Real Time Valkyrie Expansion Draft Coverage | The Boneyard

Real Time Valkyrie Expansion Draft Coverage

6:34 and the explanation is going on as I type. Duncan, Carter and Lobo in studio, Chiney in SF location with Coach Nakase and various Bay Area sports types reading the names.
 
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First bunch of folks, done in alphabetical order (by team).
From:
  • Atlanta- Ilyanna Rupert
  • Chicago- Maria Conde
  • Conn.- Veronica Buton
  • Dallas - Carla Leite
Like the Veronic Burton
 
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2nd round of four choices.
  • Indiana: Temi Fegbule
  • Las Vegas: Kate Martin
  • Los Angeles: Stephanie Talbot
  • Minnesota Lynx: Cecilia Zandelesini
Agree with studio: very surprised Fegbule was left open.
Wonder if some deal was pulled off regarding Zandelesini. Pay attention after this to see if any draft deals were done.
Coach Nakase probably wanted Martin based on her experience with her.
 
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Dillon77 said:
Thornton will be a rock for this team.
I'll be very interested if any trades took place...doesn't appear to be so.

Now, onto free agency.
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Yup. The ESPN crew is talking about how Golden State has a decent amount of cap space for free agency. The depth of this league is something else. Add a few key pieces to this roster.....could be a lot of fun to watch.
 
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I am surprised by a few of these picks. I think Dallas and Indiana had bad drafts.

And I can’t imagine taking Cecilia over Dorka or Diamond. That’s a strange pick to me.
 
Overall I like what they did. I don't know everybody who was available, so don't know all of the players they passed on. But this is a nice collection of vets w/ Thornton, Talbot, Fagenble, Billings, Zandalasini. Van Loo hasn't been in the league very long but she's not young. Definitely need to add more but they might be somewhat competitive sooner than later.


I was just thinking last night, I'm a little worried about another round of expansion draft coming up in a year, this time with 2 new teams. Might be kinda slim pickins' for those franchises.
 
nwhoopfan said:
Overall I like what they did. I don't know everybody who was available, so don't know all of the players they passed on. But this is a nice collection of vets w/ Thornton, Talbot, Fagenble, Billings, Zandalasini. Van Loo hasn't been in the league very long but she's not young. Definitely need to add more but they might be somewhat competitive sooner than later.


I was just thinking last night, I'm a little worried about another round of expansion draft coming up in a year, this time with 2 new teams. Might be kinda slim pickins' for those franchises.
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Yup! Which is why I roll my eyes when everyone talks about how much talent doesn't make WNBA rosters.
 
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nwhoopfan said:
Overall I like what they did. I don't know everybody who was available, so don't know all of the players they passed on. But this is a nice collection of vets w/ Thornton, Talbot, Fagenble, Billings, Zandalasini. Van Loo hasn't been in the league very long but she's not young. Definitely need to add more but they might be somewhat competitive sooner than later.


I was just thinking last night, I'm a little worried about another round of expansion draft coming up in a year, this time with 2 new teams. Might be kinda slim pickins' for those franchises.
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Yes and no. First, we don't know who these teams protected and it's likely we won't next year. Second, the teams will be picking from a slightly larger pool than the Valkyries. Considering who was selected this season, because there were a few surprises, they could find some good players to help build their teams.
 
Morning-after take or three:

- After reading several previews, I was expecting to see the Valkyries to end up with some draft picks after other teams bribed them not to choose certain players by sending over draft choices and/or the V's threatening in return for picks.

This draft looked pretty straight forward and plain vanilla so I guess it was "everyone got what they wanted." Right?

  • The Kayla Thornton and Veronica Burton selections were widely predicted and both will add value.
  • And the fact that the Valkyries didn't think enough of what's on Seattle's roster speaks volumes about that situation.
 
dtbtbtb said:
THis team will need some serious free agents and a great draft to be competitive
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I agree, but people were adamant about expansion teams being competitive from the jump. This roster (plus the #5 pick in 2025) is not going to compete for anything other than the worst record in the history of the WNBA. To me, this looks like a two-year tank job until they can get their hands on a JuJu Watkins or a Madison Booker in 2027.
 
ochoopsfan said:
7 of the 11 players taken are from overseas.
Interesting choices
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I really didn't think about that part until way after the draft and I was on social media. Overall, I really like the draft choices.
 
JellyBean said:
I really didn't think about that part until way after the draft and I was on social media. Overall, I really like the draft choices.
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Speaks to how the international game is respected by WNBA coaches in my opinion. Not mad at it at all.

Wish I could remember the podcast, but someone was talking about how the men's game in the US/North America is declining with respect to skillset and IQ in comparison to overseas. It was a really good conversation that made some good arguments on how the AAU situation isn't helping.
 
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dtbtbtb said:
THis team will need some serious free agents and a great draft to be competitive
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I think this Expansion Draft kinda preceded that. They did a good job at getting some solid role/bench players without using up a lot of the salary cap, now I can see them going after some top free agents who won’t mind being apart of a “rebuilding” team.

The organization should sell itself for top players of certain teams.

 
Please tell me what I am missing. They chose 11 players, then there will be college draft, and folks are talking about free agency. That's way too many players to keep on a roster. Are they just going to discard a bunch of them later?
 
DEpup said:
Please tell me what I am missing. They chose 11 players, then there will be college draft, and folks are talking about free agency. That's way too many players to keep on a roster. Are they just going to discard a bunch of them later?
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Isn't that what typically happens during training camp? There always are more players than the final roster before cuts are made during the work outs.
 
DEpup said:
Please tell me what I am missing. They chose 11 players, then there will be college draft, and folks are talking about free agency. That's way too many players to keep on a roster. Are they just going to discard a bunch of them later?
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They may not have to discard many of them because some of them aren't likely to show up.
 
Valks founding season ticket holder here, and watched the expansion draft at a bar with my season ticketholder group of friends, so couldn't post here real time.

I'm mixed here - it's of course confounding that we can't see who the teams protected, and therefore have a complete picture of what was possible. We also don't know whether any of the other teams were willing to offer trades, etc. So there's a LOT we don't know. That said, here's my take on everyone:

Love:
-Temi Fagbenle: Can't believe Indy let her go (apparently I'm not alone). I was sure they were going to leave KLS unprotected and hope the Valks would take a chance on her and eat her salary (if KLS were dropped by the Valks, she'd be guaranteed her salary regardless, so a win/win/win all the way around.) I thought Fagbenle was a much better fit with Clark than Smith, and to the extent Nakase wants to play an up tempo offense, Fagbenle runs the floor well and has great vision, so I'm super psyched about this.
-Cecilia Zandalasini: I'm assuming this means the Lynx (wisely) protected Dorka, and so the choice was her, Pili, or Miller. I am uncertain about Miller's long term trajectory - it seems like Cheryl Reeve lost some faith in her, and I trust Cheryl a lot - and I've always been skeptical about Pili's pro prospects because her size and skill set is such a weird thing to try to translate to the pro game, even though I loved her in college. So assuming Zandalsini does play, she's got a killer outside shot, runs the floor well, has great length, and is one hell of a 3 and D player.
-Kate Martin: Not a ton of options from the Aces, and she'll be a high energy fan favorite. She's also on a rookie deal, so she'll be cheap to keep for a few years.
-Kayla Thornton: It was just a question of whether the Lib would protect her or Nyara, and after Nyara's killer role in the finals, it was pretty clear they'd have to protect Nyara. While I would have LOVED to get Nyara, I'm thrilled to have a Vet who does so many things well, is extremely likable, and will be a great locker room presence.
-Victoria Burton: As with the Lib, just a question of whether it would be her or ONO, and given that all ALL of the Sun's bigs are free agents this off-season, I'm not at all surprised they retained ONO. Burton still needs to work on her scoring ability, but she will give us speed, defense, tenacity, and glue player skills. Let's hope she's taking 100 three pointers daily in the off-season. She's also been posting stuff on social media suggesting she's psyched to come, which is also good to see.

Like:
-Julie Van Loo: Despite only having one season in the W under her belt, she's a vet who's a solid point guard with a ton of experience. I was a little uncertain how eager she'd be to be so far from home, but she posted a video the Valks retweeted saying how excited she is to come, so that's a great sign. While I'm happy to have her, the "like" is only because I would have been more excited to have either Karlie Samuelson or Emily Engstler, and if my math is right, they couldn't have protected both of them.
-Stephanie Talbot: Another solid vet, who I thought played really well for LA, though her three point shooting kind of slumped last year, and she's most obvious as a 3 and D type player.
-Monique Billings: Again, not a lot of options for Phoenix. The only thing I'm skeptical of is that she's on a relatively expensive contract that we'll have to match, but she's a solid vet and a Cali homegirl, so I think this could be a good fit. She's also posted positive stuff on socials that makes me think she's eager to be here.

Who?
-Iliana Rupert: I'll confess, my friends and I follow the W pretty closely, and we were all like, "Who?!" And I'm super salty because I would be shocked if Atlanta protected Haley Jones, and I think she would have benefited from a change of locations and a return to the Bay. But alas.
-Maria Conde: Same. Who? Did the Sky really protect Lindsay Allen?
-Carle Leite: Same. Feel like we could have gotten Kalani Brown or Awak Kuier.

I guess the question is whether any of these three has any interest in playing in the W.

What I like about this is it gives us plenty of cap space to sign three free agents (I'm focusing on Jewell Loyd, Nneka, and Kelsey Plum - two of whom have reason to want to be back in Cali), and also to pick up a few rookies in the draft. If we get three free agents and hold onto our #5 pick, then we can drop a few of the international players and round out a solid 11 person roster.

All in all, I'd grade this a B/B+, if only because we have enough solid vets, we have room for three free agents, and I think it was inevitable we'd need to plan for a lot of roster turnover over the next 48 months.
 
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