Valkyries' First-Ever Draft Pick Juste Jocyte Wants Out After Winning a Title

Most players spend the week after a championship parade nursing a hangover and polishing a ring. Juste Jocyte spent part of hers telling the folks back home that she isn't sure she ever wants to put on a Valkyries jersey again.

The Golden State Valkyries guard, the first draft pick in franchise history, told Lithuanian outlet BasketNews (opens in a new tab) that she has informed general manager Ohemaa Nyanin she would rather not return next season. The interview ran over the weekend, and by Monday night and Tuesday it had crossed the Atlantic, with The Sporting News, via Yahoo Sports (opens in a new tab), reporting that Jocyte wants a trade and ClutchPoints (opens in a new tab) publishing a fuller English translation of her comments. The Valkyries did not immediately respond to ClutchPoints' request for comment.

"I had very mixed feelings about this victory," Jocyte said, per the ClutchPoints translation.

A ring and a seat on the bench

The frustration makes sense once you look at the minutes. Golden State took Jocyte fifth overall in the 2025 draft, but she stayed overseas for that season and did not arrive until 2026, when the team activated her rookie scale contract. Overseas commitments kept her out of training camp, and she did not make her debut until May 25 against Connecticut. She scored within seconds of checking in, a night we covered here.

That turned out to be the high point of her role. By early August, she had appeared in only nine of the team's first 29 games at 6.4 minutes a night, the San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time, and her name had floated through trade chatter before the deadline. She finished the regular season with 16 appearances, averaging 3.1 points in 8.1 minutes while shooting 42.3 percent from three. Her best night came Sept. 19 against Seattle, when she went 3 for 3 from deep for a career-high 11 points. In the playoffs, The Sporting News counted two appearances totaling about five minutes.

Jocyte told BasketNews she was happy for her teammates but felt she had not contributed much to the title. That is the part people will skip past. It is also the most honest thing in the interview.

The Nakase problem

The sharper comments were aimed at head coach Natalie Nakase. According to the ClutchPoints translation, Jocyte said there was never a serious, official conversation with the coach about her role, and that she left the season without really understanding why she spent most of it on the bench. She said the assistant coaches pushed for her to get minutes, and that there were plenty of games the Valkyries led by 20 when she still did not get in.

"Honestly, the whole month of June was just one excuse after another," Jocyte said.

She went further than that, saying Nakase does not communicate well and does not seem to like her very much, per the translation. When she told Nyanin she did not want to come back, she said the response was a simple okay, which she took as a sign the club does not much care.

Nakase's public explanation for the slow build has been about fit and development. BasketNews noted that Nakase pointed to Jocyte learning the team's sets, trying her at point guard and adding physicality. Early in the season, Nakase said she wanted to ease Jocyte into the lineup, ClutchPoints noted.

What happens next

Here is the catch. The Valkyries hold her rights, and Jocyte acknowledged as much, saying a trade depends on whether interested teams can offer Golden State enough, and that the club could simply refuse to move her. She also brought up the expansion draft for the Cleveland Sirens, who begin play in 2028, saying there is a real chance Golden State does not protect her.

The Sporting News expects Golden State to grant the request. That is a reasonable read, not a reported decision. A 20-year-old former No. 5 pick who shot better than 42 percent from three, even in a tiny sample, has value, and Lithuania has seen far more of her than WNBA fans have. She debuted for her national team at 13 and averaged 16 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.2 assists at EuroBasket Women 2025.

For the Valkyries, the timing is awkward. They just won the title in their second season with a deep, defense-first rotation, and the parade drew an estimated 400,000 fans. Keeping an unhappy prospect on the end of the bench helps nobody, but neither does dumping a first-round investment for spare parts.

Our take

Jocyte's complaint is not that she deserved to start for a champion. It is that nobody told her why she wasn't playing. That is a fixable problem, and a coach as respected as Nakase rarely loses a locker room over communication. But once a player says it on the record, in her own language, it becomes a negotiation, not a conversation.

The most likely ending is a trade before training camp, with Golden State getting a pick or a rotation piece and Jocyte getting the minutes she wants somewhere else. The worst ending for both sides is another summer exactly like this one. The Valkyries have until spring to decide which version they want. The clock on Jocyte's patience appears to have already run out.

Sources: BasketNews, The Sporting News via Yahoo Sports, ClutchPoints, the San Francisco Chronicle via Yahoo Sports, and the Golden State Valkyries. More WNBA coverage on Undrafted.

Photo Credit: Golden State Valkyries.