What the Golden State Valkyries mean for Paige Bueckers

The WNBA’s newest team finally has a name: the Golden State Valkyries.

The organization announced its name, logo and colorway Tuesday on social media. The Valkyries will begin playing in 2025 at the Chase Center in San Francisco.

All that’s missing is a general manager, head coach and a roster of players.

Will the Golden State Valkyries draft Paige Bueckers?

The Valkyries will assemble their roster of 12 players through an expansion draft, free agency and then the college draft.

Could one of its first players be UConn’s Paige Bueckers?

Bueckers is a likely candidate to be taken with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA draft. She could have launched her WNBA career this season but elected to return to UConn for another year.

She has already weighed in on the team, writing on X that the Valkyries have the “prettiest colorway ever.”

But the UConn guard may be out of reach for Golden State.

What pick will the Golden State Valkyries have in the 2025 WNBA draft?

In April, Golden State team president Jess Smith told Womens Hoops Network that she doesn’t know what pick the Valkyries will have in the 2025 WNBA college draft.

If the WNBA follows historical precedent, the Valkyries will not receive the No. 1 pick in 2025.

When the WNBA added the Atlanta Dream in 2008, the Dream were awarded the fourth overall pick their first season, just outside the lottery picks, according to ESPN.

In 2006 when the Chicago Sky were added, they also didn’t receive the first pick. They were given the sixth overall pick.

But if the Valkyries want to start their history off with the top player in the draft, Bueckers or not, to build the team around, they could make a statement and trade up to the first pick by packaging future picks and even one of the players they select in the expansion draft.