“Golden State Valkyries to Draft Kate Martin and Kayla Thornton: Expansion Draft Highlights”

The Golden State Valkyries will receive Kate Martin and Kayla Thornton from the expansion draft scheduled in 2025, according to a source briefed on the move.

Per the rules outlined by the league and the collective bargaining agreement for the expansion draft, the 12 current WNBA franchises are allowed to protect six players.

The Valkyries are then able to choose one unprotected player from each team; that can be a player on the active roster, a player who the organization has draft rights to, or is on their international rights list.

Introduction to the Golden State Valkyries

The Golden State Valkyries are poised to select Kate Martin and Kayla Thornton in the WNBA Expansion Draft on Friday, December 6, 2024. Actually, the expansion draft provides an opportunity for the Valkyries to pick one player from each of the 12 active teams in WNBA competition.

The Valkyries are guided by General Manager Ohemaa Nyanin, as well as Head Coach Natalie Nakase, under whom this Bay Area squad aims at building up into a competing roster and to champion the culture.

Martin likely will be the darling of fans when Golden State selects her this Friday. The Iowa standout played 2024 after leading the Hawkeyes’ run by Caitlin Clark the last two years into national championship game appearances.

She adapted to the WNBA easily last season, playing solid minutes through the first ten games as Las Vegas flailed during its stretch without Chelsea Gray averaging 19.3 minutes and shooting 37 percent on her 3-pointers.

Overview of the WNBA Expansion Draft

But Martin saw fewer than half as many minutes at game’s end as the Aces returned to full health, cracking double digits only twice in the second half of the season. Her minutes in the postseason consisted of one appearance in a blowout.

Las Vegas was always going to protect its core four of A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young, and Gray in the draft, but Martin could have been one of the final two players.

Kayla Thornton: Experience and Leadership
The Valkyries had the ability to choose one player who will qualify as an unrestricted free agent after the 2024 season.

Golden State has the ability to tag that unrestricted free agent, Billings, as a “Core” player and then she has exclusive negotiating rights for her to the team for one year at the maximum salary in exchange for that one-year fully guaranteed contract.

Looking ahead, all teams will enter into the WNBA’s free agency period, as defined by the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Qualifying offers and “Core” player designations can first be sent Jan. 11 and must be made by Jan. 20.

Teams may begin negotiating with players can negotiate on Jan.21, while contracts and offer sheets may be signed beginning on Feb. The Valkyries presently hold the fifth, 17th and 30th picks overall in the 2025 WNBA Draft presented by State Farm.

Future Prospects for the Valkyries in the WNBA

Instead, she’ll begin the second chapter of her WNBA career with the Valkyries, and the expansion team will benefit from the three remaining cost-controlled seasons on her rookie deal.

The New York Liberty had to make some of the toughest decisions league-wide thanks to the depth of their roster. The reigning champions had to prioritize their full starting lineup and Nyara Sabally, who was the X-factor in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals.

That left their entire international list — including Marine Johannès and Han Xu — exposed, as well as critical bench players.

The Valkyries are choosing one of those veteran reserves: general manager Ohemaa Nyanin is pretty intimately familiar with the one being sent out in Kayla Thornton, as Nyanin served a previous tour as assistant GM in New York.

Thornton played in every game during Liberty’s championship run and came off the bench to average a series-high 12.5 minutes.

Her most dominant outing of the postseason occurred when she was plus-13 in Game 2 of the semifinals versus Las Vegas, leading New York to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

Golden State will be the fourth stop in Thornton’s WNBA career, and the 32-year-old veteran has one year left on a contract extension she signed with the Liberty in 2023.