Golden State Valkyries get the player they wanted in Jocyté at No. 5

It’s a pick that won’t ring any bells of familiarity for a fan base that was likely expecting to hear
one of the college game’s marquee names called in New York by WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

The seemingly out-of-left-field pick was anything but for the Valkyries front office.

“I’m happy to go on record and say the picks we selected were the picks that we wanted,” said general manager Ohemaa Nyanin. “I would say a lot of the mock drafts were taking into consideration things we weren’t taking into consideration.”

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With the No. 17 pick, the Valkyries took Maryland guard Shyanne Sellers, and Connecticut guard Kaitlyn Chen with the No. 30 pick. And while Jocyté might be the least recognizable to a new fan base, she is someone that Nyanin and team had their eyes on all along.

Jocyté is a 19-year-old, 6-foot-2 left-handed guard with five years of professional international experience already under her belt – yes, she has been playing professionally since she was 14 years old, and as a member of the Lithuanian national team since she was 13. The second Lithuania player ever taken in the WNBA draft, Jocyté is currently playing professionally in Lyon, France.

“What she’s been able to do at a young age…I would just say who she is, mature beyond her years, her basketball IQ, her physical ability within the game at such a young age, the sky’s the limit for her,” Nyanin said. “Regardless of where an athlete is born, we are looking at their competitive spirit, we are looking at their fit for Coach Natalie (Nakase’s) philosophy.”

The Valkyries came into Draft Day with nine international-born players already on the roster. Jocyte was born in Washington D.C. but raised in Lithuania. Jocyte’s selection continues the Valkyries theme of leaning into experienced international talent to build the franchise’s early roster, knowing the opportunity to sign elite free agents will increase exponentially over the next year or two, once they have established a culture and the majority of the league’s best players become free agents heading into the 2026 cycle.

Is what is happening at Golden State a model for future expansion franchises to come? Nyanin isn’t sure about that. She only knows what she thinks will work for her team.

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“We are trying to do this in a way that makes us feel confident, that makes us feel good about what we are doing on a daily basis,” Nyanin said. “I don’t know if what we are doing is a runway for other teams. I just feel really confident that we are doing it our way.”

The biggest question for Golden State about Jocyté is whether she is a future project for the Valkyries or a current contributor for their debut season.

Jocyté also recently told BasketNews, the FIBA basketball site, that the Lithuanian national team is her priority. Lithuania will be competing for her country in the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2025 this summer and their first game is June 18. Earlier this year, she played a significant role in helping Lithuania, who has not playing in the EuroBasket finals since 2015, to qualify for the tournament, averaging 17 points in four preliminary games.

“If the WNBA told me I couldn’t leave and had to choose, I’d undoubtedly pick the national team,” Jocyté said.

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While there are currently no active players in the WNBA under the age of 22, standout WNBA international players like Lauren Jackson and Emma Messeeman – both of whom led their team to titles – came into the league at the age of 19.

“There are other athletes that have come in at a young age and been successful,” Nyanin said. “I would say we looked at every athlete individually and picked them based on their individual stories and not necessarily their predecessors.”

Sellers, a 6-foot-2 guard, averaged 14.4 points a game in her senior season, shooting better than 41 percent from beyond the 3-point line. A projected first-round pick, a knee injury in the latter part of the season likely caused her to drop into the second round. Her size and her defensive ability makes her an intriguing two-way prospect.

“It’s a sense of relief. It’s a sense of joy, sense of gratitude, being grateful for the opportunity,” Sellers said. “I’m glad Golden State was willing to give a kid a chance. I’m super excited to be a part of the new team. I know we’re going to be ready to compete.”

Chen, the Ivy League Player of the Year at Princeton in 2023 (she played there for three years before going to UConn as a graduate transfer), was in the crowd to support teammate and No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers when her name was called as the 30th pick.