GM says Valkyries not looking for face of franchise just yet

SAN FRANCISCO — As the Golden State Valkyries prepare to make their first-ever WNBA draft pick on Monday, where they have the fifth overall pick, they are looking to add the next piece to their puzzle.

They have no presumption that they will be selecting the player that unlocks all of their success.

“We aren’t looking for the face of our franchise just yet,” general manager Ohemaa Nyanin said in a news conference on Friday. “We need to build our identity and throughout the season, hopefully, the face of the franchise emerges … I want it to be an organic process … who is going to earn it? I don’t want it to just be given to anybody.”

“I genuinely believe that if you work really hard at [becoming the face of a franchise], then you don’t mismanage it once it’s been given to you.”

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Three days out from the draft, it seems as though outside of the presumed No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers, there are several different ways each team can go when selecting their player.

For the Valkyries, Nyanin admits there is still a lot of work for her and her staff to do to settle on who they will select.

But in terms of attributes, according to Nyanin, Golden State wants a “competitive athlete” who is “not afraid of stepping into what is the newest franchise and one who is ready to be a team player, regardless of how old they are or how much experience they have at the collegiate level.”

When assessing draft prospects, Nyanin and her staff will take into account their NCAA tournament performances, saying it gave them larger sample sizes to watch. But she’s emphasizing looking at their entire career and development, hoping to have a greater understanding of why a player played well or underperformed from year to year and game to game.

Right now, ESPN’s latest mock draft has the Valkyries selecting LSU’s Aneesah Morrow as their No. 5 pick. Golden State also obtains the No. 17 and No. 30 picks.

And while it’s the franchise’s first draft, the Valkyries feel that the experience they had in December with the expansion draft has helped them develop a system that will lend itself to the WNBA draft, as well.

“We had an opportunity during the expansion draft to test our different theories and come up with players who we thought would be protected or not protected. … [It’s] very similar here,” Nyanin said. “When we were looking at our draft board, it’s OK who has remaining eligibility? Who doesn’t? Who’s more likely than not [to be a lottery pick]? Then we plan accordingly. … In a sense, we are battle-tested.”