December 9, 2024
Minnesota’s Italian sharpshooter Cecilia Zandalasini selected by Valkyries in expansion draft
Zandalasini finished in the top 10 for 3-point shooting in the WNBA in 2024
As Kermit the Frog eloquently puts it in the timeless classic The Muppet Christmas Carol, “Life is full of meetings and partings, that is the way of it.” In the WNBA offseason, much like in Dickensian adaptations of the season of the spirit (note: Kermit’s wisdom is unfortunately not part of the original text), building a roster essentially boils down to a series of meetings and partings. For the Minnesota Lynx, the first parting from their roster that came within a whisper of a WNBA Championship came by way of the expansion draft when the Golden State Valkyries selected the sharp-shooting Italian Cecilia Zandalasini.
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Zandalasini joined the Lynx at the end of the summer in 2017. She played sparingly during her early days in Minnesota, but did see the floor during the final moments of Minnesota’s 2017 championship in Game 5 against the LA Sparks. In 2018, she made six starts across 29 appearances, averaging 5.7 points per game while shooting 38.3% from beyond the arc.
A native of Broni, Italy, Zandalasini planned to return to the Lynx and the WNBA in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic put those plans on hold, delaying her return to the team until 2024. She played in all 40 regular season games for Minnesota in 2024 and helped the Lynx lead the league in 3-point shooting at 38.0% as a team, the highest mark since the Seattle Storm shot 38.0% from 3-point land in 2021. The player affectionately known as ‘Ceci’ got hot in a number of Lynx wins this season, but none more so than the Commissioner’s Cup Final where she scored 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from the field, evoking another name that one of the league’s best has for her.
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“Diana Taurasi refers to her as ‘that effing Italian,’” Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve said after Minnesota’s 94-89 win in the Commissioner’s Cup Final. “[From] years ago playing overseas. I didn’t have the heart to tell her at that time that we had signed her and that she was coming over. ‘That effing Italian’ was really good tonight.”
Zandalasini made 31-of-70 attempts from 3 in 2024, clocking in at No. 6 in the league at 44.3%. The 3-point shooting is what pops off the page, but as a veteran of the Italian national team, and also Turkish league giants Fenerbahçe, she brought poise and experience to Minnesota’s second unit.
“She continues to give us a punch offensively,” Reeve said after another 5-of-6 shooting night from Zandalasini against the Liberty on July 2. “Shooting it, driving it, passing it, [she’s a] smart player. [She’s] really getting comfortable in our defensive schemes, [she’s] competitive, so she’s been a big lift for us off the bench.”
Zandalasini is not immediately under contract with Golden State. A player with less than four years of service time in the WNBA, she falls under the category of ‘reserved player,’ meaning she’s technically out of contract, but the Valkyries now hold the exclusive rights to negotiate a deal with her and extend a qualifying offer.
International players were a prominent theme of the Valkyries’ expansion draft. Zandalasini is one of seven total international players chosen out of the 11 picks Golden State made on Friday. Free agency and the draft will bring many more moves by the new kids on the WNBA block, but the first look at Golden State’s roster sports a significantly global feel.
As for Minnesota, the Lynx will need to replace the valuable presence Zandalasini brought off the bench. Her departure could provide the opening needed for players like first-round picks Diamond Miller or Alissa Pili to break into the rotation. Perhaps Reeve and company could look to move some draft capital to re-acquire Zandalasini. As it stands now, last year’s most dangerous deep-shooting team in the league has been forced to part with one of its deadliest snipers.
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Written by Terry Horstman
Terry Horstman is a Minneapolis-based writer and covers the Minnesota Lynx beat for The Next. He previously wrote about the Minnesota Timberwolves for A Wolf Among Wolves, and his other basketball writing has been published by Flagrant Magazine, HeadFake Hoops, Taco Bell Quarterly, and others. He's the creative nonfiction editor for the sports-themed literary magazine, the Under Review.
