The Valkyries Traded the #8 Pick to Get Marta Suárez. They Cut Her Before Opening Night.

The Golden State Valkyries waived six players on Saturday. Five of those names will fade out of the WNBA news cycle by Monday. The sixth turned this from a roster move into a story.

Marta Suárez was the player the Valkyries traded the No. 8 overall pick to get. And on May 2 — three weeks after draft night, less than a week before opening night — Golden State cut her.

If you don't follow the WNBA Draft as religiously as I do, here's the recap. On April 14, the Valkyries — an expansion franchise heading into their second season — sent Flau'jae Johnson, a two-time national champion at LSU and one of the most marketable college players in America, to the Seattle Storm. In return, they got Suárez at No. 16 and a 2028 second-round pick.

The trade got panned the moment it was announced. Johnson was a top-eight pick on basically every public big board. Suárez was a TCU senior whose stock was somewhere in the late teens. The 2028 second-round pick was a sweetener that wouldn't move the needle for anyone outside Golden State's front office.

Then preseason started.

Johnson has been leading Seattle in scoring. She dropped 20 on the Portland Fire on April 29, going 5-of-12 from the field, 3-of-7 from three, and 7-of-8 from the line. The Storm won 91-81. She looked like exactly what scouts said she was: the most pro-ready guard in this draft class, with a body and a feel for contact that translated to professional basketball immediately.

Meanwhile, Suárez made minimal impact across the Valkyries' two preseason games. On Saturday, head coach Natalie Nakase and GM Ohemaa Nyanin let her go alongside Ashlon Jackson, Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda, Cate Reese, Miela Sowah, and Mariella Fasoula.

I want to be fair to Golden State here. Their forward room got crowded fast. Kayla Thornton and Laeticia Amihere both returned from last season. Gabby Williams — a real WNBA wing with a championship pedigree — came over from Seattle in free agency. And WNBA roster math is brutal. Teams carry 11 or 12 players. Every spot is a knife fight.

But that's the part that makes this so confusing. The Valkyries traded a top-eight talent for a player they then could not fit. Even if Suárez clears the 48-hour waiver window and re-signs on a developmental contract — which is reportedly the plan — that is not a save. That is Golden State quietly admitting the player they traded a lottery pick for is currently their 13th-best forward, after exactly two preseason games to evaluate.

The version of this story that's hard to shake is the marketing one. Flau'jae Johnson is the kind of player expansion teams are built around. She moves jerseys. She moves ratings. She has a hip-hop career independent of basketball. She is the literal blueprint for "young marketable star you let grow up in your uniform for the next decade." Golden State traded that to a team that already has Skylar Diggins, Nika Mühl, and Dominique Malonga.

The Valkyries went 23-21 in their inaugural 2025 season and made the playoffs as the eight seed. That overperformance bought the front office real goodwill. This trade is the first move that has felt like the goodwill is being spent down — and it has now been spent down twice. Once on draft night when they made the deal. Again on Saturday when they cut the player they got back.

After the cuts, Nakase emphasized "connectivity" as the reason for her roster decisions. That's coach-speak for "we picked players who fit the way we want to play, not the names on the back of the jersey." It is a reasonable answer when you are explaining why the 13th forward got cut. It is a much harder answer when you are explaining why you traded a top-eight pick to get her in the first place.

Suárez is a fine prospect. She has international experience with the Spanish national team that gives her a higher floor than most rookies. She might end up being a useful WNBA player. None of that changes that she was the No. 16 pick and is now looking for a developmental contract.

Maybe she clears waivers and turns into a real bench piece on a development deal. Maybe Golden State's forward depth was always more important than getting a star. Maybe Nyanin sees a roster construction angle the rest of us don't.

Or maybe the Valkyries traded the #8 pick in the WNBA Draft for nothing.