OAKLAND, Calif. -- Three weeks after making one of the biggest draft-night moves that sent the rights to the No. 8 pick, Flau'jae Johnson, to the Seattle Storm for the rights to the No. 16 pick, Marta Suarez, Golden State Valkyries general manager Ohemaa Nyanin said the trade was done to maintain cap flexibility.
"We thought we had the opportunity to potentially sign another athlete," Nyanin said at the team's media day Tuesday. "My job is to make sure we maintain an understanding of what's happening today and then what could happen in the future. So the flexibility that is needed to really be able to withstand whatever could happen in the future is something I hold near and dear to me."
By trading the draft rights of the No. 8 pick -- paid $309,622 in the first season -- for the No. 16 pick ($270,000) -- the Valkyries saved around $40,000. Immediately after the draft, they had close to $750,000 of cap space. Ultimately, they spent the majority of that re-signing Tiffany Hayes.
Nyanin did not want to talk about the trade during her news conference on draft night but later told ESPN that the trade was agreed to before the draft.
On Tuesday, Nyanin said the timeline of the trade wasn't as simple as swapping the picks before the selections were made, and that she had a lot of "contingency plans as to what it was we were looking for."
After the draft, sources told ESPN the deal wasn't agreed to until Golden State was on the clock at No. 8, and that Seattle instructed Golden State to pick Johnson. Later, at No. 16, the first pick of the second round, Golden State instructed Seattle to select Suarez, a 6-foot-3 forward out of TCU. In exchange for Johnson, the Valkyries also acquired a 2028 second-round selection.
"I also had a lot of conversations with different teams to figure out what the trade options were," Nyanin said Tuesday. "Then at that time when we figured out that this was a trade we wanted to make, the trade was for the rights of the pick. ... No athlete was considered at that moment in terms of us trading an athlete."
The Valkyries waived Suarez last week -- a decision Nyanin said was in part made because the club was still trying to understand the new CBA rules and how years of service would impact how much each player was paid.
Golden State could still pick up Suarez on waivers, if she's still available, and sign her to one of the two open development player roster spots.
Nyanin, as well as head coach Natalie Nakase, have repeatedly said all of the roster moves have been made with the team's chemistry in mind. This offseason, which was condensed because of the drawn-out CBA negotiations and saw over 100 players enter free agency, the Valkyries wanted to maintain as much continuity as possible.
The Valkyries are looking to build on their historic inaugural season that saw them become the first expansion franchise to make the playoffs.
"We're hungrier even more [than last year] because we got a taste of the playoffs," Nakase said. "It's another reason we wanted to bring back our core -- we thought we were in a good spot after last year. Our whole locker room right now is hungry. I want to win. I want to win at any cost."
Valkyries owner Joe Lacob has tasked Golden State to accomplish the same thing his men's team, the Warriors, did after he bought the team in 2010: win a championship in five years.
"The timeline is front and center," Nyanin said.
"Joe [Lacob] sets the standards very high," Nakase added. "I love the fact that he challenges me and gives me a timeline. He only talks about banners and rings, and for me, it makes me excited."
