SAN FRANCISCO — Because the Golden State Valkyries put together to make their first-ever WNBA draft decide on Monday, the place they’ve the fifth general decide, they want to add the following piece to their puzzle.
They haven’t any presumption that they are going to be choosing the participant that unlocks all of their success.
“We aren’t in search of the face of our franchise simply but,” normal supervisor Ohemaa Nyanin stated in a information convention on Friday. “We have to construct our identification and all through the season, hopefully, the face of the franchise emerges … I need it to be an natural course of … who’s going to earn it? I do not need it to simply be given to anyone.”
“I genuinely consider that in case you work actually arduous at [becoming the face of a franchise], then you do not mismanage it as soon as it has been given to you.”
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Three days out from the draft, it appears as if exterior of the presumed No. 1 decide Paige Bueckers, there are a number of alternative ways every workforce can go when choosing their participant.
For the Valkyries, Nyanin admits there may be nonetheless a variety of work for her and her employees to do to decide on who they may choose.
However by way of attributes, in line with Nyanin, Golden State needs a “aggressive athlete” who’s “not afraid of moving into what’s the latest franchise and one who is able to be a workforce participant, no matter how outdated they’re or how a lot expertise they’ve on the collegiate stage.”
When assessing draft prospects, Nyanin and her employees will keep in mind their NCAA match performances, saying it gave them bigger pattern sizes to observe. However she’s emphasizing taking a look at their total profession and growth, hoping to have a higher understanding of why a participant performed effectively or underperformed from yr to yr and sport to sport.
Proper now, ESPN’s newest mock draft has the Valkyries choosing LSU’s Aneesah Morrow as their No. 5 decide. Golden State additionally obtains the No. 17 and No. 30 picks.
And whereas it is the franchise’s first draft, the Valkyries really feel that the expertise they’d in December with the growth draft has helped them develop a system that may lend itself to the WNBA draft, as effectively.
“We had a chance throughout the growth draft to check our completely different theories and give you gamers who we thought could be protected or not protected. … [It’s] very comparable right here,” Nyanin stated. “After we had been taking a look at our draft board, it is OK who has remaining eligibility? Who would not? Who’s extra seemingly than not [to be a lottery pick]? Then we plan accordingly. … In a way, we’re battle-tested.”