The Golden State Valkyries had to make their move ahead of Wednesday’s game as Temi Fagbenle returned from the Great Britain national team. To get back down to twelve players, the team waived Aerial Powers, leaving them with a roster that can play the next two games. After that, the rest of their EuroBasket players will return and they will need to make some difficult decisions.
WNBA Prioritization
The Valkyries were left shorthanded against the New York Liberty because of the rules surrounding returning to the team from national team duty for veteran players. Temi Fagbenle had to report to the team within 48 hours of her team’s elimination and then she had to be activated. Given that she had just played three games in four days and then had to travel from Hamburg, Germany back to San Francisco, it made sense that she would be rested for this game, but she had to be on the roster, so Aerial Powers was waived.
The other player who is affected by the WNBA Prioritization rules is Cecilia Zandalasini, who will have to travel back from Piraeus, Greece after Italy’s medal game on Sunday. Julie Vanloo and Janelle Salaun will also be making their way back from there, but there is technically no restriction on when they can report back to the team. Since there will be a break for the Commissioner’s Cup championship game, the Valkyries do not have a weekday game and all players should have had enough rest to play in their game at Minnesota next Saturday.
Waiving Players
The Valkyries already had to waive one player when they released Aerial Powers at the same time as they activated Temi Fagbenle. They will have a roster limit of twelve to keep when they activate their remaining returnees and there will be tough decisions. Powers is a veteran who was brought in having not had any experience with the team previously so while it was worth trying to figure out whether she fit, it was not surprising that she was one of the first players waived.
Three more players will then need to be waived at around the same time. Bree Hall is in the same boat as Powers, having had limited time with the team and not too many minutes in games. Kaitlyn Chen has had a few more highlights, but faces the obstacle that she did in training camp of not necessarily playing a position of need for the Valkyries.
Assuming that the team does not opt to waive one of the players who started the season with the team, that leaves Laeticia Amihere and Chloe Bibby having the longest resume for the last spot. Each of them have offered different skills to the team from the post during the past few games. Amihere was the first player that the Valkyries signed when they had a vacancy and her shot-blocking and ability to attack an opposing post player off the dribble to score have certainly helped. Bibby was able to show her ability to stretch the floor and has been deployed at multiple positions defensively in some creative lineups.
New Signings?
Other teams in the league have been making free agent moves recently after evaluating the play of their rosters early in the season, leaving fans wondering if the Valkyries could be making a splashy move after their strong start. The biggest move so far has been DeWanna Bonner being waived by Indiana after being one of their key free agent moves and one of the most prolific scorers in WNBA history. Given the cap space the Golden State still has, they will certainly continue to be linked with available players even if that does not involve pursuing Bonner.
A more likely move would be adding Iliana Rupert, whose exclusive signing rights were acquired from the Atlanta Dream in the expansion draft process. She was one of the top post players in Europe during the club season and has been excellent for France at EuroBasket. She last played in the league in 2023 and is still quite young, while being good enough to contribute. Having already expressed interest in joining the team this year, she could be the player to fill the role as a third true post player as the Valkyries field lineups to contend with size on other teams.
There are certainly some free agents at EuroBasket that are going to draw interest after their contracts are over. The clear target for any WNBA club would be Julie Vanloo’s Belgium teammate Emma Meesseman. She had sat out the last two season because it was believed that she was no longer eligible to play in the league after attending the entire national team training camp to set an example as their captain. Rules clarifications after the Olympics last season have now made it clear that she is allowed to play this year and she has expressed interest in returning to the league in the right situation. Championship contention is expected to be a major factor for the former Finals MVP, but the location of the team has also been mentioned as a consideration in any pitch to her.
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