The impact of Vanloo’s selection from the Mystics to the Valkyries

The Golden State Valkyries selected guard Julie Vanloo of the Washington Mystics in the 2024 WNBA expansion draft. Vanloo, one of the stars of this summer’s Paris Olympics, was among the pool of 11 players Golden State selected from other WNBA rosters.

Vanloo is not guaranteed a roster spot with the Valkyries, who can waive her at any time ahead of the season with no penalty. However, she is on a reserved contract, so she has to sign her next WNBA contract with the Valkyries. So what’s the outlook for the two teams involved in this move?

Washington Mystics

The Mystics lose a player in Vanloo who started 34 of the 40 games she played as a rookie last season. “Rookie” is a misleading designation — Vanloo is 31 years old and has had a prolific career overseas — but she was nonetheless an important part of Washington’s mid-season turnaround last year.

Vanloo averaged 7.4 points per game as a rookie, but she was much more important as a table-setter than as a scorer. Vanloo led the Mystics with 4.3 assists per game, but she also led in turnovers with 2.6 per game.

Golden State Valkyries

It is unclear whether the Valkyries will choose to keep Vanloo on their roster or not, though it seems likely they will for training camp. She is easily the best guard they have on their fresh new roster, and will almost certainly start on the current roster, even if the Valkyries select one of the stud guards in this year’s draft. Vanloo would also be worth keeping around as a mentor to Kate Martin, who saw limited action last season with the Las Vegas Aces.

The other two guards the Valkyries selected are the Connecticut Sun’s Veronica Burton and Carla Leite, the Dallas Wings’ ninth overall pick in last year’s draft, who opted to remain overseas.

That said, the Valkyries have a good amount of cap space to sign free agents. If they can sign one of the league’s top free agent guards like … Kelsey Plum, then that would bump Vanloo down the rotation.