The Golden State Valkyries made one more big free agent signing before training camp starts, bringing back Tiffany Hayes. The competition for roster spots will be intense and then some players will also be reporting late due to finishing up seasons elsewhere. In addition to full roster spots, there will also be two developmental player spots that the team will be evaluating players for as rosters get finalized.
Tiffany Hayes
As free agency raged on around the league, there was one player who finished the season with the Valkyries whose had not signed with a team yet. Golden State announced on Saturday that they had signed Tiffany Hayes in a move that had gone through on Friday. The veteran wing returns on what Richard Cohen of Her Hoop Stats has confirmed is a $600,000 guaranteed contract for the year. She was a key presence for the team early in the season, but one of several injuries meant that she missed the end of the regular season and playoffs. She returned to full health in the offseason with a stint in Turkey with Cukurova before playing in Unrivaled.
Late Arrivals
Six players will not be able to start training camp with the rest of the team due to completing seasons in Europe. Iliana Rupert and Gabby Williams will be done first as they have to play one more game in EuroLeague on Sunday. While those two are teammates, there are a pair of players who will finish at the same time because they are opponents. Cecilia Zandalasini and Kaila Charles will be playing in the Italian league finals, which will end on either the 23rd or 26th. Janelle Salaun is in the Czech league finals, which will end on the 26th, 28th, or 30th. Juste Jocyte could also miss part of the regular season due to the Spanish league playoffs. The quarterfinals will end on May 3rd, but her team is expected to progress further with the semifinals ending on the 10th and the finals not ending until either the 17th or 23rd. Barring any additional big free agent moves, the team should be able to carry an extra player on the roster until she reports to the team.
The Roster Crunch
Signing Tiffany Hayes bumped the roster up to 21 players with the previously announced signings of Laeticia Amihere and Kaitlyn Chen also going through recently. Marta Suarez and Ashlon Jackson were signed to their rookie scale contracts, but the team’s last draft pick Kokoro Tanaka is not going to join the team yet as she really needs more development to get to the level where she can realistically compete for a roster spot.
The total number of players on the roster is larger than the number of players allowed to participate in training camp simultaneously so a player will need to be waived as soon as a fourth late arrival is able to report. Six players on the roster have a guaranteed contract, but there are realistically at least four more spots that are accounted for, leaving a major battle for the remaining spots, including between people with extensive experience with the team already.
Development Players
The WNBA was very quick to tout the addition of two new roster spots aimed at development, but there had been very limited information about the mechanisms involved. Richard Cohen of Her Hoop Stats was able to get some of the more frequent questions answered so it is more clear how those roster spots will factor into the training camp process now. Unlike some other teams, the Valkyries have not yet signed players directly to these contracts so the decisions on the players to fill them will come later.
Unlike the NBA, which has contract clauses that allow certain players to be allocated to two-way contracts, the WNBA development players can only be signed as free agents. That difference would mean that a player who is already on the roster would need to clear waivers after being cut before being added back into one of the spots, meaning that another team could claim their previous contract first. There is an experience limit for a player to be eligible, but all players currently on the roster expected to be in consideration fit under that limit.
While the Valkyries could target another team’s player or a free agent for a spot, it seems more likely that the priority at first will be players that the team is familiar with, so whoever misses out on a final roster spot is likely in contention. Once a player is in one of those roster spots, another team can sign them, but the existing team will have the ability sign them instead. With this being a new concept completely, teams are likely to try out a variety of approaches to utilizing the additional roster spots in the first season of their existence.
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