The Liberty’s rotation goes to look somewhat completely different subsequent season.
That a lot grew to become clear Friday evening when the newly minted Golden State Valkyries took ahead Kayla Thornton from the defending champions within the WNBA growth draft.
Thornton, 32, averaged 5.5 factors and a couple of.6 rebounds in 20.3 minutes per recreation final season, her second with the Liberty. She appeared in all 40 regular-season video games, making 11 begins, and performed in every of the Liberty’s 11 playoff video games as nicely.
“It is incredibly difficult to say goodbye to a player like KT who contributed to the New York Liberty in so many ways over these past two years, including our franchise’s first-ever championship,” Liberty normal supervisor Jonathan Kolb stated in an announcement. “KT quickly became an indelible part of the Liberty family.”
Valkyries normal supervisor Ohemaa Nyanin spent 5 years within the Liberty entrance workplace and was there once they acquired Thornton in a 2023 commerce with the Dallas Wings.
Thornton, who’s getting into her tenth season, was one in every of 11 gamers chosen in Friday’s draft, which shaped the muse of the Valkyries’ inaugural roster.
Each crew might shield as much as six gamers from being taken. The Liberty boast one of many WNBA’s deepest rosters, which meant exposing Thornton.
Among the many different gamers taken Friday was Las Vegas Aces guard Kate Martin, a 2024 first-round decide who was school teammates with Caitlin Clark at Iowa.
The Valkyries, who’re set to turn out to be the thirteenth WNBA crew, additionally maintain the fifth, seventeenth and thirtieth picks within the 2025 WNBA Draft.
