Revisiting the Valkyries Flau'jae Johnson Trade: Why Was Marta Suarez Waived? | Podhalla

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[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.

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[SPEAKER_00]: be here with Pad Hala, and I'm going to do something that we've never done before, which is for one, a solo pod, and we may have done a solo pod before, but the reason is because Brian did, while I was out last couple weeks, Brian was doing interviews and such, so I wanted to give him a little bit of a break, but we will be back later this week to kind of preview

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[SPEAKER_00]: So what I'm doing on this show is I wanted to revisit the Flagey Martha Swarez conversation around the draft and the pick and what the Valkyrie's did with that pick because now that they've made their first cuts, they did wave Martha Swarez and

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[SPEAKER_00]: we're waiting to see if she clears waivers.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And if she clears waivers, do the Valkyrie's bring her back as a developmental spot, one of their two developmental positions.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So just revisiting that with the information that we have now, and still, we have not yet heard from Ohema, or really from Natalie as far as what the reasoning was or what the thought was behind, drafting Flagee and then trading for Marta.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We've had a lot of really thoughtful YouTube comments come into the YouTube page or the videos.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I wanted to utilize those to kind of go over some things as well, because folks on who watch us on YouTube or having these questions or concerns or even just comments about certain things.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like a lot of the rest of the Valkyries fans, Balhalla,

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[SPEAKER_00]: everyone is probably thinking the same thing.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I just wanted to bring those up as conversation points as well.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And if this is helpful and fun, then so be it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we'll do more of these.

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[SPEAKER_00]: If not, then we'll shell it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And as far as the podcast is concerned, just the audio feed, I think we'll add this to either the beginning or the end of the next podcast that Brian and I do, which will be later this week.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so let's, let's get back to the flaws J and Martha Swarr as and just revisit that entire conversation.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so waving Martha Swarr as has now put this trade back into the public spotlight back into the conversation and people are looking for.

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[SPEAKER_00]: some sort of commentary about the win and the why and how and how it was developed and all that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, we've seen some bits and pieces, there's been some reporting on it.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I believe Oheema is going to talk on media day.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully I'm sure she'll be asked about it whether or not she decides to answer.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We'll be interesting.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I think people will be watching.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So let's

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[SPEAKER_00]: All the things that I've read, folks that I've talked to in the discord, talking to Brian about this, this is my reading of what could have possibly happened with the pick on draft night.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

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[SPEAKER_00]: From the looks of it, the Valkyries did not want Flaugier.

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[SPEAKER_00]: For whatever basketball reason, maybe it's the fit, her position, maybe it's because they knew that they, unless it was one or two specific players, that they weren't going to cut any of their current players,

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[SPEAKER_00]: So, whoever they drafted, if it wasn't the right player, they were not going to roster them and they would have to wave them much like they did, Marta, and maybe they didn't think Flage would pass through waivers.

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[SPEAKER_00]: That is one scenario.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The trade with Seattle seems to be agreed upon before the draft even started, and I think we've seen some reporting on that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: What was plan A versus what was plan B?

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[SPEAKER_00]: We've heard some conversation around maybe plan A was if Gabriella Hakez was available, they would have drafted her and then they would have figured out the back end of their rotation.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry, not their rotation of their roster and would have had to fit Gabriella there and possibly cut somebody else.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know who those players were, I don't know how many

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[SPEAKER_00]: were there if they were there, the valkers would have drafted to keep, but it does look like they had to move to plan B, which is if this player is not there, we are trading to Seattle.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And their player wasn't there, which ignites this trade with Seattle.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So they draft Flage with the idea of trading Flage to Seattle for whomever Seattle drafts in that

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[SPEAKER_00]: So now from a value perspective, what they did still seems to be very one-sided towards Seattle.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You get the eighth pick.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You give us a sixteenth pick and we're going to throw in a second round pick.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen what the Valkyries have done with the second round pick so far.

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[SPEAKER_00]: not much, they're, they're doesn't seem to be value in there.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Could the values have tried to get more?

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure they tried to get more.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure they looked at the landscape and all these other teams going like, well, we don't value late first or on picks much either.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We don't really have a fit for these players.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Thus to us, your number eight pick is is.

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[SPEAKER_00]: maybe not even worth a future second plus whatever pick that they send back.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So the values may have tried to figure out a better value.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure they tried to figure out a better value and it may not have been there.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So then once that happens and you make that trade, you draft Flage.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Again, Valkyries, maybe didn't think she was a great fit.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever it is, I don't imagine much of this was a personal thing outside of the idea that Flage has a giant fan base.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And if you draft her to cut her, there's PR associated with that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We also know that the Valkyries seemingly don't really care about that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They've made some very unpopular decisions, and they have been backed up by those decisions based off of what they did last year, which was make the playoffs, the first ever expansion team to make the playoffs.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So then, if you kind of try and connect the dots,

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[SPEAKER_00]: they weren't going to draft Flage because they didn't think she was going to make their final 12.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't want to waive her for whatever reason and maybe see if she clears waivers.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if she would have cleared waivers.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She seems to be, and she's got a fan base.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She's fitting in so far in the preseason very well with Seattle.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, with if you want to give the vouchers the benefit of the doubt, they probably wanted to trade down for a second round pick.

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[SPEAKER_00]: The top of the second round pick, you know, almost considered a late first round, or if you want to look at it that way, maybe they believed

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[SPEAKER_00]: the archetype of what we want out of a player, a little bit better than Flauget, and because we drafted her in the second round, if we do wave her, more than likely, another team isn't gonna open up one of their 12 roster spots to put Marta on their active roster.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So does she can clear waivers and maybe they were more confident that she would clear waivers?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe at least we hope the idea is that Marta comes back to the Valkyries as a developmental spot.

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[SPEAKER_00]: However, if Marta

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[SPEAKER_00]: has that opportunity with other teams, she may think her fit as a developmental player on another team would be more beneficial to her career.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She does not have to come back to the Valkyries just because the Valkyries drafted her.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Once they waived her, they gave up those rights at that moment.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So another thing that is actually kind of interesting

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[SPEAKER_00]: The Valkyries are going to be without you stay your seat day until she's done with her playoffs.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Like she's still in her international.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We have another, we have a comment about you stay in a second that I'll get to from one of our YouTube commenters.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But you stay has to be rostered because she's gonna be on a guaranteed contract.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So the Valkyries will go into the season with just 11 players.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But then if you use one of your two developmental spots, then you get your roster back up to 12, well, this is theoretical.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is how this works.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe that's how, if Martha does come back as a developmental spot, maybe that's how the valve crease can sell her.

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[SPEAKER_00]: look, you stay's going to be out for a little bit, whether I don't know how long these playoffs will will last, but maybe you tell Martha, you're going to get her 12th roster spot on the opening day roster, well, as a developmental spot, I don't know, they would probably have to designate you stay for something or other to deactivate her from that spot.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then maybe that's how they sell Marta on like, hey, yeah, come back, we drafted you for a reason.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to be active.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We want to get you a little bit of run.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe she does play a little bit.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So that is something to think about as well.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So then the other question is, why didn't they just draft Marta at eight?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Why go through this entire

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[SPEAKER_00]: jumping out, jumping through these hoops and just draft her at eight instead.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And that's an interesting one because there may be something with how her contract is structured or what they would have to pay her.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We obviously have a salary cap, but if they're just going to wave her anyway, why don't you just draft her at eight in wave instead of draft her at 16 in wave her?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, it probably creates even more of a PR nightmare if they do it that way.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But again, they don't seem to care about that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And they don't, and so far, oh, him has not answered questions about that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but maybe it's just a softer landing if you cut a second rounder.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, hopefully, oh, him a clears all of this up.

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[SPEAKER_00]: on media day and we get our answers, but if not, I think you're going to see a lot of people trying to connect the dots.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen some articles that do it pretty well and some articles that actually do it really poorly.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So hopefully we'll see something from Ohema.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I want to get to these couple of comments and just, you know, some of these are, we're kind of posed as questions, but just comments on YouTube that I wanted to talk about.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So from Mindy,

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[SPEAKER_00]: she was saying how, you know, use days the only player who is not yet back from international and she was wondering like, what does that say about you stay and the Valquerese, you know, it does she want to be here?

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I think I'm not, I don't want to single Mindy out as far as the question.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But I think a lot of people might be thinking about that because we are not

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[SPEAKER_00]: 100% clear on a lot of these international rules being kind of new fans of the WMBA.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So everyone who is an international player on the on the values is back with the team except for you state because her team is still in the playoffs.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think the values are going to give up on you

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[SPEAKER_00]: I think she's a really, really solid prospect, she will help out their offense, this idea of what they want their offense to be.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I think a lot of people are really excited about her.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So they're not going to get rid of her say to save a roster spot for Marta or for another player, Ashlyn

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[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, maybe they try and bring Jackson back, but there's also players who were on the team last year, and we'll talk about this in this next comment, which is from three castle, Kate Martin is a smart player with a great team attitude, but doesn't have the ceiling that some of the younger players have.

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[SPEAKER_00]: uh... mentioned cutting Kate and then the valkyries can keep four of the five higher ceiling youngsters mentioned chin mentioned swara's and some of the players that they brought over uh... on the the training camp roster

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's a great question slash comment on what value Kate Martin brings to the team based on her role.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She's going to be an end of the bench player who will get time based on positional need based on who's in and who's out very popular.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She seems like the coolest person who is very easy to root for.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Natalie and Akase, she was interviewed, and she kept using the term off the court.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Like how this person fits on the team off the court and saying that that is like so important to her.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And if you look at Kate, Kate seems like,

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[SPEAKER_00]: Not only the, you know, maybe people are questioning the on the court fit, but maybe there is something in the locker room that she just provides or maybe there's something outside of what we can see on the court that she provides that the team really, really likes.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And that is, it's kind of hard for us to go, okay, well, what's the value of that?

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[SPEAKER_00]: What, you know, her, how does that help her three point shooting or whatever, but there's something there because Natalie continues to use the term sort of on court.

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[SPEAKER_00]: and off the court as it relates to some of her players.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe there's something there.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, here's another one mentioning another player who has a great chance to make the active roster you would think considering the Valkyries don't have a ton of bigs here.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So from

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[SPEAKER_00]: Um, but think Chen and Martin would make the roster.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And again, it's positional, uh, Chen is one of two point guards that they currently have on the on the roster.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they do have to still make another cut, but if you think about Veronica Burton and the wear and tear that she went through last year to have a fantastic year,

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, do you want Veronica Burton playing every possible minute and then your backup point guard minutes go to you stay or Kate or somebody else to bring up the ball whether it's tip.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then maybe in those moments you lose a possession here there because those are not natural point guards.

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[SPEAKER_00]: It's a really great great question and me here.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I think if a me here gets

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[SPEAKER_00]: probably getting, it's actually hard to even predict if she gets roster and I think she, as a player, she should be rostered, but how these teams use their 12 spots.

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[SPEAKER_00]: because you are drafting rookies, you are bringing in at least one rookie onto every team.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So how do you determine that?

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[SPEAKER_00]: And do you want to be in the same situation that the Valkyries at where you're just like cutting your first run pick to pick up somebody who is somebody else's cut?

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[SPEAKER_00]: Like there's a PR thing to that.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But I think at me here is a good enough player to be on an active roster.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I would kind of expect her to be picked up.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Like she may be one of those players that teams are looking at.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Golden State has to make this decision is going to be Kate is going to be a me here is going to be chin only two out of three are probably making that team.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So who is it going to be and maybe if me here is the one that is that is cut teams maybe eyeballing her waiting to see so that that's a it's great it's a great a problem to have because that you value three players you only have two spots.

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[SPEAKER_00]: but there are consequences to that decision.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So we'll see what happens before opening night.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, and then the last one that I want to answer here, so Hayley Van Lith just was waived by the sky.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They signed Natasha Cloud and S underscore F looked at the numbers and said, you know, looks almost identical to Chen and wanted to cut Caitlin Chen for Hayley Van Lith.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to think of salary implications.

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[SPEAKER_00]: You have to think of fit on the team.

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[SPEAKER_00]: If you choose to roster Caitlin Chen, you are choosing to do so because she had almost a full year with the team last year, so she knows the offense.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And if you watch the one preseason game, small sample size, but it's all we got, she looked very confident.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Now, she's always going to have the issue of size and athleticism against the better players.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But she looked confident, she looked definitive.

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[SPEAKER_00]: She didn't look like she was questioning her decisions.

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[SPEAKER_00]: All of that stuff was great.

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[SPEAKER_00]: If you bring in someone like Hailey Van Lith, who is arguably more talented player, she would have to learn the system, she would have to figure out her fit.

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[SPEAKER_00]: do the Valkyries just want to game one.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Just go.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm guessing that it looks like it based on some of the move that they may.

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[SPEAKER_00]: They were only able to really add Gabby Williams and Kia Stoke.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, Gabby Williams seems like the perfect fit here.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Um, do you want to add another player who is sort of learning on the fly?

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[SPEAKER_00]: That's an interesting question.

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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to guess Hayley Van Lith is going to be a someone that a lot of teams look at for that position.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm going to guess that Golden State stays away and focuses on Chen who knows how that waiver wire system even even works and who has first dibs and not or or or you know, if she clears.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And then she kind of picks and where she wants to go.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe teams are waiting to see if she clears.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So all of that needs to be considered.

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[SPEAKER_00]: But I think that they'll, if they want to keep Chen, they are keeping Chen for a specific reason.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And even Hailey Van Lith being out there would not change that mindset.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for checking this out.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully some of this was helpful.

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[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully my theoretical thought process of connecting the dots with the trade was helpful.

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[SPEAKER_00]: And yes, so we'll be back later this week with a full podcast, a full pod holla podcast with Brian.

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[SPEAKER_00]: So I am WCW.

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[SPEAKER_00]: We will see you when we see you peace.