 26th to April 4th.
Among the second targets, Kim Jong-un has vowed to play for only one more year at the WKBL awards ceremony at the recommendation of his juniors, so it can be said that he will stay at Hana Bank. Since it is the first time that Hana Bank's new head coach Lee Sang-beom will take the helm in women's basketball, more veterans like Kim Jong-un are needed to play a bridge role.
Lee Kyung-eun still has enough performance to rank 17th in contribution, but since she is 38 years old like Kim Jong-un, it does not seem easy to recruit by giving up compensation players from other teams. Jihyun Shin has excellent offense but has ups and downs, and is receiving the second highest annual salary (420 million won) after Kim Dan-bi (Woori Bank), so both renewing and recruiting are burdensome for teams. In addition to Lee Kyung-eun and Jihyun Shin, Shinhan Bank has as many as four FA targets, including Marul and Kang Gye-ri, and it is expected to start FA negotiations according to new coach Choi Yoon-ah's plan for next season. The second target will be able to negotiate with all clubs from the 26th.
Meanwhile, the WKBL is scheduled to hold its second Asian quarter draft for Japanese players on June 6. This time, it is expected that higher-quality players will participate than last season as the monthly salary for the first-place designated players is raised and re-signing is possible. If it fails to reinforce its desired position in the FA market, it is expected that excessive 'overpay' or overheated competition in the FA market will be slightly reduced as it is expected to take full advantage of the Asian quarter opportunities.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
