Italy holds off the comeback attempt behind Ceci's 20 pts, 11 boards, and the Valks' players still looking good (too good) in EuroBB. I'm sure this will make the highlights, but she had a crazy end of clock heave that went in for 3 that iced the game. Almost expected her to pull out a nite - nite
Well, I thought poorly of her last year when she, reportedly, demanded a trade because she was unhappy being stuck on the rebuilding Sky. Her karmic reward is to be on this year's Sun
While the focus on international players may be hurting the team at the moment with so many of them away, I think it may prove to have been a provocative way to overcome some of the inherent disadvantages of an expansion team.
Eric almost got his wish - Salaün and Rupert were playing well and none of their teammates could make a shot. But, France pulled it out late. Seems like they would have advanced even if they lost today anyway, but much more likely with the win
For LTU, Jocyte looked good to me, even when she stopped scoring for a stretch, she seemed to be a connector. 17 points, 6 assists, and 2 blocks(!) in 31 min
Couldn't watch everything, and Courtsude basically only plays the steam live, but I'm guessing they'll have replays and highlights on YouTube later today for anyone that doesn't want to buy another streaming service
The Golden State Valkyries announced today the signing of guard Bree Hall, who is set to join the team immediately and will wear No. 21 for the Valkyries.
The 20th-overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever, Hall brings a championship pedigree to Golden State after winning two NCAA titles with the South Carolina Gamecocks (2022 and 2024). The guard averaged 5.8 points per game across 147 games during her collegiate career at South Carolina.
Hall spent the 2025 preseason with Indiana, where she played 16 minutes against the Brazilian National Team on May 4, scoring nine points and tallying four rebounds in her WNBA preseason debut.
The signing of Bree Hall is presumably for the duration of the Eurobasket absences. Bree was a champ with South Carolina and was a 2025 2nd rd pick by IND, who promptly cut her after 1 game. She wasn’t bad; it’s just the 12 player roster is *tight*.
So these players are on hardship contracts, right? Amihere, Powers, Chen, Bree Hall
Am I missing someone? Hard to keep track...
I'm surprised Powers didn't play.
Oh... Chloe Bibby. Sounds like too many players now. Doesn't that exceed the 10 players requirement for a hardship contract? I wonder if someone was released.
No one knows if these are hardship or just normal rest-of-season contracts like WNBA.com says. I suspect they are rest-of-season contracts, because that gives max flexibility about what to pay the players.
As I understand it, to waive the rest-of-season contract, you just do it whenever you want and the salary cap impact is only the amount already paid because the contracts are usually not guaranteed. Because GSV has so much salary cap, this is not a concern.
Thus, effectively there is no zero difference in difficulty of waiving between any of the hardship, replacement or rest-of-season contracts. The players will all be waived or not depending on their performance, team needs and most importantly, roster spots.
Agree - it's possible most are rest-of-season contracts. Particularly for those who were in training camp. Chen, Amihere, Bibby. Might give the team flexibility to give them more money even after they get cut when the Eurobasket squad returns. The WNBA salary is so small (compared to an NBA contract) that maybe Lacob / Nyanin are fine with paying Chen, Amihere, Bibby more just so they can make a living. If I'm not mistaken, a minimum WNBA contract is less than 100K for the entire season.
You are not mistaken. The minimum WNBA contract for a rookie is $66,079. It tops out at $78,831 for a 3-year vet. For the Golden State corp, this money is effectively $0.
That was a brutal, one sided wrestling match beatdown, and I hated it. I wish Temi had been there, but Temi can’t handle a semi (….. ha) driving into her either.
That college stadium did have the best music I’ve heard though.
And those poor fans, yadda yadda. Impressed they were still there at the end.
Huh. I watched most of the game and it never seemed one-sided. Sure, Dallas would often get out to a 6 or 9 point lead, but the Valks were continuously getting back to tie it or take the lead.
Oh totally! Pointswise it flowed equally in both directions. It was the physical beatdown that was one sided. The Valkyries weren’t trying to body anybody.
I didn’t feel like any Wings were ever at risk of injury, but I did think that several times about the Valkyries players.
It was like all the big kids pushing the little kids around, just because they could, not because they needed to.
Credit to the Valks for making it a clutch game given the absences of key players. The Wings are better than their record, and Paige missed a few games.
Don't cry over missing out on Paige because there's going to be a ton of available free agents next season.
As for the game the Chen DNP was probably the best move since online interest in the Valkyries went up by 35% (supposedly) when she was signed a second time. She has a built in fan base in the Bay. And they're going to be pissed off again when she's waived.
OT: I'm honestly getting a little concerned with the on court product here that the WNBA seems to support given the officiating.
From the Indiana/Sun game. Mabrey was not ejected for her dead ball shove
I've watched Jacy Sheldon when she was playing for Ohio State. She's always been a pesky, hard-nosed defender. But I don't think she's a dirty player. When she bumped Caitlin after the eye-poke, that looked incidental. And her body language (she put both hands up) kinda showed that she wasn't looking to escalate. Mabrey's body bump warranted the tech.
Sophie Cunningham - on the other hand - is a borderline dirty player.
I bet she gets voted in. Haha. Yooooo.
r/valkyries
28 min. ago
Ok_Brick_793
YOU CAN VOTE FOR KAITLYN CHEN FOR THE ALL-STAR GAME
https://www.reddit.com/r/valkyries/comments/1lex7gq/you_can_vote_for_kaitlyn_chen_for_the_allstar_game/
Italy holds off the comeback attempt behind Ceci's 20 pts, 11 boards, and the Valks' players still looking good (too good) in EuroBB. I'm sure this will make the highlights, but she had a crazy end of clock heave that went in for 3 that iced the game. Almost expected her to pull out a nite - nite
And, she also gets player of the game, that's a hat trick for Valks' players
https://youtu.be/7VHB7I6vSP0?si=pL2fgJJrJ3ZBFFww
I watched the highlights and during the first shot I thought, wait how many lucky heaves did she hit, until I realized they started out of sequence.
FYI Mabrey’s knockdown was changed retroactively to a Flagrant 2. No suspensions.
https://bsky.app/profile/theathletic.bsky.social/post/3lrvvapvcmc26
Well, I thought poorly of her last year when she, reportedly, demanded a trade because she was unhappy being stuck on the rebuilding Sky. Her karmic reward is to be on this year's Sun
And, Jocyte also named player of the game. Seems like Ohemaa might be good at finding international talent
https://youtu.be/KQIPsFdFzFI?si=RFQ7Xmy-SsqqfzJR
:D
While the focus on international players may be hurting the team at the moment with so many of them away, I think it may prove to have been a provocative way to overcome some of the inherent disadvantages of an expansion team.
@takakauri.bsky.social with the posts, including video highlights:
[[
Justė Jocytė with the three-point play to all but seal the game for Lithuania over Slovenia
17 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 blocks on 7/12 FGA
]]
https://bsky.app/profile/takakauri.bsky.social/post/3lrvjvzdak223
Thank you. Have been wondering about her.
Eric almost got his wish - Salaün and Rupert were playing well and none of their teammates could make a shot. But, France pulled it out late. Seems like they would have advanced even if they lost today anyway, but much more likely with the win
For LTU, Jocyte looked good to me, even when she stopped scoring for a stretch, she seemed to be a connector. 17 points, 6 assists, and 2 blocks(!) in 31 min
Couldn't watch everything, and Courtsude basically only plays the steam live, but I'm guessing they'll have replays and highlights on YouTube later today for anyone that doesn't want to buy another streaming service
Thanks for watching and reporting! I was excited to see France losing but they narrowly avoided the upset by 2 points...
Salaün named player of the game and gets her own highlight reel:
https://youtu.be/R5uqgnMF0FI?si=qUHnvbcOUqepbggI
Vs could have used some of her 22 points yesterday!
Need that sweet shooting stroke!
I thought her shot had more arc on it today, hope that keeps up when she gets back to the Bay.
Valks announce another addition:
[[
The Golden State Valkyries announced today the signing of guard Bree Hall, who is set to join the team immediately and will wear No. 21 for the Valkyries.
The 20th-overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft by the Indiana Fever, Hall brings a championship pedigree to Golden State after winning two NCAA titles with the South Carolina Gamecocks (2022 and 2024). The guard averaged 5.8 points per game across 147 games during her collegiate career at South Carolina.
Hall spent the 2025 preseason with Indiana, where she played 16 minutes against the Brazilian National Team on May 4, scoring nine points and tallying four rebounds in her WNBA preseason debut.
]]
The signing of Bree Hall is presumably for the duration of the Eurobasket absences. Bree was a champ with South Carolina and was a 2025 2nd rd pick by IND, who promptly cut her after 1 game. She wasn’t bad; it’s just the 12 player roster is *tight*.
So these players are on hardship contracts, right? Amihere, Powers, Chen, Bree Hall
Am I missing someone? Hard to keep track...
I'm surprised Powers didn't play.
Oh... Chloe Bibby. Sounds like too many players now. Doesn't that exceed the 10 players requirement for a hardship contract? I wonder if someone was released.
No one knows if these are hardship or just normal rest-of-season contracts like WNBA.com says. I suspect they are rest-of-season contracts, because that gives max flexibility about what to pay the players.
As I understand it, to waive the rest-of-season contract, you just do it whenever you want and the salary cap impact is only the amount already paid because the contracts are usually not guaranteed. Because GSV has so much salary cap, this is not a concern.
Thus, effectively there is no zero difference in difficulty of waiving between any of the hardship, replacement or rest-of-season contracts. The players will all be waived or not depending on their performance, team needs and most importantly, roster spots.
Agree - it's possible most are rest-of-season contracts. Particularly for those who were in training camp. Chen, Amihere, Bibby. Might give the team flexibility to give them more money even after they get cut when the Eurobasket squad returns. The WNBA salary is so small (compared to an NBA contract) that maybe Lacob / Nyanin are fine with paying Chen, Amihere, Bibby more just so they can make a living. If I'm not mistaken, a minimum WNBA contract is less than 100K for the entire season.
You are not mistaken. The minimum WNBA contract for a rookie is $66,079. It tops out at $78,831 for a 3-year vet. For the Golden State corp, this money is effectively $0.
That is wild. That's about 10% of what Lebron makes in one single game.
For the truly obsessive, on viewing Eurobasket: The WNBA insists that “All games will be live-streamed on FIBA’s official YouTube channel.”
However, I am finding this is not true.
You can follow the live box scores at https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/fiba-womens-eurobasket-2025/games
The video proper is available at https://www.courtside1891.basketball/competitions/fiba-womens-eurobasket-2025 with a Max account ($9 for EuroBasket Women, $30 for all FIBA). https://www.courtside1891.basketball/choose-a-package
That was a brutal, one sided wrestling match beatdown, and I hated it. I wish Temi had been there, but Temi can’t handle a semi (….. ha) driving into her either.
That college stadium did have the best music I’ve heard though.
And those poor fans, yadda yadda. Impressed they were still there at the end.
Huh. I watched most of the game and it never seemed one-sided. Sure, Dallas would often get out to a 6 or 9 point lead, but the Valks were continuously getting back to tie it or take the lead.
Oh totally! Pointswise it flowed equally in both directions. It was the physical beatdown that was one sided. The Valkyries weren’t trying to body anybody.
I didn’t feel like any Wings were ever at risk of injury, but I did think that several times about the Valkyries players.
It was like all the big kids pushing the little kids around, just because they could, not because they needed to.
Especially Leite.
Credit to the Valks for making it a clutch game given the absences of key players. The Wings are better than their record, and Paige missed a few games.
Don't cry over missing out on Paige because there's going to be a ton of available free agents next season.
As for the game the Chen DNP was probably the best move since online interest in the Valkyries went up by 35% (supposedly) when she was signed a second time. She has a built in fan base in the Bay. And they're going to be pissed off again when she's waived.
OT: I'm honestly getting a little concerned with the on court product here that the WNBA seems to support given the officiating.
From the Indiana/Sun game. Mabrey was not ejected for her dead ball shove
https://youtube.com/shorts/K8pigbxCYCo?si=z8-_akc8ze5vh6fN
I've watched Jacy Sheldon when she was playing for Ohio State. She's always been a pesky, hard-nosed defender. But I don't think she's a dirty player. When she bumped Caitlin after the eye-poke, that looked incidental. And her body language (she put both hands up) kinda showed that she wasn't looking to escalate. Mabrey's body bump warranted the tech.
Sophie Cunningham - on the other hand - is a borderline dirty player.
https://youtu.be/1Ouc-KqGDF4?si=0NTf8Ns_JPhP0X6r
I remember this incident a couple of seasons ago. On a loose-ball, she wrapped her arm around Kahleah Copper's ankle to trip her.
Should have been a tech on Mabrey at least…
Praying there isn’t this kind of brawlish nonsense in the Valks-Fever game tomorrow.
Mabrey did get a tech but only 1.