After rumors had been running all season long, the Golden State Valkyries officially announced that they signed French post player Iliana Rupert on Thursday with the transaction officially going through on Wednesday. The team had cleared a roster spot for her after her desire was to officially join in the middle of the season following national team play and personal commitments. Her addition increases depth in the frontcourt while also being another young player who could contribute to the team for years to come.
WNBA Career
As an international, Rupert was automatically entered into the 2021 WNBA Draft as a 19 year-old and was selected with the last pick of the first round by the Las Vegas Aces. She did not join the team that year, but signed in the middle of the following season instead while Natalie Nakase was coaching there. She showed some promise in her minutes off the bench as they won both the Commissioner’s Cup and WNBA Finals that year.
Las Vegas opted to waive her during free agency the next year, but the Atlanta Dream claimed her since their general manager Dan Padover had been with the Aces when they drafted her. She joined the team in the middle of the season, but did not have much impact and then spent all of last season preparing for the Olympics instead of returning to the WNBA. As a result, it was not much of a surprise when she was left unprotected during Golden State’s expansion draft.
The Valkyries picked her in December, but it became clear soon afterwards that she would go through France’s entire national team preparations and tournament before joining the squad. Given that her exclusive signing rights were acquired and not an existing contract, it made sense for both sides to have her wait until she was ready to report before officially entering into a contract. While she does have two years of WNBA experience as well as all of her time playing professionally overseas, she is still quite young. The difference in draft rules for internationals means that she is only a few months older than some of the rookies from this draft class, including being only seven months older than Kaitlyn Chen.
Club Career
After going through France’s national training program for talented young players, Rupert joined local powerhouse Bourges, winning the local championship and EuroCup in her last season there. She then moved to Virtus Bologna as they had an ambitious project in Italy, playing alongside Cecilia Zandalasini for two seasons.
She moved to Mersin, Turkey this past season to play for another team with rising ambitions in Cukurova, spending part of the season alongside Kayla Thornton. Two contracts for her were announced this week as she also signed a two-year deal with Turkish champions Fenerbahce, who also announced that Monique Billings will have a short-term contract with them after the WNBA season.
While she showed some progress in recent seasons in Europe, this past campaign was a breakout for her in a number of areas that made her a potentially big midseason addition for the Valkyries. She started the season well in Turkey and then torched her former team to open EuroLeague play. Her January was brilliant in particular and she was arguably playing at a higher level than any other post player in Europe at that time.
An unfortunate injury left her missing the second half of February and most of March, but she did return for the stretch run even though she needed some time to return to full strength. She was able to shoot three-pointers well at a high volume this season as well as score and defend in the post, which should help her fit in with the Valkyries system while giving them the option to play two post players simultaneously when opponents field taller lineups.
National Team Career
This was the fourth summer in which Rupert’s national team participation with France affected her availability for the WNBA. As a talented young player who was awarded MVP at the 2017 U16 European Championship in a gold medal and first team honors in leading the U17 team to a silver medal at the 2018 World Cup, she was fast-tracked to the full national team. She played limited minutes at the 2019 and 2021 EuroBasket tournaments as well as during Olympic qualifying, but started to get more chances at the Olympics. The team held a spot for her after the 2022 WNBA season so that she could play at the World Cup and then she started to really emerge for them the following year.
France’s national team did allow players to miss part of training camp this year to start their WNBA seasons like Janelle Salaun did, but Rupert opted to be present for their entire preparations to try to lead them to the gold medal that had eluded them in heartbreaking ways in recent years. Even with Salaun joining them for EuroBasket in a starring role, they did fail to medal and Rupert had some tough games late in the tournament so she will be looking for redemption this year.
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