2024-25 WNBA Offseason Guides: Golden State Valkyries

For the first time in well over a decade the WNBA has a thirteenth team. We analyze their expansion draft picks and the tasks ahead of the Valkyries in the upcoming 2025 offseason.

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Previously published 2024-25 Offseason Guides:

Los Angeles Sparks
Dallas Wings
Chicago Sky
Washington Mystics
Atlanta Dream
Seattle Storm
Indiana Fever
Phoenix Mercury
Las Vegas Aces
Connecticut Sun
Minnesota Lynx
New York Liberty

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Image Credit: Golden State Valkyries

2024 record: None, obviously.

2025 draft picks: Having made no trades around the expansion draft, Golden State still possess the exact same collection of draft picks they were given to start with - the fifth pick in each round.

Free agents: Monique Billings (unrestricted free agent), Temi Fagbenle (restricted free agent), Veronica Burton (reserved), Julie Vanloo (reserved), Cecilia Zandalasini (reserved), María Conde (suspended - contract expired), Iliana Rupert (suspended - contract expired).

Under contract for 2025: Stephanie Talbot, Kayla Thornton, Kate Martin.

2024 performance: Obviously, there were no on-court Valkyries performances to judge in 2024, so all we have to look at are the off-court moves. We can never really know how good people are going to be in leading front office or coaching positions until they're given a chance, but all the significant hires made sense. Ohemaa Nyanin came in as general manager after several jobs within the world of basketball operations, including five years with the New York Liberty, rising to assistant general manager. Natalie Nakase, one of the most highly regarded coaching assistants in the league, was brought in from the Las Vegas Aces as the new head coach. To add to the list of hires from recent winning organisations, Vanja Černivec was brought in as vice president of basketball operations after recently leading London Lions to a EuroCup trophy (immediately before they went bust, but that wasn't her fault). All solid moves.

Then there was last Friday night, and the expansion draft that stocked their very first roster. I wrote three separate articles leading in to the event, so you already know what I thought beforehand and have an idea of how I would've chosen (or you can go read them now, if you missed them and still want to know). We don't know exactly what the protected lists were from the other 12 teams, but my projected picks matched with only two of Golden State's selections - so you can imagine that I didn't entirely agree with their thought processes.

Some of the picks were fine. As I said in my breakdown of Connecticut, they basically had seven options to protect, so taking the remaining one (Veronica Burton) was easy. Kate Martin showed some flashes of real role player talent last year in Las Vegas and brings a significant and vocal fanbase with her. Carla Leite was a first-round pick earlier this year, is only 20 and has real potential. Temi Fagbenle was important and effective enough for Indiana last season that I (and most other observers) expected her to be protected by the Fever, so you can hardly blame Golden State for taking her once she was available (she also worked with Černivec in London, so they have a relationship already). But I have some real questions over a lot of the other picks.

They went veteran rather than youth in a lot of places, including, importantly, teams with real depth of talent to choose from. Somebody from Washington's collection of young talent (Emily Engstler, Sika Koné, Jade Melbourne) was available, but they went for hit-or-miss Belgian guard Julie Vanloo, who turns 32 in a couple of months. Stephanie Talbot has been a useful wing role player on various WNBA teams but again has turned 30 and Los Angeles had a collection of significantly younger players who could still improve or evolve into starters. Even the New York pick of Kayla Thornton - a player I love and suggested a couple of months ago could be a great leader and teacher for a young expansion team - means the Valkyries turned down the option to select from New York's significant collection of young talent. In none of these cases do we know exactly who was protected, but it was a maximum of six everywhere. Someone talented and young was left on the table in each of these places (and others).

The significant international slant to the choices also means that they've likely taken some players who won't show up, or who will at least be questionable to play in the WNBA virtually every year. María Conde has literally never shown up in the US since being drafted in 2019; Fagbenle's played one WNBA season in the last five; 2024 was Cecilia Zandalasini's first WNBA appearance in the last six; Iliana Rupert has played parts of two seasons in the four years since being drafted in 2021. If that expansion draft group actually ended up being their opening day roster in 2025, they'd have more players overseas at EuroBasket Women in June next year than they would in Valkyries uniforms playing WNBA games. On a pure talent basis, I don't necessarily disagree with some of these choices, especially if Nakase and Nyanin have watched players like Haley Jones, Laeticia Amihere, Dana Evans etc. and simply decided they're not good enough. But there were an awful lot of picks that either took increased risk or pretty much declared "we don't care if we get nothing from this team".

Monique Billings as their one allowed unrestricted free agent pick was something of a surprise. However, as detailed in my breakdown of the protected lists and projected picks, there weren't likely to be great options with that UFA selection (barring someone unexpected being left available, or a headline Delle Donne move). A lot of similar mid-level veteran posts were going to be an option (Billings, Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, Isabelle Harrison, Myisha Hines-Allen, Mercedes Russell etc.), and any one of them would be overpaid by the supermax core qualifying offer. Phoenix was also one of the teams without a lot of great options to pick instead, so Golden State probably weren't giving up much by using that choice on Billings. But taking a player who was cut in preseason last year, then spent the remainder of the season on multiple teams latching on as a replacement option, isn't a great look for what's supposed to be a key selection. Nyanin also wouldn't commit to coring Billings, which would make selecting her essentially pointless as she'd become a true unrestricted free agent (exactly as she would've done if left in Phoenix, assuming they didn't core her). But the choice is between that path or giving her the core qualifying offer, which would be a significant overpay if she simply signed it.

They also passed on taking anyone from Seattle, which was striking but less objectionable to me than many others. If the Storm’s protected list was as I expected and the Valkyries didn't like Russell (or even Sami Whitcomb) as the UFA pick, then the draft rights to Mackenzie Holmes was really all that was left. Bringing their own people to training camp rather than keeping a spot for Holmes is fine.

So as a whole, I think they could've done better. There were swings to take that I think they passed on for no particularly good reason. The complete lack of trades also disappointed me, because teams often value their own players more than they ought to. We don't know what was on offer, but not getting an extra pick from anyone to avoid picking certain players, or dealing a useful role player to a team who's likely to be more of a title contender next year? This group doesn't seem good enough to have failed to find anything worth completing.

Offseason finances: By virtue of taking so many players who are only rights of various kinds rather than actually under contract, the Valkyries have left themselves with a vast amount of cap space. Only Talbot, Thornton and Martin are signed for 2025, leaving over $1.2m in remaining space - the most for any team in the league heading into 2025 free agency. At least a little of that money will presumably be earmarked for signing some of their expansion draftees, especially as it sometimes takes more than the applicable minimum salary to entice overseas players into choosing the WNBA over spending the summer on a beach. But most of the players selected will be on low-end salaries, if they end up playing at all.

That means a whole lot of free agent shopping in the first Valkyries offseason. The numbers mean they could theoretically add four players on maximum salaries (and a fifth mid-level vet) before filling out the end of the roster with cheap youth. You'll likely hear some pretty big names connected to the organisation, especially considering the attraction of the West Coast and the Golden State organisation, but whether stars will want to join the project when there's no established talent core remains to be seen.

The Valkyries could also make use of the special rule that allows expansion teams to waive anyone taken in the expansion draft before the start of the season and have them count $0 against the salary cap. However, my information is that this only applies to contracts in existence when the expansion draft took place. So, for example, they couldn't core Billings and sign her to that one-year supermax deal ($249,244), then cut her and escape for nothing if they happen to attract a legion of big-name free agents. There's maybe a small chance that they use the rule to release Talbot if they really need extra cap space, but Thornton (and probably Talbot as well) is likely very tradeable if they want to create more room.

Offseason priorities: Presumably, the shopping mentioned above. Despite the lean towards veterans with certain unexpected picks, Golden State took an awful lot of players in their expansion draft who aren't under contract. That means there's still an enormous amount of work to be done in building their 2025 roster. It's not hard to believe that anything from four to nine of those expansion players actually make the roster, so a lot of the playing staff is still in flux. They'll probably want at least one marquee signing to launch themselves with - Nneka Ogwumike? Gabby Williams? - and may well chase more, but they'll also be looking for the next tier of players to help round out the team for their inaugural season. Most players are only going to be signing for one year, given the impending new CBA and the jump in salaries everyone is anticipating in 2026, so this may not be an offseason where they're building the core of a future title contender. But the franchise clearly believes in its infrastructure, so once they get stars in the door they probably expect them to stay.

Also, just as something to keep an eye on, I suggested a couple of trades in my final pre-expansion draft piece that couldn't be completed until core designations are made in January. The selections themselves and the subsequent statements from the Golden State front office didn't feel like they were leading toward deals that are essentially already in place, but you never know. There's still a lot to pay attention to when it comes to the Valkyries before they tip off their opener in May.

Future assets: I included all the player rights the Valkyries selected on Friday in the lists at the top of the article, apart from French guard Carla Leite who is still an unsigned draftee. Beyond that, having not made any deals, Golden State have all their own picks in future drafts and no extras. Unless they're expecting to make an extraordinarily strong push in free agency and trades in the upcoming offseason, don't expect them to give up their 2026 first-rounder. That could be a foundational piece for the future if they're anywhere near the level of a typical first-year expansion team.

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