April 13, 2025
Golden State Valkyries ‘poised and ready’ for their first WNBA Draft
Golden State has the No. 5, No. 17 and No. 30 picks on Monday.
Ohemaa Nyanin tried hard not to use the word “excited” Friday in her pre-draft media call.
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“We have been trying to stay away from that word,” Nyanin said. “We are poised and ready. We’ve done our research, we’ve done our homework and we’re ready to make these picks to bring in the newest Valkyries.”
As the Golden State front office and head coach Natalie Nakase prepare to add talent to the roster with the No. 5, No. 17 and No. 30 picks in 2025 WNBA Draft, there is much to consider:
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The No. 5 pick
The WNBA may look back in retrospect and wonder if it did the right thing, putting its first expansion team since 2008 in the No. 5 position of the draft, rather than something higher and more impactful. And with two more teams coming down the pike in 2026, making a change would seem hugely unfair to Golden State.
If the idea is to give the league’s newest teams a running start, the No. 5 pick is more of a jog, based on recent history. Here’s a quick look at the No. 5 pick over the past 10 years.
2024 – Dallas, Jacy Sheldon, traded to Connecticut
2023 – Dallas, Lou Lopez Senechal, not currently on a WNBA roster after electing to sit out 2025
2022 – New York, Nyara Sabally, healthy and contributed off the bench for the Liberty’s title run
2021 – Dallas, Chelsea Dungee, not currently on a WNBA roster
2020 – Dallas, Bella Alarie, retired in 2023
2019 – Dallas, Arike Ogunbowale, the exception to the rule
2018 – Seattle, Jordin Canada, spent four years with the Storm mostly as a backup, won two titles, now in Atlanta
2017 – San Antonio, Nia Coffey, moved teams five times in her career
2016 – Dallas, Aerial Powers, not currently on a WNBA roster
2015 – Chicago, Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, spent six years with the Sky mostly as a backup, then emerged into a starter in Atlanta over four years, now going to Las Vegas
The data suggests that this pick, while important as the first non-expansion draft in the team’s history, isn’t likely to be the “face of the franchise.”
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Face of the franchise
Nyanin indicated that she isn’t sure that is what she wants for this first pick, even if, as she jokes, the team’s marketing department has different ideas.
“We aren’t looking for the face of the franchise just yet,” Nyain said. “I think we need to build our identity and throughout the season, hopefully the face of the franchise emerges, right? And I’ve been probably a little too patient in trying to do that, and I’m very sure that my business team is looking at me like, ‘So who’s it gonna be?’ But I very much want this to be an organic process.
“I don’t want it to be given to anybody, because I genuinely believe that if you work really hard at it, then you don’t mismanage it once it’s being given to you.”
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International affairs
The Valkyries have nine international players on their training camp roster. Nyanin said she is in frequent contact with the team’s sports immigration firm to determine whether players who are overseas currently will be able to enter the United States in time for the start of training camp.
“If you’re an international athlete that we’re looking at, are you going to be in for training camp on time or later? I think training camp is the test, right?” Nyanin said. “We have athletes (who are here) now, and I don’t know how many days training camp is, I just know it’s not a lot of days. Every day is a day to get better, right? And every day is a day to evaluate an athlete. And so very quickly teams make decisions.”
Nyanin isn’t ruling out picking up players waived from other teams during training camp either.
“While I hope that there isn’t a revolving door of talent coming in and out of our doors prior to the start of the season. I’m not kind of counting it out,” Nyanin said.
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Next year…
It’s not a knock on anyone building this franchise from the ground up to say that the likelihood is strong that the Valkyries end up with a lottery pick this time next year. And before March 24, the 2026 WNBA Draft might have been known as the JuJu Watkins Sweepstakes, with the expectation that the USC superstar could well be draft eligible if there are rule changes with a new CBA coming next year.
Watkins’ ACL injury in USC’s second-round NCAA game against Mississippi State, which could entail a long rehabilitation that will likely impact her ability to play next season, throws that all into the realm of the unknown.
But that is next year’s concern. This year, in this moment, the Valkyries take another big step on the way to opening day.
“We have a lot more work to do, you know, between now and Monday, before you know, we say Golden State selects…,” Nyanin said. “In terms of attributes a competitive athlete, we want someone who is not afraid of stepping into what is the newest franchise, someone that is ready to be a team player.”
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Written by Michelle Smith
Michelle Smith has covered women’s basketball nationally for more than three decades. A 2024 inductee into the U.S. Basketball Writer’s Hall of Fame, Smith has worked for ESPN.com, The Athletic, the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as Pac-12.com and WNBA.com. She is the 2017 recipient of the Jake Wade Media Award from the Collegiate Sports Information Directors Association (CoSIDA) and was named the Mel Greenberg Media Award winner by the WBCA in 2019.
