The Golden State Valkyries Have a Second Consecutive Busy Day of Free Agency

After leaving fans waiting for news for a while, Wednesday was the first busy day of player announcements for the Golden State Valkyries and the momentum continued on Thursday with three more players added to the roster. With WNBA experience lacking for many of the players on the team so far, the team made their first big move in signing Tiffany Hayes. Even with the most recent moves, the team still has significant flexibility for additional moves.

Tiffany Hayes

The Committee, a group that covers both college and WNBA basketball, broke news late last night that Tiffany Hayes had chosen to sign with the Valkyries. Additional reporting continued this morning and Richard Cohen of Her Hoop Stats quickly confirmed contract details that she had signed a one-year unguaranteed contract with a $200,000 salary. The signing filled some big gaps for the team in terms of experience with her 12 years in the league and in terms of scoring ability on the wing.

Hayes had declared that she would no longer play in the WNBA before last season as years of continuous play in the league and overseas were taking their toll. While getting ready to play for Azerbaijan in the Olympic 3×3 competition, the Las Vegas Aces had a need and were able to convince her to join and she won Sixth Woman of the Year after her contributions off the bench. She was also not sure about her plans for this season, but a big contract and familiarity with being coached by Natalie Nakase certainly made Golden State a good option. At this point in her career, she is not the quite the star that she was during her prime, but she is certainly still a quality starter. After many seasons overseas, she is playing in the first season of Unrivaled and is on the Laces with fellow Valkyrie Kate Martin.

Laeticia Amihere

Other teams in the league have started to waive players on unguaranteed contracts to clear space for other moves and the Valkyries were able to put in a claim for Laeticia Amihere after she was released by the Atlanta Dream. She now joins the roster under her existing contract, which is unguaranteed at a $79,999 salary for this season. Since it is her rookie scale contract, it does also have a team option of $90,908 for 2026 that the Valkyries would have to make a decision on as well since it is guaranteed once exercised.

Amihere was considered a forward with some upside after being picked 8th in 2023 due to her athleticism even though she was coming off the bench for South Carolina during her college career after arriving from Canada, but she never really found a role in Atlanta. That perceived upside was a good reason for the Valkyries to claim her instead of waiting for her to clear the process and sign as a free agent given that another team might also have wanted to bring her to training camp. She is playing outside the continent for the first time this season with the Perth Lynx in Australia and has been excellent there as a center.

Elissa Cunane

The other free agent signing today was center Elissa Cunane, who had an excellent college career at North Carolina State, but did not make the final roster for the Seattle Storm after they picked her 17th in the 2022 Draft. She took that disappointment in stride, immediately heading to Mexico to play until the Minnesota Lynx signed her to fill a hardship spot and gave her a few minutes before she was ultimately released. The Washington Mystics signed her to a training camp contract this time last year, but she did not make the team.

Since that initial experience in the league, she has been playing for Czech club Brno and got some EuroLeague experience this season. It has not been the highest level of overseas experience, but her performances do merit another chance. She will be a longshot to make it onto the final roster, but a good training camp could also put her in a position to join the team to fill in for any European players joining their national teams in June.

Salary Cap Update

The most recent additions to the team leave the roster at 12 players, which would be the limit at the start of the season, but not all of the players are expected to make the final roster and additions are still expected. In terms of actual salary cap calculation, the team is at a shade over $695,000, but they are realistically close to the million dollar mark now, still leaving them with room to make additions at significant salary before getting towards the cap.