Valkyries GM Explains Flau'Jae Johnson Trade During WNBA Draft After Marta Suarez Waived

Golden State Valkyries general manager Ohemaa Nyanin explained why the team selected Flau'jae Johnson in the 2026 WNBA draft and traded her for the draft rights to Marta Suárez, who was waived by the Valkyries on Saturday.

"The decision-making around the draft had a lot to do with cap flexibility," Nyanin told reporters Tuesday. "We had the opportunity, or we thought we had the opportunity, to potentially sign another athlete. And my job, very specifically, is to make sure that we maintain understanding of what's happening today and then what could happen in the future. And so the flexibility is really needed to be able to withstand whatever could happen in the future is something that I hold dear to me, and making sure that all of the decisions are done with intentionality and come with a human first attitude."

Golden State initially selected Johnson with the No. 8 overall pick in the draft, but eventually traded her to the Seattle Storm in exchange for the No. 16 choice that was used to add Suárez. The Valkyries also received a 2028 second-round draft pick in the swap.

"The timeline for our draft pick was not necessarily to trade one person or the other," Nyanin told reporters (0:20 mark). "Going into the draft, we had a lot of contingency plans as to what it is that we were looking for. I also had had a lot of conversations with different teams to figure out what trade options were. At the time when we figured out that this was a trade that we wanted to make, the trade was for the rights of the number eight pick for the number 16 pick and a future second."

She also revealed that the WNBA's new collective bargaining agreement factored into the decision to waive Suárez.

"Why we range a specific athlete is part of understanding the new CBA," Nyanin said. "There are a lot of things that we need to take into consideration when it comes to the status of an athlete, when it comes to their years of experience, etc."

The Valkyries saved approximately $40,000 in cap space by trading the No. 8 overall pick that was used to select Johnson in exchange for the No. 16 pick that was used to add Suárez (h/t ESPN's Kendra Andrews).

Johnson has averaged 16.0 points per game on 45.5/44.4/88.9 shooting splits across her first two preseason appearances with Seattle.