{"id":179441,"date":"2025-09-30T06:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T06:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/179441\/"},"modified":"2025-09-30T06:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T06:07:08","slug":"valkyries-natalie-nakase-celebrates-janelle-salauns-well-deserved-wnba-all-rookie-team-selection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/179441\/","title":{"rendered":"Valkyries\u2019 Natalie Nakase celebrates Janelle Sala\u00fcn\u2019s \u2018well-deserved\u2019 WNBA All-Rookie Team selection"},"content":{"rendered":"

The post Valkyries\u2019 Natalie Nakase celebrates Janelle Sala\u00fcn\u2019s \u2018well-deserved\u2019 WNBA All-Rookie Team selection<\/a> appeared first on ClutchPoints<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Janelle Sala\u00fcn added to the Golden State Valkyries<\/a>\u2019 award total as the French rookie was selected to the WNBA All-Rookie team, the league announced today.<\/p>\n

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Sala\u00fcn joins a stacked All-Rookie team, headlined by Dallas\u2019s Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers<\/a> as well as Mystics\u2019 Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen, and Storm\u2019s Dominique Malonga. The 24-year-old forward started 33 out of the 36 games she played this season, averaging 11.3 points and 5.1 rebounds a game while shooting 36.6% from the 3-point line.<\/p>\n

Valkyries\u2019 coach, Natalie Nakase<\/a>, expressed her pride in a statement provided by the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cJanelle had an exceptional rookie season, and this recognition is well-deserved,\u201d Nakase said. \u201cShe\u2019s one of the most driven and focused players I\u2019ve coached. Her mindset is 100% on the game \u2013 how she can get better and help this team win. She stepped up all season and showed a maturity which is really impressive for someone in their first year in the WNBA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sala\u00fcn was an integral part of Nakase and the Valkyries\u2019 up-tempo style of offense. During the regular season, Sala\u00fcn ranked fourth among WNBA rookies in points per game (11.3) and third in rebounds (5.1) and minutes (27.0) per game. In her exit interview, Sala\u00fcn talked about her debut season<\/a> in the WNBA.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was great because I think I was in my shell in the beginning,\u201d Sala\u00fcn said. \u201cMy biggest goal was to open up to people and to just come to people and say, \u2018How you doing?\u2019 It\u2019s simple, but it\u2019s stuff I wasn\u2019t doing. I was just basketball, basketball, trying to be as professional as I can, which is good. But in order to have good chemistry, to be able to bring your teammates with you, you need to open up a bit. I think I improved in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u00a9<\/p>\n

\u00a9 John Jones-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Janelle Sala\u00fcn\u2019s future in Golden State<\/p>\n

Sala\u00fcn, alongside Malonga, made history as the first French-born players named to the WNBA All-Rookie Team. She beat out some fierce rookie competition in players like the Finals-bound Mercury\u2019s Monique Akoa Makani, as well as the Sun\u2019s Leila Lacan and Saniya Rivers.<\/p>\n

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On a team filled with veterans, it was Sala\u00fcn who played her way into serious consideration for the Valkyries\u2019 plans<\/a>. The Valkyries will have the option to bring Sala\u00fcn back next season, should they choose to do so. She, alongside Veronica Burton, seems like a lock if Golden State has to protect players in an expansion draft.<\/p>\n

Additionally, Sala\u00fcn is an exclusive rights free agent, which prevents her from negotiating with any other team unless Golden State renounces her rights. And based on the season she had in the Valkyries\u2019 inaugural season, it\u2019s highly likely the team retains her as she fits into their plans of contending for titles.<\/p>\n

Related: ROTY Paige Bueckers leads WNBA\u2019s 2025 All-Rookie team<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Exclusive: Tyronn Lue reveals why Valkyries players relate to Natalie Nakase<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The post Valkyries\u2019 Natalie Nakase celebrates Janelle Sala\u00fcn\u2019s \u2018well-deserved\u2019 WNBA All-Rookie Team selection appeared first on ClutchPoints. Janelle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,7236,40528,18088,21319,4654,21321,16296,12192,4658,12932,4649,82,2047,25484,25737,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-179441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dominique-malonga","12":"tag-golden-state","13":"tag-janelle-salaun","14":"tag-kiki-iriafen","15":"tag-leila-lacan","16":"tag-monique-akoa-makani","17":"tag-natalie-nakase","18":"tag-paige-bueckers","19":"tag-saniya-rivers","20":"tag-sonia-citron","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-sun","23":"tag-the-valkyries","24":"tag-veronica-burton","25":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}