The night before Juste? Reader scouting reports of Juste Jocytė | featuring Via and Castaa

Juste could debut as soon as Mon; Or maybe Thu or Sun.

Table of Contents

• 1. Juste’s First Press Availability on Sunday

• 2. Justė Jocytė Offseason Review: Building Scalable Skills for WNBA | by Via

  • Role context

  • What looked good

  • What still needs work

  • What this season clarified

• 3. A conversation with Castaa on Discord

• Bonus Highlights

• New Discord server for readers

1. Juste’s First Press Availability on Sunday

Video from friend of the program and credentialed reporter Conrado Pascual. Also check out his YouTube channel.

Also if you read my piece on Juste, on where she has been and why she took so long to arrive, the In-N-Out remark would not have been a surprise. Here it is:

2. Justė Jocytė Offseason Review: Building Scalable Skills for WNBA | by Via

MAR 21, 2026

Via has been a wise commenter at Valkyrie Nation since early on and they have been very alert to the goings-on in European basketball. I remember they were the first person to alert me to the awesomeness of Awa Fam a long time ago. They kindly gave me permission to reprint this from their site.

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Role context

Justė played for Girona, a final 6 EuroLeague level team in a structured ecosystem, with strong vets, organizer guards and dominant interior play around her at times. So her Girona season was less about raw creation volume and more about functioning in a winning structure, scaling usage up and sharpening her all around game.

What looked good

• Her minutes were strong and stable and Roberto clearly trusted her in real competition.

• Good scoring profile with real spacing gravity. Justė averaged 34-36% 3FG and 44-48% 2FG across LF Endesa and Euroleague. Her 3PA was 18-22% share of the team.

• Strong playmaking role with AST share of 23.7% and clean decision making production. Projects really well as a secondary initiator in the W.

• Her production was broad with solid consistent scoring, good rebound and assist numbers, and good connective activity.

• She affects the game in multiple ways. She proved she can elevate a good team without dominating the ball and she already looks scalable.

What still needs work

• Scoring assertiveness. She can score and pass but in some games she is very involved and some games she stays more within flow especially during mid season.

• Physicality, esp against top WNBA players in this upcoming season. This is normal for all rookies but her size helps. She will need to adjust to WNBA speed and strength for sure.

• Defense. She’s not yet a possession-to-possession stopper and can be slightly reactive rather than dictating. But honestly she will fit the Valkyries defensive system just fine. She has size, anticipation, and decision making abilities.

What this season clarified

• Connector archetype is real and highly scalable

  Justė consistently impacted the game without requiring high usage. Her ability to process quickly, move the ball, and make the correct read within structure held up across both LF Endesa and EuroLeague play. This confirms her profile as a true connective wing/guard who elevates team function.

• Shooting gravity is legitimate at the professional level

  Her 3pt efficiency and volume within a structured offense established her as a credible spacer. Defenses respected her off-ball positioning, which created driving lanes and secondary advantages for teammates. This is a critical translatable skill for WNBA spacing ecosystems.

• Secondary creation translates cleanly

  With a ~23% AST share and low mistake profile, she demonstrated reliable secondary initiation. She can handle, initiate sets when needed, and make correct reads without overextending. This supports projection as a secondary playmaker alongside a primary guard.

• Can contribute to winning without role inflation

  She functioned effectively in a system with strong veterans, interior focal points, and defined hierarchy. Her impact did not depend on being featured, which is a strong indicator of scalability to higher levels.

• Production is well-rounded and repeatable

  Scoring, rebounding, and playmaking contributions were consistent rather than streak-dependent. She affects multiple phases of the game, which raises both her floor and lineup versatility.

• Decision making foundation is already advanced

  Compared to most players at her stage, her processing speed and shot/pass balance are ahead. She rarely forces actions and generally operates within advantage, which is a strong baseline for WNBA transition.

Off Season Grade: A. She is learning exactly the things that usually translate quickly, she was playing with good players, making fast reads and helping winning without needing the offense built around her. That makes a very strong WNBA translation.

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3. A conversation with Castaa on Discord

Thanks to Castaa for this 2026-05-15 conversation on my Discord server (see bottom).

Castaa — yoooo, love the articles Eric

Also I watched Juste play in nearly every Spar Girona game this season, AMA 😂

Eric Apricot — I only watched maybe four games. Seemed like she was one of three main options (Coulibaly in the middle, Holm speedy point, or Juste PNR) and each option could dominate any match. Is that accurate?

Castaa — Bibby too [Chloe Bibby, ex-Valkyrie!]

Eric Apricot — Oh yeah. I feel like I missed Bibby every time though

Castaa — she only played part of the season though due to injury and early exit to the wnba. bibby was the reigning spanish league mvp last season but never found that form this season

Eric Apricot — The whole three options thing though meant that it felt like Juste might not impact every game as much… like that last game. Hoping that was due to game plan and not Juste floating

Castaa — I worry about her foot speed, her explosion is lacking imo BUT I’m also not a fan of her coach either.

I’m not sure if he ran enough stuff for her, she did a ton of standing in the corner when she didn’t have the ball as a playmaker.

My observation is that Juste started the season as an unknown, teams didn’t have a book on her and she looked really good. Had multiple high scoring games. And she was named a top 5 EuroLeague player of the Month in December. Then it all flipped for her for the worse. Teams figured her out.

Eric Apricot — I think Juste looked pretty good running PNR and she did have some big clutch buckets in the tie game [Spanish League quarterfinals]. And I also saw her directing the team to follow the game plan (force feed Couli or Holm). So I’m willing to think the coach was holding her back a little.

But she is not going to yell LET ME COOK and get a bucket in isolation

Castaa —for a 20 year old, she has fantastic court vision. Processes the game very well, stuff you can’t really teach. Once teams pressed her on defense, got into her airspace with or without the ball she was pretty neutralized on offense. She didn’t cut to the basket, she couldn’t dribble penetrate, not fast enough off the bounce. It’s not like it never happened but it was more rare than you would hope or expect.

She can score at all three levels though when given some airspace

Eric Apricot — FYI I reserve the right to reprint any discord threads in the newsletter so keep being awesome everyone

Castaa — © Interestingly, Juste is a pretty bad off balance scorer. Right now, you can’t run her off screens, she has difficulty making off balance mid range shots. Hopefully that’s something that can improve as she gets stronger in the seasons to come. Also maybe it’s also a footwork thing. I’m not skilled enough to make that determination to why.

However, she’s a gifted off balance passer. Like her court vision is exceptional when she’s stymied. Again, stuff you can’t teach level ability. Ultra quick decision maker.

She has a good looking three point catch and shoot jump shot, the ball looks good coming out of her hands and when it goes it, it hits the bottom of the net. Additionally, she is an elite free throw shooter, I think she shot like 93% for the season for Girona. And that traditionally bodes well for the three point shooting, at least the catch and shoot variety.

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Bonus Highlights

Apologies for the lousy portrait mode on these…

• https://youtube.com/shorts/Bz1TIQft1gs?si=YUTjoT3SFY6a0gcj

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New Discord server for readers

If you don’t know what Discord is, you can ignore this. If you like how the site is now, then don’t worry. This site will still work the same and I’ll still post game previews and wraps over email and the web, etc.

Basically Discord is a group chat where you can engage with me. It’s good for conversation that’s a bit more casual than leaving a web site comment.

I have been posting my live game notes in the Discord chat as I write them. I even live-commented the media-coaches game over Discord and answered questions. Questions and comments sometimes turn into things I write about for the newsletter.

For now, I’ll keep it open to everyone, but I reserve the right in the future to restrict it to paying subscribers.

The invitation link for May: https://discord.gg/4uSaSw75Y