Loved the E1P with the Julie heat-check 3s. Before the season started, I mentioned that JVL was more like Kendall Marshall (elite passer, but reluctant shooter). I stand corrected -- she's like rookie Kings Jason Williams. Love the audacity to let it fly.
I remember a rookie Kings Jason Williams playing against the Pacers where he would launch a heat-check 3 five feet from the line on a fast break to coach Rick Adelman's dismay.
In case folks missed it, Valkyries center Kyara Linskens told a Belgian basketball website that she is not going to EuroBasket this summer. French point guard Carla Leite made a similar announcement, and Julie Vanloo no-commented when I asked her.
Janelle Salaun said she expects to play on Wednesday
Strange but positive development for the W. Usually, European players prioritize EuroBasket. But this season, lots of Euros are committing to the W. Marine Johannes, Malonga, all the Valkyrie Euros (except for Jocyte). I wish the Valks were able to get Emma Meeseman. Emma's an elite star player.
Best chance to score a win is on Wednesday vs the Mystics.
Mystics were projected to miss the playoffs as they traded many of their vets and opted for a rebuild. But surprisingly, the Mystics won their first 2 games, rallying from double-digit deficits to steal a couple of random-ending wins. They have 1 journeywoman star... Brittney Sykes.
I’m going to the game. I tend to bring good luck, as in the 2019/2020 season I went to three games and those were three of the few games they won that season. Before the NBA shut down.
Looking forward to seeing Salaun, maybe Zandalasini. Hope Linskens will play more so she can develop along with the team.
WAS is kind of scarier than they look! Rookies Citron and Iriafen stepped right in as starters and look like they belong. Aaliyah Edwards is good but she'll miss two weeks. Georgia Amoore was another promising rookie but she'll miss the whole season with an ACL tear. GSV catches them early before they gel, so let's hope we can take advantage.
Hopefully Steph can attend and inspire the team! Loved seeing Loon courtside close to the Valks' bench last Friday. I think JK was on the opposite end with the Lacobs.
One thing I should have pointed out. Doc Rivers came to the game! NBA fans may have all kind of feelings about Doc, but he was Coach Nakase’s mentor when she worked for the LA Clippers, and it was pretty cool for him to fly in to support her. At her press conference, she talked about how heartwarming that was.
Administrative question: Is there a way to subscribe but not receive emails? I do that at DNHQ. Perhaps it is because I pay the annual sub costs over there, but don't here?
Yeah but that doesn't work because when you toggle the setting to not receive emails when there are new posts, it tells you that will eliminate your subscription and if you follow through, that's what happens. People are talking about it at that reddit thread. It's pretty messed up. They're trying to force people to pay. Grrr.
Oooh. Sorry, I am not sure what the options are. I have my own email reader set to filter Substack messages to a special mailbox.
And in the big picture, when I first started Valkyrie Nation, I hosted it on Ghost but its comment management is extremely inadequate, so I came crawling back to Substack. Eventually there will be a good alternative.
Thorton played well but several times was visibly upset at her teammates. I hope the locker room vibes are better. This first season they need to set the tone for team culture and cohesiveness.
Must be hard. She’s coming off a championship season with the Liberty who play a controlled and quite often beautiful form of basketball. Great synergies on that team last year and now.
Now she’s starting all over with less skilled players who barely know each other.
The Valks look pretty controlled and focused on defense, but on O look anything but most of the time, kind of like the Dubs during the second round of the playoffs.
Salaun just arrived in the US a couple of days ago, so she’ll need some practice time and recovery time (she just won Italian League finals MVP five days ago Tuesday!).
Cecilia Zandalasini has been with the team all training camp and is held back because of a right foot injury. I don’t have any timeline on her return, but in her interview last week, she seemed upbeat about her injury.
Awesome. Thanks for the info. I'll be looking forward to seeing them play and to see if they can look like their highlights. Both look like they can play D, shoot, and get to the rim - pretty useful skills in BB ;)
Thanks for this! It was a fun watch, definitely a bit raw & out of control. Some good open looks, some late in the clock bad looks. Fagbenle seemed good, I look forward to things gelling in a bit. Kelsey Plum on a new team - wow.
Thanks for this fantastic recap. Was at the game, and fun to read these details. Really hoping they let Leite work through her mistakes. She’s so fun to watch. Will be great to get Salaun in the mix.
The players I’m most excited to see more of are her, Thorton and Fagbenle. Mo Billings also seems like a great role player. Vanloo and Hayes are fun, but remind me of players like Damion Lee and JTA.
That’s maybe true for this season, but Tiffany Hayes has had a pretty distinguished career—far more so than D. Lee or JTA (much as I love those guys). Just to give her due respect.
In that sense it's a bit more like when the W’s were non-competitive, but they would often have one old former all-star on the roster, like John Starks or Mookie Blaylock, lol.
New game thread up!
Loved the E1P with the Julie heat-check 3s. Before the season started, I mentioned that JVL was more like Kendall Marshall (elite passer, but reluctant shooter). I stand corrected -- she's like rookie Kings Jason Williams. Love the audacity to let it fly.
I remember a rookie Kings Jason Williams playing against the Pacers where he would launch a heat-check 3 five feet from the line on a fast break to coach Rick Adelman's dismay.
Ingemi @mingemi.bsky.social with two nuggets:
[[
In case folks missed it, Valkyries center Kyara Linskens told a Belgian basketball website that she is not going to EuroBasket this summer. French point guard Carla Leite made a similar announcement, and Julie Vanloo no-commented when I asked her.
Janelle Salaun said she expects to play on Wednesday
]]
Strange but positive development for the W. Usually, European players prioritize EuroBasket. But this season, lots of Euros are committing to the W. Marine Johannes, Malonga, all the Valkyrie Euros (except for Jocyte). I wish the Valks were able to get Emma Meeseman. Emma's an elite star player.
Best chance to score a win is on Wednesday vs the Mystics.
Mystics were projected to miss the playoffs as they traded many of their vets and opted for a rebuild. But surprisingly, the Mystics won their first 2 games, rallying from double-digit deficits to steal a couple of random-ending wins. They have 1 journeywoman star... Brittney Sykes.
I’m going to the game. I tend to bring good luck, as in the 2019/2020 season I went to three games and those were three of the few games they won that season. Before the NBA shut down.
Looking forward to seeing Salaun, maybe Zandalasini. Hope Linskens will play more so she can develop along with the team.
You’re a giver, Refugium.
Help deliver that ground-breaking victory!
Sounds like a fun time. From the crowd energy and reaction last Friday, it feels more like a party.
WAS is kind of scarier than they look! Rookies Citron and Iriafen stepped right in as starters and look like they belong. Aaliyah Edwards is good but she'll miss two weeks. Georgia Amoore was another promising rookie but she'll miss the whole season with an ACL tear. GSV catches them early before they gel, so let's hope we can take advantage.
Still salty that expansion teams pick after the lottery teams so we missed out on Kiki, she looks ready for the pros
Yes, but we may be more grateful when two more expansion teams come in next year and then another the year after…
Yes, probably a net positive over a few year's span
Love that many new teams are joining the W. There are too many talented players that get cut and can't find a team.
Hopefully Steph can attend and inspire the team! Loved seeing Loon courtside close to the Valks' bench last Friday. I think JK was on the opposite end with the Lacobs.
One thing I should have pointed out. Doc Rivers came to the game! NBA fans may have all kind of feelings about Doc, but he was Coach Nakase’s mentor when she worked for the LA Clippers, and it was pretty cool for him to fly in to support her. At her press conference, she talked about how heartwarming that was.
Administrative question: Is there a way to subscribe but not receive emails? I do that at DNHQ. Perhaps it is because I pay the annual sub costs over there, but don't here?
The short answer is Settings > Subscriptions > Manage Subscriptions and turn off email alerts for new posts.
There are some other answers here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Substack/comments/136bew8/is_it_possible_to_disable_emails_from_writers_but/
Yeah but that doesn't work because when you toggle the setting to not receive emails when there are new posts, it tells you that will eliminate your subscription and if you follow through, that's what happens. People are talking about it at that reddit thread. It's pretty messed up. They're trying to force people to pay. Grrr.
Oooh. Sorry, I am not sure what the options are. I have my own email reader set to filter Substack messages to a special mailbox.
And in the big picture, when I first started Valkyrie Nation, I hosted it on Ghost but its comment management is extremely inadequate, so I came crawling back to Substack. Eventually there will be a good alternative.
Appreciate all you do Eric. In the meantime, I can deal with whatever small issues come up.
Ditto.
Thorton played well but several times was visibly upset at her teammates. I hope the locker room vibes are better. This first season they need to set the tone for team culture and cohesiveness.
Must be hard. She’s coming off a championship season with the Liberty who play a controlled and quite often beautiful form of basketball. Great synergies on that team last year and now.
Now she’s starting all over with less skilled players who barely know each other.
The Valks look pretty controlled and focused on defense, but on O look anything but most of the time, kind of like the Dubs during the second round of the playoffs.
Janelle Salaun seems to have a bag of tools on offense. 6 ft 3, good 3pt shot, mobile. She might be the scorer this team needs.
Same With Zandalisini. When will we see them, do we know?
Salaun just arrived in the US a couple of days ago, so she’ll need some practice time and recovery time (she just won Italian League finals MVP five days ago Tuesday!).
https://www.basketeurope.com/schio-sacre-champion-ditalie-janelle-salaun-mvp-de-la-finale/
Cecilia Zandalasini has been with the team all training camp and is held back because of a right foot injury. I don’t have any timeline on her return, but in her interview last week, she seemed upbeat about her injury.
https://valkyrienation.substack.com/p/valkyries-julie-vanloo-cecilia-zandalasini
Awesome. Thanks for the info. I'll be looking forward to seeing them play and to see if they can look like their highlights. Both look like they can play D, shoot, and get to the rim - pretty useful skills in BB ;)
Thanks for this! It was a fun watch, definitely a bit raw & out of control. Some good open looks, some late in the clock bad looks. Fagbenle seemed good, I look forward to things gelling in a bit. Kelsey Plum on a new team - wow.
Vegas is really going to miss her. So sad too bad.
Thanks for this fantastic recap. Was at the game, and fun to read these details. Really hoping they let Leite work through her mistakes. She’s so fun to watch. Will be great to get Salaun in the mix.
The players I’m most excited to see more of are her, Thorton and Fagbenle. Mo Billings also seems like a great role player. Vanloo and Hayes are fun, but remind me of players like Damion Lee and JTA.
That’s maybe true for this season, but Tiffany Hayes has had a pretty distinguished career—far more so than D. Lee or JTA (much as I love those guys). Just to give her due respect.
In that sense it's a bit more like when the W’s were non-competitive, but they would often have one old former all-star on the roster, like John Starks or Mookie Blaylock, lol.
Thank you for filling in my knowledge gaps. I'm new to the W.