Valkyries will cast wide net for players, coach: 'We're going to be everywhere'

PHOENIX — The Golden State Valkyries have four employees. They don’t have a head coach, and they don’t have a scouting department.

But with 10 months before their first game, the work has already started to identify players who could make the Bay Area their basketball home.

The process of how the Valkyries will be allowed to build their team through the expansion and collegiate drafts is still unclear, but free agency is for everyone. With the addition of vice president of basketball operations Vanja Cernivec, who has worked in European women’s basketball, it should be expected the Valkyries will also look overseas.

General manager Ohemaa Nyanin said there isn’t a timeline for when the Valkyries will bring in a scouting staff or head coach, who will ultimately be part of deciding the on-the-floor direction of the team. But before that happens, the current employees are trying to lay the foundation across the globe for finding talent. “We want to find the best athletes, wherever they are,” Nyanin said. “We have to be willing to explore the boundaries to do that.”

Nyanin said she’s spending time this season watching WNBA games to set up a plan for the expansion draft and free agency with knowledge of the current league landscape. She also worked for five years with the New York Liberty and has a sense of the WNBA’s talent as much as anyone in the league.



https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/article/valkyries-plan-cast-wide-net-search-players-head-19583021.php