'Underdog': Jewels to build team as free agency begins

Tasmania Jewel's Kayla Steindl believes it's time to raise the bar in the WNBL, as the league's free-agency period gets underway.

The competition's free agency began on Wednesday with Tasmania building their roster from scratch ahead of their entrance to the league next season.

Steindl and the Jewels have a mammoth pool of talent to draw from, with the club also available to poach two international players.

They announced their first signing in 17-year-old local Nikki Parker on Thursday, and Steindl says building up Tasmania's development system is a priority with very few players in the league from the Apple Isle.

"Now we have a direct pass from the junior level in Tasmania up through the WNBL, so to get more Tasmanians on the team that's a clear vision," the club's assistant manager told AAP.

"(We want Tasmanians) to play the best basketball in the country.

"Tasmania is often looked at as an underdog and so we're here to prove a point, and we really want to raise the bar of the WNBL."

However, Steindl knows it won't be easy to attract talent, especially after the American WNBA agreed to increase players' minimum salaries from $US66,000 ($A96,000) to $US270,000 ($A393,000).

In contrast, the WNBL's current minimum wage is set to rise to $46,952 by 2028/29.

The WNBA's new collective bargaining agreement is something UC Capitals coach Paul Goriss previously said was a "real challenge" facing the Australian league, as athletes may not travel knowing they are making good money in the US.

Steindl says it could be tricky to attract the level of international talent that starred in the Australian league last season, such as China's Han Xu and American Mackenzie Holmes.

"If anything, it just makes our job to stretch our sights a bit further across the whole globe of women's basketball players," she said.

Regardless, Steindl is focused on what she can control after announcing WNBL championship-winning coach Claudia Brassard as the Jewels' mentor in March.

"There's no secret that we're owned in the same ownership group as the JackJumpers, so we're definitely taking a few things that they've done really well," Steindl said.

"We love the term grit and grind ... so it would be silly of us not to hop on board with that and expect the same for our players."

Several Opals are off-contract in free agency, including Jade Melbourne, Zitina Aokuso, Issie Bourne and Ally Wilson.