LSU forward Aneesah Morrow (24) may be among the players the Valkyries are considering taking in the WNBA draft on Monday.
Jenny Kane/Associated Press
Unlike expansion teams in most leagues, the Golden State Valkyries won’t pick first in Monday’s WNBA draft. Instead, they will pick fifth overall, and finding an impact player at No. 5 is more difficult than it looked a few months ago.
Lauren Betts, Olivia Miles and Azzi Fudd all decided to return to school despite being draft eligible, leaving a lack of depth after the first few picks. General manager Ohemaa Nyanin was reluctant to call that a challenge, despite the dwindling available prospect list. She also didn’t want to set any expectations that the Valkyries would draft the “face of the franchise” or commit to a role.
The Valkyries also own picks in the second round (No. 17 overall) and third round (No. 30).
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“In terms of us being a new team, we’ve allowed for a lot of flexibility in both the types of athletes that we’ve gotten and the types of contracts that we have,” Nyanin said Friday. “So I think not putting pressure on any one of our picks, I think everybody’s focusing on five, but we have 17 and 30, and you know, the expectation is the same.
“We aren’t looking for the face of the franchise just yet. I think we need to build our identity and throughout the season, hopefully the face of the franchise emerges.”
Connecticut guard Paige Bueckers is the sure-fire first overall pick to Dallas. After that, it’s anybody’s guess. French center Dominique Malonga or USC All-America forward Kiki Iriafen could go No. 2 to Seattle, and Washington owns the third and fourth selections.
Most realistic for the Valkyries with the fifth pick could be LSU do-it-all Aneesah Morrow, who led the nation with 30 double-doubles while averaging 18.7 points and 13.5 rebounds per game. The 6-foot-1 forward has a high motor on the glass but isn’t much of a shooter at 28.9% from 3-point range this season. Whether she can be a rebounding machine against bigger competition is unclear.
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If Morrow ends up in Washington, Notre Dame shooting guard Sonia Citron could slip, giving the Valkyries access to a strong perimeter defender. Maryland point guard Shyanne Sellers could also be a fit. At 6-2, she’s a solid defender, shot 40.8% from 3-point range last season and averaged 4.1 assists per game for the Sweet 16 Terps. Behind Julie Vanloo and Carla Leite in her first year in the WNBA, Sellers might be a developmental project worth taking on.
But if the Valkyries want a rookie who will play immediately, Morrow might fit the bill.
Tiffany Hayes, Kate Martin, Leite, Vanloo and Veronica Burton should see significant backcourt minutes, while Janelle Salaün, Temi Fagbenle, Kayla Thornton and Monique Billings will take most of the minutes up front. Depending on how head coach Natalie Nakase chooses to mix and match lineups, with shooting guard Cecilia Zandalasini and forward Steph Talbot also in contention for minutes, small forward presents the clearest path into the lineup.
With Salaün’s ability to stretch the floor as a big with a 3-point game, that might give an undersized Morrow more space to score under the basket.
The second and third rounds of the WNBA draft are historically less predictable. One player who seems to fit the Valkyries’ mold is South Carolina guard Bree Hall, a true 3-and-D guard. She has shut down players like Sellers and Texas’ Madison Booker in addition to making 38.3% of her catch-and-shoot 3s the past two years, per analytics website Synergy.
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Harvard point guard Harmoni Turner is another prospect to watch. The 2024-25 Ivy League Player of the Year had strong games against programs like Boston College, Indiana and Baylor over the past two seasons, shot 35.6% from behind the 3-point arc this season and averaged 3.4 assists and 2.8 steals per game for the Crimson.
Diamond Johnson could be worth a look in the third round. At North Carolina State two seasons ago, Johnson was considered one of the top players in women’s college basketball. She went to Norfolk State in 2023 and has been one of the top mid-major players in the country, shooting 47% as a senior and grabbing 6.1 rebounds per game at 5-5.
With just eight players under contract — not counting training camp contracts, which don’t affect the salary cap yet — the Valkyries have more than $385,000 of cap space remaining before hitting the cap minimum. Nyanin mentioned with training camp a few weeks away, some players from other clubs will be waived, and while she doesn’t want a revolving door of talent, the Valkyries roster entering camp won’t be final.
It’s been a struggle for non-elite rookies to crack WNBA rosters historically. The addition of another 12 roster spots with the Valkyries joining the fray opens things up a bit more, and two more teams will join the league next season.
If the Valkyries want to keep their cap low entering next year’s expected free agent frenzy as salaries rise on the heels of a new collective bargaining agreement, maximizing talent from this draft will be to their benefit.
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We want “someone who is not afraid of stepping into what is the newest franchise and be ready to contribute,” Nyanin said. “Regardless of how old they are or how much experience they’ve had. … Someone we can see here year one and beyond.”
Reach Marisa Ingemi (she/her): [email protected]; Bluesky: @mingemi.bsky.social
