Game 13 preview: Golden State Valkyries vs Connecticut Sun, 5:30 PM PDT

a little escapism from the dark world

Table of Contents

• News

  • Life without the Euros

  • The Eurobasket substitutes: Chloe Bibby, Bree Hall, Kaitlyn Chen

  • Will any of these substitutes stick with the team? Probably not.

  • How to watch

  • GSV injury / absence report

• What to expect

  • Comparative team power rankings

    • 5. Golden State Valkyries (6-6)

    • 13. Connecticut Sun (2-10)

  • Apricot’s recent game summaries

  • Oversimplified guide to the Valkyries roster

News

Life without the Euros

Here are the games in June where GSV will have 1/3 of the team leaving for Eurobasket.

• June 9 at #11 Los Angeles Sparks (OT thriller victory)

• June 14 vs #5 Seattle Storm (big lead, close victory)

• June 17 at #13 Dallas Wings (out-hustled, faded at end)

• June 19 vs #7 Indiana Fever (held Caitlin Clark to zero 3s for only the second time in her career)

• June 22 vs #11 Connecticut Sun ← YOU ARE HERE

• June 25 vs #1 New York Liberty

  • (return from Eurobasket for losers of Group Stage… only Fagbenle might return, the others will definitely miss through at least Jun 29)

• June 27 vs #12 Chicago Sky

• June 29 vs #5 Seattle Storm

• July 5 at #2 Minnesota Lynx

Expect ferocious fight and heart against the odds, and if we ever get a Full Squad, then they should be able to beat all but the top WNBA teams.

• Valkyrie Nation Eurobasket Viewing / Cheering Guide

  • how to watch, when are they playing, when are they likely to return

• All about June Eurobasket and the huge changes it brings for the Valkyries

• Group Stage ends Jun 21, 22 (return Jun 23, 24)

• Knockout Stage ends Jun 29 (return Jul 1)

The Eurobasket substitutes: Chloe Bibby, Bree Hall, Kaitlyn Chen

The Golden State Valkyries announced today the signing of forward Chloe Bibby and guard Kaitlyn Chen, who are set to join the team for its upcoming game against the Dallas Wings at 7:00 p.m. on June 17 in Dallas. Bibby will wear No. 55, and Chen will wear No. 2 for the Valkyries.

Bibby averaged 5.0 points, 1.5 rebounds, and a 37.5 field goal percentage in two preseason contests for Golden State this season. The 6’2” forward played collegiately at Mississippi State and Maryland, tallying over 1,300 points and 600 rebounds during her collegiate career. Bibby also played for the Australian National Team, leading the Opals to a bronze medal at the 2023 FIBA Asia Cup.

Chen appeared in two preseason games for the Valkyries, playing 13 total minutes with two points, three rebounds and one assist. The 5’9” guard was selected 30^th overall in the 2025 WNBA Draft by Golden State after winning the 2025 NCAA Championship with the University of Connecticut. Prior to UConn, Chen played three seasons at Princeton where she was the 2023 Ivy League Player of the Year.

Kaitlyn Chen and Chloe Bibby are familiar faces from preseason and are stepping in as substitutes during Eurobasket.

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.

Will any of these substitutes stick with the team? Probably not.

The team hasn’t announced the exact type of contract of any of the players. The WNBA has listed every one as a “rest of season” contract, but we’ve noted that WNBA.com has been wrong before. Thus, 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.

The main constraint is roster numbers. The pre-EuroB roster was full at 12. Linskens was waived, which puts the roster at 11. So there’s space to keep one more player. However, there are some good candidates for that last spot. The presumptive new person is reportedly Iliana Rupert who is tearing it up in France. That would leave no spot for Amihere. To keep her, someone else would have to go (and in my mind, the player on the bubble is Talbot).

Then putting all that drama aside, I don’t see that Powers / Chen / Bibby will pass any of Amihere / Rupert / Talbot for the 11th and 12th spot. That’s why I say Powers / Chen / Bibby are super unlikely to be retained.

I’m not sure where Bree Hall fits in the depth chart next to Powers / Chen, but surely she is behind Amihere / Rupert / Talbot.

The only angle I see is that if Chloe Bibby keeps filling up the basket with her pick and pop 3s, there is an tiny outside chance that she and Amihere can stay, if Talbot is waived and if Rupert stays in Europe.

How to watch

• As usual: KPIX+ (Bay Area), KMAX (Sacramento)

  • In the Bay Area, KPIX is channel 5, and KPIX+, the home of Valkyries basketball, is channel 44 (cable 12). In Sacramento, KMAX is channel 31, and KOVR is channel 13.

• WNBA League Pass if you are out of the blackout region. Even if blacked out, in theory the game is available right after the conclusion.

• (Friday games are streamed on ION, available on Fubo and YouTube TV and elsewhere.)

GSV injury / absence report

• Fagbenle, Salaun, Vanloo and Zandalasini are officially gone for Eurobasket.

What to expect

From the Valkyries:

• High energy

• Fast pace, fast breaks

• Aggressive defense trying for on-ball steals and deflected passes

• Three-point shooting (not necessarily three-point making)

• Five-out formations, pick and roll, and HORNS formations

Comparative team power rankings

Power rankings are all made up, but they are useful to see the conventional wisdom about teams. Here’s one from Newsweek:

5. Golden State Valkyries (6-6)

Last Week: 6 | Upcoming: CON (6/22), NYL (6/25), CHI (6/27)

The Golden State Valkyries are one of the biggest surprises of the league. Despite being an expansion team, they've shown resilience by knocking off high-powered squads like Seattle and Indiana.

Veronica Burton has excelled in the lead point guard role, sealing the game against the Indiana Fever. WNBA champion Kayla Thornton has been showcasing her skill set as the de facto leader of the squad, nailing a number of important buckets during the team's surge.

13. Connecticut Sun (2-10)

Last Week: 11 | Upcoming: GSV (6/22), LVA (6/25), SEA (6/27)

Connecticut is still struggling on both ends of the court with four straight double-digit losses. Marina Mabrey and Tina Charles continue to shine despite the rough season, but that isn't enough to keep them out of the bottom spot in these rankings.

Apricot’s recent game summaries

• Game 12 wrap: Shorthanded Valkyries storm back from down 13 to beat Caitlin Clark's Fever going away

• Game 11 wrap: Wings outrebound Valks, pull away late; Amihere and Hayes show promise and pain in return

• Game 10 wrap. Valks blowout Storm, then un-blowout Storm, still win. Always Close Enough To Hurt™

• Game 9 wrap. Leite out of the doghouse, closes out the game with Thornton in OT to beat LA; Salaun pours in 21

• Game 8 wrap. Valkyries blow out #3 Aces and contain MVP A’ja Wilson

• Game 7 wrap: Buddhism teaches us that suffering comes from attachment to material things

• Game 6 wrap: Valkyries even with WNBA Finalists Lynx at half, get blown out in Q4, storm back at end too late

• Game 5 wrap: So close to the upset of the year... Always Close Enough To Hurt™

Oversimplified guide to the Valkyries roster

Four players left through the month of June to participate in Eurobasket (thoroughly explained earlier): Fagbenle, Salaun, Vanloo, Zandalasini. Don’t worry, just four of the most important players. A shooting-starved team is losing their #1, #2, and #4 in threes per game, and Fagbenle is their starting center. This is a huge disruption to a team that has only been together about 1 month. It’s also a big opportunity for everyone staying.

• Starters, slightly scoring challenged but feisty defenders

  • #22 Veronica Burton. Solid point guard, organizes and calls all the plays; outstanding defender and ball-stealer; decent at running pick-and-roll, not quite explosive enough to blow by but can muscle in layups and running hooks.

  • #5 Kayla Thornton. Vet all-around forward. Likes to spot up for corner 3s and get dirty fighting for rebounds everywhere. With Burton is a team leader and organizer. Was WNBA Player of the Week last week! Key bench player for the champion Liberty,

  • #7 Stephanie Talbot.

    • Vet wing who can shoot the 3 (in theory; 15.4% 3P in reality so far).

    • Starting since the Eurobasket exodus.

    • Had been penciled in as starter in preseason, but injuries delayed her debut until Game 3 and she has looked rusty every since.

    • Had been a Did Not Play - Coach Decision until Eurobasket.

    • As a starter, has not been scoring, but did make some sweet passes, spirited steals, and awful turnovers.

  • #0 Carla Leite

    • Youngest at 21 y.o., was 2024-25 EuroCup Finals MVP.

    • Excellent bounce back games after being in Coach Nakase’s doghouse, barely playing in a 4 game stretch before Eurobasket.

    • Some dazzling speed on drives and horrible turnovers. Rookie life.

    • Promised NOT to leave for Eurobasket, a commitment that has won my heart.

  • #25 Monique Billings. Sturdy scorer and rebounding vet, starting to really hit her stride as the screener in pick and roll. Can pop out for 3 or finish through contact. Presumably will start at center during Eurobasket.

• Entertaining Bench, slightly chaotic

  • #15 Tiffany Hayes.

    • Lightning bug driver, unstoppable in the open court. But this team leader (she spoke at opening day) had a bad nose RE-INJURY and is still wearing a big mask.

    • IND was the first game where she looked comfortable (all year!) and could display both her speedy footwork guarding Caitlin Clark 1-on-1 and also running effective pick and rolls emphasizing her speeding to the rim for layups.

  • #20 Kate Martin. The most popular player, Iowa teammate of Caitlin Clark.

    • Has hit a couple of threes but her finishing at the rim has been difficult

    • Starting to settle in a bit as a shooter and even as a screener for pick-and-pop.

    • Chaotic on defense: some very heads-up rotations, some bad switches.

• Joined as Eurobasket replacements

  • #3 Laeticia Amihere.

    • Indirectly won this spot over Linskens since GSV is going further into smallball, 5-out, run-and-gun style, which needs a more dynamic athlete to run the court. It didn’t hurt that Amihere hit a couple of threes in preseason.

    • She got some minutes vs SEA and GSV featured her in several keeper-actions where she fakes a dribble handoff to a guard and drives. They were a mixed bag of baskets and offensive fouls.

    • In the DAL and IND games, she has been a bright spot, pouring in points and being very assertive on offense. Amihere adds a different dimension to the team, i.e. get me the ball in the paint or downhill on fake handoff and no one can stop me 1-on-1.

    • On defense, she’s finding her place with some highlight blocks and steals. She’s been getting into the flow of rotating as weak side help from the elbow to cover when there is a small defender stuck in the low weak side.

  • #55 Chloe Bibby.

    • A decent forward, whose playing time is hard to predict during Eurobasket. Ahead of her for the 3 big/wing positions are Thornton/Billings/Talbot as starters and then Amihere off the bench. That should in theory leave some minutes to be absorbed by Bibby.

    • In theory, Bibby is a good 3P shooter, shooting 35.5% 3P in 5 years of college. At 6-2, 194 lbs, she guarded bigs credibly if not dominantly.

    • In her debut vs IND, she took up the Talbot minutes and added important points off of pick-and-pop plays on the wing, shooting with a Salaun-like lack of conscience.

  • #23 Aerial Powers.

    • The fifth overall pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft, Powers averages 10.5 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and a 39.7 field goal percentage across her nine-year WNBA playing career. The 5’11” guard was named to the WNBA All-Rookie team in 2016 with Dallas, and guided Washington to the 2019 WNBA Championship title. Powers spent the 2024 season with Atlanta where she averaged 8.6 points per game.

    • Hasn’t gotten a lot of run with the increased minutes for Tip Hayes.

  • #2 Kaitlyn Chen. A decent, smart point guard. Chen was, by applause, *the* most popular player in the preseason games, even surpassing Kate Martin. However, she would be behind in the guard depth chart: Hayes, Burton, Vanloo, Leite for sure; and Kate Martin is there to absorb all remaining guard minutes. So there isn’t normally a place in the rotation. With Hayes and Vanloo out, we still have Burton/Leite and Powers/Martin ahead of Chen in the rotation. But if there’s foul trouble (or garbage time), we could see Chen.

  • #21 Bree Hall. Guard signed 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.

• Away for Eurobasket

  • #24 Cecilia Zandalasini. Another vet wing who can shoot the 3. Has been out all training camp with right foot issue but came into the Liberty game and hit big shots. She was given the last shot to tie the Liberty game, so Nakase believes in her.

  • #35 Julie Vanloo. Goddess of Chaos, inventive and ambitious playmaker guard. Wild with the ball (5+ TOV per 36 minutes) but also makes wild positive plays. A little shaky on defense so far.

  • #14 Temi Fágbénlé. Decent scoring, all-around, solid solid vet center. Can run pick and roll and punish mismatches by posting up.

  • #13 Janelle Salaün, Fresh off an Italian League Finals MVP, she joined GSV in Game 2 and hasn’t stopped shooting since. She’s reportedly headed for Eurobasket for June so enjoy her while you can.