After initially reporting that she would miss a game due to injury on Thursday, the Golden State Valkyries announced that Kayla Thornton would be missing the rest of the season to recover from knee surgery. It is a big blow for both the team and her as she had earned her first All Star Game appearance and been a leader for the team on both ends of the floor. While a number of players have had good performances and will be helping to fill those roles, it will be tough to have another player step up into a leadership role. The timing of this injury is also tough at the start of a stretch of six games in ten days, so the team may have to make some quick roster decisions with multiple options on the table.
Keeping the Current Roster
It is certainly possible that the Valkyries do not make any roster moves for the rest of the season. Unlike some other leagues, there is no way of keeping Thornton on the roster and just signing an additional player. If there is no clear move to be made to improve playoff chances for the team, there could be chemistry reasons to not waive her. Waiving her would not result in any change to her salary or the medical care available to her during her recovery.
Like most of the other veterans in the league, Thornton is on a contract that expires at the conclusion of the season so waiving her would not affect any future years, including her ability to sign back with the Valkyries next season. This is different from the Washington Mystics currently carrying Georgia Amoore on the roster after she suffered a season-ending injury in training camp as other teams would have been able to claim her existing multi-year contract off of waivers. Given that the Valkyries have so much salary cap room, they would have the ability to waive Thornton and fill that roster spot.
Making a Trade
Opening up a roster spot would also allow the Valkyries to make some trades now that they know that they have a shade over $300,000 in salary cap space after Iliana Rupert signed a contract at her pro-rated minimum amount. They could pursue an established player who could help them make a push late in the season, but the way that draft pick trades have worked out this season leave very few teams that are in full rebuilds and looking to unload their veterans in favor of youth.
Golden State could instead use that salary cap space to take on other players who are injured for the season to then waive before filling the final spot with a player who can contribute for the rest of the season. Two contenders have injured players whose roster spots they might be interested in filling before the playoffs. The clearest case is with the Seattle Storm as they have had to carry Katie Lou Samuelson’s contract after she got injured in training camp. A trade where they send Dallas’s second-round pick to the Valkyries along with Samuelson in exchange for Golden State’s third-round pick might make sense.
The other player is her sister Karlie Samuelson, who is out for the season now. Minnesota is currently holding a spare roster spot open anyway and have the flexibility to fill that spot and also waive her and fill the other spot later in the season, but they could want to make their moves sooner if they have players lined up, with their 2027 second-round pick being the starting point for any potential deal. The Lynx might have been a spot where trading Stephanie Talbot for Samuelson could have made sense earlier. There are two other players who are currently out for the season and impending free agents in Courtney Vandersloot of the Chicago Sky and Tyasha Harris of the Dallas Wings, but neither team is in a salary cap position where this type of trade would help them.
Signing a Free Agent
Ultimately, if the Valkyries decide to waive Thornton, they are going to want to use the roster space on a player who can play this season. Golden State has shown a tendency to bring back players with experience in their system from training camp, but that might not be an option that makes sense right now. Chloe Bibby has joined Migna Toure on a 7-day contract in the league after she just signed for the Indiana Fever while Stephanie Talbot, who would have made sense from a positional perspective, has already signed a contract for the rest of the season.
The remaining eleven players on the roster do not leave clear holes at any position right now so the team would have plenty of flexibility. They could sign a veteran who has not been in the league this season like when they signed Aerial Powers earlier this season. There have also been players who have been active this season who were waived by their teams earlier or were only playing on hardship contracts. Golden State could also go with the younger player route like when they signed Bree Hall, trying to see if a player who only had training camp experience with another team could contribute in the near future.
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