The Portland Fire added three new faces to the team Monday night with the drafting of Iyana Martín Carrión, Frieda Bühner, and Serah Williams as the No. 7, 17, and 37 picks, respectively.
Though some fans in the States may not be familiar with Martín Carrión, the Fire’s GM Vanja Černivec made it clear she believes that will change — and change soon. The 20-year-old Spanish hooper is a “generational talent” and it was “incredible” the team could draft her at the No. 7 overall spot, Černivec told reporters after the draft.
“And I don’t think we could be happier to invite Iyana to Portland,” Černivec said. “She’s someone that carries her Spanish Avenida team and her national team on her shoulders. She’s been an under 19 MVP, under 19 World Cup MVP, and if you look at the list of players that are up there with her, it’s… you have Paige, you have A’ja. So it’s just an incredible talent.”
Černivec was equally effusive in her praise for Bühner, who she said the team expects to see in the coming days. She’s “another young talent that kind of carries her national team on her shoulder,” Černivec added before she noted Bühner “with her age [is] a sniper, but can also kind of do damage around the hoop as well.”
Trading for Williams was a steal in Černivec’s eyes. “You cannot have too many UConn players on your team ever, so [she’s] another play that we think has a lot of potential,” she said. “And with our coaching staff and in our system, we think we can develop her into a really, really good ball player and pillar on our team.”
Williams is defensively “a monster,” she continued, and “we’re very confident we can develop her offensive game.”
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The Fire’s rookies join a brand new roster
The rookies will join a squad that will be led by Bridget Carleton, the team’s first pick in this month’s Expansion Draft. Carleton, who signed a three-year max deal with the team this week, joins the Fire by way of the Minnesota Lynx.
The roster also includes Karlie Samuelson, the team’s first player to sign who wasn’t also an expansion draft pick, Sarah Ashlee Barker, Chloe Bibby, Maya Caldwell, Emily Engstler, Luisa Geiselsoder, Megan Gustafson, Haley Jones, Carla Leite, Nika Muhl, Nyadiew Puoch, and Sug Sutton.
The IX Sports’ 2026 WNBA Draft board offered a lot of insight into what the Fire might have been thinking ahead of the draft.
Fire fans will have to wait to see Iyana Martín Carrión in action
Martín Carrión is a logical pick for Černivec, who helped the Golden State Valkyries put together a roster packed with a lot of European talent. At 20, she boasts strong 3-point shot creation and plenty of room to grow, something that likely struck a chord with Černivec and the team’s coach, Alex Sarama.
Martín Carrión has skills on both ends of the court, Černivec told reporters Monday. That includes pushing the pace, reading a pick and roll, and stretching the floor. “So we thought she was just an amazing kind of fit for what our coaches wanted to do,” she concluded.
Portland fans will have to wait at least one season to see her in action, though. “This year she’s gonna be a draft-and-stash,” Černivec said. The decision was reached after Martín Carrión told the team she would like to spend the 2026 WNBA season in Europe.
“She knows exactly what she wants,” Černivec said. “And for this summer, she just said she needs rest.” Martín Carrión suffered a stomach virus last season that left her in the hospital for several days. Her European season started shortly thereafter, and the decision to take time to fully recover was what she felt was best.
“So for her body and for just for her mental health as well, she she said she wants to kind of take the summer off and then focus with her national team on the World Cup, Černivec offered.
Bühner offers the Fire something pretty unique: at 22, she’s already represented Germany at the Olympic Games (she was part of the team’s 2024 roster) and is likely to come over to the U.S. to play for the Fire sooner than later. Bühner has the potential to make an immediate impact for the expansion team; she excels at scoring inside the arc and her screens are top-tier. While American fans might not be quite as familiar with her as Europeans, that’s very likely to change — and to change quickly.
She will need to grow in terms of her 3-point shooting, and her size (she’s a 6’1 forward) may cause her problems, but there’s a lot to be optimistic about with this pick.
Of all the selections, perhaps Williams’ was the most surprising. The team initially selected TCU’s Taylor Bigby before striking a deal with the Connecticut Sun that sent both Bigby and the team’s 2027 third-round pick across the country.
Williams will add depth to a Fire roster that needs it in the paint. She came to UConn after spending three seasons at Wisconsin, and averaged 6.7 points and 4.4 rebounds with the Huskies during the 2025-26 season.
While speaking to reporters after the trade, Williams said she’s focused on remembering what she’s best at, including “what got me here in the first place, and doing that at a really high level.”
She also revealed she was in an elevator when she found out about the trade. But she had a quick meeting with the Fire and came away from it noting that “they’re great people.” Getting drafted at all came as a bit of surprise, she also shared, and Williams was more focused on showing up as a team to support the No. 1 overall pick, Azzi Fudd.
The Fire will play with grit this season
Fans in Portland can expect a toughness from their team as the Fire returns to the WNBA, Černivec also told reporters Monday night. “I feel like our identity will be playing for each other, the grittiness, toughness, and just leaving our hearts out every game,” she explained. “I really want … training camp is about to start, and everyone should, you know, get an equal opportunity. And I feel like fans will easily fall in love and kind of get behind our players, and we’ll be super loud here at Moda [Center] every game.”
The Portland Fire’s first game of the regular season is against the Chicago Sky on Saturday, May 9.