<\/p>\n
Golden State Valkyries general manager Ohemaa Nyanin answers questions during media day in the Sephora Performance Center in Oakland on May 5.<\/p>\n
Yalonda M. James\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
The Golden State Valkyries<\/a> stood pat at the WNBA trade deadline, choosing to\u00a0\u2014 in the words of head coach Natalie Nakase<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 not \u201cf\u2014 with\u201d the on-court product that has led to a 21-9 record. Their inaction signaled a belief that this group of players can make a deep playoff push.<\/p>\n Valkyries general manager Ohemaa Nyanin,<\/a> in a phone interview with the Chronicle on Thursday morning, said her end goal is to win a championship, but that her decision to pass on a trade didn\u2019t directly reflect whether or not she believes Golden State can win a title this season. Rather, it had more to do with preserving the \u201ccontinuity and the chemistry\u201d her players have fostered in the franchise\u2019s second season.<\/p>\n \u201cVery candidly, the goal is always to win a championship, regardless of the season, right? Like, I think everybody has aspirations to win the championship, and we come to work every day thinking that we can,\u201d Nyanin told the Chronicle. \u201cAnd so, the decision to not make a trade didn\u2019t directly reflect if we were going to win a championship this season or not, and had everything to do with the continuity and the chemistry that our team has, and that we want to continue to build on to achieve our internal goals.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Golden State is operating under a self-imposed five-year championship window from owner Joe Lacob. It seemed like an ambitious goal for an expansion team, but the Valkyries made history by reaching the postseason in Year 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n A season later, the arrow has continued to point upward, with the franchise appearing to have already broken into the upper tier of contenders.\u00a0<\/p>\n Asked if Golden State, which enters Thursday\u2019s slate of games tied with the Las Vegas Aces for the WNBA\u2019s second-best record, is ahead of schedule compared to what she had originally envisioned, Nyanin said: \u201cWhat I\u2019ve talked about more broadly is the journey and embracing every part of the journey. I think we have really put a lot of effort into trying to make sure that we continue to define what Valkyries basketball is, and we want it to equate to winning basketball, right?<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so, I think the journey is the journey, and we\u2019re being very objective about how we get to the goal, which is winning a championship. But the timeline, so to speak, isn\u2019t\u00a0\u2014 I don\u2019t think the timeline has adjusted one way or the other as a result of where we\u2019re at right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Nyanin feels strongly that her organization can\u2019t skip any steps. Last Friday, two days before the deadline, Nakase said she and Nyanin are in constant communication about how to best optimize their roster. That includes exploring the trade market. But Nakase acknowledged Nyanin makes the final call in those decisions.<\/p>\n Even with that, it\u2019s clear Nakase at least had some say in Golden State\u2019s deadline decision-making process.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her comments last Friday were direct. She believes her team\u2019s greatest strengths are their \u201cconnectivity,\u201d \u201ccare factor\u201d and \u201cculture.\u201d And when you have a strong culture, she said, you \u201cnever want to stray away from that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s very rare in sports. I\u2019m sure you guys have felt that with teams that you\u2019ve seen win and have gone on to become dynasties, right? There\u2019s something special about it,\u201d Nakase said Tuesday. \u201cAnd I think right now where we\u2019re at, we have that right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Nakase has stated numerous times that Nyanin does not get enough credit for the roster she built last offseason. The Valkyries signed All-Star forward Gabby Williams<\/a> and starting center Kiah Stokes, two critical pieces to their success this season, in free agency. Nakase called the general manager an \u201celite\u201d talent evaluator.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just going to let her be herself and be great at what she does,\u201d Nakase said. \u201cShe lets me be great at what I do, so I just want to continue that.\u201d<\/p>\n Nyanin also touched on former first-round pick Just\u0117 Jocyt\u0117,<\/a> who opened up to the Chronicle<\/a> on Tuesday about her lack of playing time and how she\u2019s handled being outside Golden State\u2019s rotation. Jocyt\u0117 has played in just nine games and is averaging 6.4 minutes per contest.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a great question. We take that very seriously,\u201d Nyanin said when asked about her philosophy on developing players who don\u2019t receive live game repetitions. \u201cI\u2019m someone that has talked a lot about not wasting any athlete\u2019s years, and so if you\u2019re coming to play with the Valkyries, you know your game is going to get better. \u2026 We\u2019ve been extra communicative with every athlete, all 14, as to where they are right now, where we see them and where we think that their future could be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Golden State Valkyries general manager Ohemaa Nyanin answers questions during media day in the Sephora Performance Center in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":985411,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[49],"tags":[341701,17271,88622,62,67,132,68,2864,232,1707],"class_list":["post-985410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-juste-jocyte","tag-natalie-nakase","tag-ohemaa-nyanin","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-valkyries","tag-wnba","tag-womens-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117050801780835244","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=985410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985410\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/985411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=985410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=985410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=985410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
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