{"id":795973,"date":"2026-05-14T14:13:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/795973\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:13:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:13:28","slug":"juste-jocytes-arrival-cant-come-soon-enough-for-valkyries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/795973\/","title":{"rendered":"Just\u0117 Jocyt\u0117’s arrival can’t come soon enough for Valkyries"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 She<\/a> has been a ghost in a Golden State<\/a> uniform.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Present in name, absent in body, a promise deferred while the Valkyries figured out what they were. Now, with Wednesday\u2019s 69-63 loss<\/a> to the Chicago Sky exposing the ragged edges of an offense that shot 29% from the field, the wait for rookie Just\u0117 Jocyt\u0117<\/a> is suddenly a lot less patient.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old Lithuanian guard \u2014 Golden State\u2019s first-round pick<\/a> and one of the most decorated young players to come out of European basketball in recent years \u2014 is expected to make her WNBA debut soon as she will land in the Bay Area some time in the next few days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For a Valkyries team that went ice-cold without Tiffany Hayes and Cecilia Zandalasini, her arrival can\u2019t come fast enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Can Jocyt\u0117 be the answer to the Valkyries\u2019 need for an offensive star? Time will tell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But for a team that has aspirations of making a deep run in the playoffs this season, Jocyt\u0117 will certainly need to be a threat to score as the current makeup of the roster is missing a pure bucket getter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a three level scorer,\u201d Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase said before Wednesday\u2019s loss to the Sky. \u201cShe knows how to navigate pick and roll. She knows how to pull, I think, the strengths out of her teammates. That\u2019s what I know, but I have to see that actually fit within what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

While her age suggests she is young, Jocyt\u0117 has been a veteran hooper in Europe. Playing overseas since 2019, she became the youngest player to suit up in France\u2019s top women\u2019s league and in EuroBasket at just 14.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jocyt\u0117 has been something of a prodigy as she possesses the rare skillset of a guard with height and length of a wing. Comfortable in catch-and-shoot situations, the Washington D.C.-born forward has also flashed the ability to shoot off the bounce either in the pick-and-roll or in size ups.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The road that brought Jocyt\u0117 to Golden State is one rooted in franchise history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On April 14, 2025, the Valkyries selected Jocyt\u0117 fifth overall in the 2025 WNBA Draft, making her the franchise\u2019s first-ever draft pick. A distinction that carries symbolic weight for a team that, at the time, was still writing its identity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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General Manager Ohemaa Nyanin called her \u201cone of the best scorers and winners in this draft,\u201d adding that despite being just 19 at the time, she brought experience playing at the highest level and a maturity on offense that made the Valkyries \u201cbeyond thrilled\u201d to welcome her to the Bay Area.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But welcoming her, it turned out, would have to wait.<\/p>\n

Rather than join the Valkyries for their inaugural 2025 season, Jocyt\u0117 chose to stay overseas and focus on her national team duties for the EuroBasket tournament. It was a decision that allowed her to develop further before coming to the league.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She averaged 16 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game at EuroBasket, though Lithuania was ultimately eliminated in the quarterfinals by France. She missed the Valkyries\u2019 entire first season, the sold-out debut at Chase Center, the playoff push, all of it.<\/p>\n

The result is an unusual dynamic: Jocyt\u0117 is, at once, the most anticipated player in the Valkyries\u2019 short history and one of the least known. While her teammates spent last season building chemistry, developing trust in Nakase\u2019s system and earning the loyalty of a rabid Bay Area fanbase, Jocyt\u0117 was a name on a draft card. A promise tucked into the future tense.<\/p>\n

Her game is built on craftiness, pacing and feel, aspects that tend to age well but don\u2019t always translate immediately to WNBA success.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That uncertainty has only added to the mystery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most WNBA fans outside of the Bay Area have little frame of reference for what she actually is, because she has never played a minute of American professional basketball. She doesn\u2019t necessarily fit the mold of a can\u2019t-miss WNBA prospect, mostly because she doesn\u2019t appear to possess elite athleticism. Her value, as those who have followed her career in Europe will attest, is found elsewhere \u2014 in the hesitation dribble that freezes a defender, the mid-range pull-up in traffic, the pocket pass that springs a cutter before the defense can react.<\/p>\n

Valkyries guard Kaila Charles saw this up close when she played Jocyt\u0117\u2019s team in the Euro League playoffs just over a month ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s just so smart and the fact that she\u2019s so young, it\u2019s going to show and she\u2019ll have a really good career,\u201d Charles said. \u201cShe\u2019s taller than me, so she\u2019s a really big guard that can create for others, she can shoot, she can step out, she\u2019s in the post. And so I think she\u2019s very versatile, and I think that fits with the system that we have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, a year later, the bill has come due. The franchise\u2019s draft strategy is, in many ways, riding on her. The Valkyries shed pieces in last year\u2019s expansion draft and their subsequent draft-night maneuvering yielded little. The expectation was always that Jocyt\u0117 would arrive in 2026 ready to be a foundational piece.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s hollow offensive performance \u2014 29% shooting, no consistent bucket-getter, no one capable of creating a clean look in a half-court set \u2014 was the starkest possible reminder of what has been missing while the world waited for her to show up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though the Valkyries have opened the year 2-1, Chicago laid out a blueprint for how to guard them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The gameplan Chicago drew up on Wednesday was simple, almost ruthlessly so. Press the guards, take away the drive-and-kick, force Golden State into contested finishes at the rim.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With Hayes and Zandalasini sidelined, nobody had an answer. The Valkyries managed just 63 points after scoring at least 90 in their first two games, and the offense looked lost when the shot clock started to hit single digits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jocyt\u0117 has the potential to be that creator.<\/p>\n

She presents a problem that Golden State\u2019s current guards simply don\u2019t. She can operate from the mid-range in ways that demand a defender close out hard, which opens the floor for the ball movement and the \u201cfamily shots\u201d that Nakase\u2019s system is built around. Her ability to turn a pick-and-roll into a three-level decision \u2014 attack the rim, pull up in the pocket, or relocate a shooter \u2014 gives the Valkyries an offensive dimension they have yet to have in their two years of existence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there is no soft landing for what\u2019s being asked of her. She is 20, has never played a professional game on American soil and will be stepping into a roster that desperately needs her to be ready right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The margin for a prolonged adjustment period is thin. Golden State is 2-1, the schedule stiffens, and its upcoming road trip at New York and Indiana is not going to extend any courtesy.<\/p>\n

What happens over the next several weeks will carry weight that extends well beyond this season. The Valkyries staked their franchise-first draft pick on a 19-year-old playing overseas, trusted her process and waited a full year for her to arrive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Jocyt\u0117 can step in and be the offensive engine they need, the ceiling will rise for a team that has already played well with injuries to key players.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She has been a ghost in a Golden State uniform long enough. Now comes the part where she has to haunt someone else.<\/p>\n

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