The Golden State Valkyries made a player move on Sunday, waiving Nadia Fingall and signing Aminata Gueye. Since the roster spot was created as a result of Iliana Rupert’s pregnancy, the team is allowed to make moves using it without regard to salary cap implications. There was some expectation that there would be another transaction for this spot, but having it happen this late in the season was more of a surprise. The move does not change the positional balance of the roster.
Nadia Fingall
It was not clear what to expect when the Valkyries signed Nadia Fingall originally. She is a post player in the prime of her career with good overseas experience who had not gotten a WNBA chance yet. She ended up playing just over 32 minutes in 10 games, scoring 11 points and not really seeing any time in games before they were decided, even when the team was missing one of their rotation-level posts. It would certainly not have been a shock if the team had opted to bring in a veteran for the roster spot instead in case they needed additional contributions, but no moves had materialized until this point. She is set to return to Spain this season with Zaragoza and this move does allow her to join them sooner.
Aminata Gueye
To fill the vacant roster spot, the Valkyries brought in another post player who also happened to be teammates with Nadia Fingall during the club season as Aminata Gueye had played for Zaragoza. She was teammates for two straight seasons with Carla Leite and made her senior national team debut this year with France, playing some limited minutes with them during the World Cup. This is another case where she is only likely to play in games where the outcome has been settled, but as a younger player who has emerged recently, this is also a good evaluation opportunity to possibly bring her back in future years.
Gueye came through the renowned youth system at Mondeville, getting time with France’s youth national teams at the U18 and U19 levels. The team was in the second division in her draft year in 2022, meaning that a good season there still left her largely off the radar to be picked. She had a good summer that year with the U20 national team and returned to the top division with a good campaign at Toulouse. She signed with a team expected to challenge for trophies after that and it was her second season at Villeneuve-d’Ascq that made it clear that she would be more of a factor on the continental and global level.
She was in the rotation this past season with Zaragoza, averaging double-figures in scoring in domestic league play and slightly below that during their big EuroLeague campaign. Her senior national team competitive debut came in this year’s World Cup Qualifying tournament, which was pretty strong for her, but her place on their final roster for the event was less secure. Ultimately, injuries and some younger stars not being ready yet got her a place as a backup post, although she did not play many minutes. She will head to USK Prague to play the European season after the Valkyries season ends.
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