Valkyries’ Natalie Nakase explains Miela Sowah’s developmental spot as Marta Suarez signs with Mercury

OAKLAND– With the regular season on the horizon, clarity on the Golden State Valkyries’ developmental spot situation has finally begun to materialize.

The Valkyries announced that they signed Australian guard Miela Sowah to one of their developmental spots after a strong showing in training camp and a dazzling preseason performance.

In Golden State’s lone preseason game with the Seattle Storm, Sowah nailed four-straight 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, inducing pandemonium in the raucous Ballhalla crowd and finishing with 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting.

Sowah was a part of the Valkyries’ big wave of training camp cuts this past weekend, but after clearing waivers, there was clearly a mutual interest between both parties to stay together through the freshly added developmental spots per the new CBA

At the Valkyries’ Wednesday afternoon practice, coach Natalie Nakase explained why they chose to add Sowah back to the team, citing her energy and fit within their system.

“If you guys have communicated with her, do you guys feel her energy?” Nakase asked the media scrum rhetorically. “Do you feel her positivity? Do you feel her just the want to of like wanting to be here? So much of her work ethic, her just being a great teammate– she really wants to do whatever it takes to help us win.”

“Clearly, instant offense is always nice to have. She’s not scared of big moments, clearly, because she stepped up in that preseason game. But that’s what we see every day [at practice].”

With Sowah on a developmental contract, the Valkyries can activate her for a maximum of 12 games this season, with Sowah receiving a pro-rated minimum salary for each game she plays (around $6,000) to go along with a $750 weekly stipend and certain benefits.

An end to the Marta Suárez saga

In the backdrop of the Sowah feel-good story is the end of the puzzling Marta Suárez saga.

Per the Athletic, Suárez, the Valkyries’ 2026 16th overall draft pick that they received in their controversial draft night trade with the Seattle Storm, will not remain in the Bay Area and will instead sign a developmental contract with the Phoenix Mercury.

There was the thought that while the Valkyries waived Suárez, the team still had enough interest to want to bring her back on a developmental spot, so they could retain the talent they saw in her when they selected her at the top of the second round.

There was even the worry among fans and pundits that another team would swoop up Suárez before she could clear waivers.

But once Suárez hit the open market, an announcement never materialized. And as reporters asked Nakase and general manager Ohemaa Nyanin question after question about whether they were considering bringing her back, their answers never displayed a hard commitment to retaining Suárez.

“I would say a lot of athletes are in consideration for these two developmental spots,” was Nyanin’s answer on Valkyries Media Day, which, in hindsight, now speaks to some kind of misalignment between Suárez and the front office.

That could be the team not offering Suárez a developmental contract, or Suárez believing she had a better opportunity in Phoenix. Those details aren’t public yet. Regardless, at practice, when asked if the Valkyries offered Suárez a developmental contract, Nakase’s answer echoed with Nyanin’s non-committal one.

“We considered everybody,” Nakase said. “I can say that, yeah, we considered everybody. I mean, at the end of the day, I’m not in exact conversations, because my job is to make sure I get the 14 that we’re going to finalize.”

With Suárez headed for the desert, it essentially means that the compensation the Valkyries got for the eighth overall pick (which became Flau’Jae Johnson) amounts to only a 2028 second-round pick and “cap flexibility,” in Nyanin’s words.

Time will tell if that is a decision that helps them get where they want to go.

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