WNBA: Should Valkyries fans be concerned at the lack of youth?

For the first time since 2008, WNBA opening weekend featured a completely new expansion team.

After months of assembly, the Golden State Valkyries finally saw action on Friday, and gave the league a look at how their poached players are piecing together. The roster features none of Golden State’s own draft picks—a shocking development for a team that isn’t just rebuilding, but building for the first time. A 17-point loss to the Sparks isn’t an ideal franchise debut, but it gave us a few things worth looking at for the league’s newest team.

Tip’s team

Tiffany Hayes, 13 years into her professional basketball career, does not own a time machine. Die-hard Valkyries fans—are there any yet?—should not sit by their televisions hoping to see 2018 All-WNBA First Team Tip drop 20 points a night en route to some end-of-year MVP votes. However…

If the first game of 44 suggests anything, she’ll certainly look more like 2018 Tip than 2024 Tip. Hayes had a usage rate of 32 percent in the Valkyries opener, nearly twice her usage rate coming off the bench last season. In fact, if she keeps that rate, it will be the highest usage rate of her entire career, eclipsing her post-All WNBA season by five percent. For those of you unfamiliar with the nuances of usage, that’s a lot!

From a more traditional lens, Hayes had 19 points and nine rebounds against the Sparks. She shot the ball 16 times—five more than Kayla Thornton and Julie Vanloo, who tied for second on the team. The ball was in Hayes’ hands a whole lot. This may be the first time in a while in which we see a Tiffany Hayes-led team for an entire WNBA season. Don’t expect any more MVP votes, but a second All-Star selection is a real possibility if Hayes maintains her role.

What’s the finish line?

With a young franchise, you expect young players. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be truly competitive in your first few seasons, so you might as well develop talent that will pay dividends somewhere down the road, right?

Monique Billings was the youngest player to make a field goal for the Valkyries in their debut. Monique Billings is 29 years old and has been in the WNBA for seven seasons. This has nothing to do with Billings herself, obviously. But the Valkyries, at least in their first game, seemed very hesitant to throw their younger talent into the fire. Kate Martin was the only player younger than Billings to play more than 20 minutes, and she recorded two free throws, one assist and one turnover. That’s it. Veronica Burton and Carla Leite had similar fates in fewer minutes.

It was concerning when the Valkyries chose to not feature any of their draft picks in their roster. The draft feels like it should be the main source of talent for a team that’s still putting down scaffolding and knows—or should know—that they’re planning ahead. The Valkyries didn’t cut all their draft picks; first-round pick Juste Jocyte is a draft-and-stash prospect who won’t join the team until a future campaign. However, it was disappointing that they weren’t able to find anyone in later rounds who could breach the roster, not even the rotation, in their inaugural season.

Martin, Burton, Leite and Janelle Salaün are probably not the future core of a championship-level Valkyries team. Maybe they are, but that’s not the point. The point is, what are the Valkyries trying to accomplish in their first season? Are they trying to hide from embarrassment, running their veterans into the ground to avoid 30-point losses, or are they going to suck it up and throw some young talent at the wall to see who sticks? They opted for the former in their first game, and guess what? They still lost by 17 points to a middle-of-the-pack Sparks roster.

Golden State shouldn’t be worried about wins and losses right now, nor should they be worried about coddling their young players. The coaching staff needs to find a direction to steer their ship, and that starts with establishing a young core. If they truly have no young players worth investing in, then the failure lies in the front office. If the Valkyries can’t at least start piecing together a young core before the end of the season, fans should be rightfully disappointed.