During Friday’s expansion draft, televised live on ESPN, the Valkyries selected 11 players to begin filling out their inaugural roster for the 2025 season, and there were some surprises. Perhaps foremost among them: Golden State made no trades (during the last WNBA expansion draft in 2008, the Atlanta Dream made three).
There’s an international feel to the Valkyries’ picks. Seven of their 11 choices hail from outside the United States, including a pair of former draft picks (Maria Conde and Carla Leite) who have yet to play in the WNBA.
Additionally, Golden State seems to be setting up for a splash in next year’s free agency. The Valkyries selected just three players currently under contract for 2025, giving them ample cap space to pursue bigger stars who weren’t available in the expansion draft. At the same time, Golden State didn’t come out of the expansion draft with any extra draft picks to build a core of young talent.
Overall, I’d give the Valkyries a B-. I thought they focused a bit too much on building the best possible 2025 roster, rather than an extended outlook that might have prioritized younger talent and trades for picks.
Let’s run through all 11 choices and what they mean for Golden State, sorting them from my favorite choices to my least favorite ones based on which other players might have been available.
During the Fever’s final game of the 2024 playoffs, Fagbenle started and played 35 minutes, finishing one point and one rebound away from a double-double. Yet Indiana apparently chose to protect players under contract over Fagbenle, who will be a restricted free agent. Golden State will be able to match any offer sheet made to Fagbenle by another team.
Fagbenle spent the past five years overseas, and she’s already 32. But her savvy game and international experience should fit well with the Valkyries’ young talent.
Carla Leite, G
Dallas Wings
Unsigned draft pick
Although she isn’t well-known stateside, Leite could contribute more to Golden State than any player taken in the expansion draft. The No. 9 pick by Dallas last year, Leite won’t turn 20 until April and is already an important player on EuroLeague Villeneuve d’Ascq, averaging 14.5 points and 3.8 assists this season.
The one concern — and perhaps the reason the Wings opted not to protect her — is Leite’s availability for the WNBA, which could be challenging as she moves into the French national team after playing at the junior level.
I had Burton on Connecticut’s protected list, but the Sun presumably made the reasonable choice to protect center Olivia Nelson-Ododa instead. The No. 7 pick of the 2022 draft by the Wings, Burton was waived in 2023 after starting 13 games then found a second chance with the Sun. Improved 3-point shooting (35%, up from 27.5% in two seasons in Dallas) helped Burton stay on the court long enough to shine defensively.
Because Burton has just three years of experience, she’s a reserved free agent, and the Valkyries will inherit her exclusive negotiating rights.
I’m surprised the Aces left Martin unprotected. As a second-round pick, Martin proved she can contribute in the WNBA during her rookie season, beating out higher draft picks to become the only player on a rookie contract in Las Vegas’ rotation. Golden State’s interest should have come as no surprise to the Aces. Per league sources, former Las Vegas assistant coach and new Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase was one of Martin’s biggest supporters last season.
The only expansion draft pick on a rookie contract, Martin has two more non-protected seasons before Golden State must decide on her team option for 2027. That deal could prove especially valuable with an anticipated jump in the WNBA salary camp after the 2025 campaign.
One of the league’s better perimeter defenders, Thornton started 11 games last season for the Liberty, where Golden State GM Ohemaa Nyanin — formerly New York’s assistant GM — was part of the deal that added Thornton and Finals MVP Jonquel Jones. The Liberty will miss Thornton, who played 21 minutes in the deciding Game 5 of the WNBA Finals, but they had to prioritize protecting their five starters and younger reserve Nyara Sabally.
That’s why New York had looked like a good option to make a deal to protect their players, including Thornton and younger options Marquesha Davis (the No. 11 pick in April) and Marine Johannes (a reserved free agent who would have brought exclusive negotiating rights).
It’s not entirely clear how Thornton, who turned 32 in October, fits on an expansion team. But if the Valkyries can land a big name or two in free agency, taking Thornton will make more sense. Alternatively, they could try to trade her to another contender during the offseason or ahead of the 2025 deadline.
Along with Thornton, Talbot is the other player Golden State selected with a protected contract. Talbot signed a one-year extension with the Sparks over the summer worth $125,000, per salary data from HerHoopStats.com. The rules of the expansion draft allow the Valkyries to waive those players and not have their salary hit their cap, but there’s little reason for that. Golden State is already sitting on $1.2 million in cap space, the league’s second-highest total after the Sun, according to Richard Cohen of HerHoopStats.
Another 3-and-D wing, Talbot slumped to 26% beyond the arc last season but is a career 36% shooter who was a key reserve for Seattle Storm playoff teams in 2021 and 2022.
Like Fagbenle, Zandalasini went years between her WNBA stints. After playing two seasons for the Lynx starting in 2017, she didn’t return to Minnesota until last season. Zandalasini was an effective role player for the league’s runners-up, making 44% of her 3s and contributing spot minutes in the playoffs.
The Lynx presumably had to make one of their 2023 draft picks available, either No. 2 pick Diamond Miller or All-Rookie selection Dorka Juhasz, and it’s interesting that Golden State went for Zandalasini over one of those younger options.
Iliana Rupert, C
Atlanta Dream
Suspended — contract expired
A first-round pick in 2021, Rupert has yet to make much impact in the WNBA. She’s been more productive in EuroLeague play, including averaging 13.0 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists in four games this season for Turkish club Mersin. Because she opted to sit out the final season of her rookie contract to play for host France in the Olympics, Rupert can negotiate exclusively with the Valkyries, similar to a reserved free agent.
Maria Conde, F
Chicago Sky
Unsigned draft pick
A third-round pick in 2019, Conde has yet to sign a WNBA contract — and it’s unclear whether we’ll see her in a Valkyries uniform, either. The Spain international told The Athletic in 2022 that her interest in playing in the league is secondary to playing for her national team. “If there wasn’t the national team, for sure I would be trying to go,” Conde said. “But national team, that’s kind of like the priority for me in the summer.”
Vanloo wasn’t at the top of my list of players potentially available from Washington. She started 34 games in her first WNBA campaign at age 31 as an international veteran, but Vanloo was more of a volume 3-point shooter (8.6 attempts per 36 minutes) than an accurate one (32%). Golden State might be counting on Vanloo to adjust better to the WNBA 3-point line in Year 2.
The big name from the Mystics was unrestricted free agent Elena Delle Donne. Even if Delle Donne no longer plans to play in the WNBA, Washington likely couldn’t have protected all three of veteran starters Stefanie Dolson and Karlie Samuelson and reserved free agent Emily Engstler. I would have chosen any of them before Vanloo.
This was a surprising choice because Billings was the one unrestricted free agent the Valkyries were allowed to choose. Waived by the Sparks in a roster crunch at the end of training camp, Billings started 12 games on a hardship contract in Dallas before finishing the season in Phoenix.
The idea of taking an unrestricted free agent in the expansion draft is giving Golden State the opportunity to use its core designation. That would be an aggressive move for Billings, who signed a non-guaranteed contract with Los Angeles in free agency last offseason. That said, the alternative for the Valkyries was probably passing on picking a player from the Mercury altogether, so they might just view this to begin their relationship with Billings before free agency.
Pass
Seattle Storm
Golden State did indeed opt not to select a player from Seattle. Because the Storm has so many unrestricted free agents — one of whom, Nneka Ogwumike, was ineligible for the draft by virtue of having played the maximum two years on core contracts — the Valkyries’ only realistic choice was probably taking the draft rights to 2024 third-round pick Mackenzie Holmes. Golden State might prefer to look at its own picks in training camp.
