The Golden State Valkyries surprised many people this season. One early surprise was the team\u2018s first-ever draft selection. With the fifth overall pick, the Valkyries selected Lithuanian teenager Just\u0117 Jocyt\u0117. They chose to go with a little-known (at least in the U.S.), young European player instead of an established college star, who would draw fans to the games. Jocyt\u0117 didn\u2019t join the Valkyries this season, but the plan is for her to debut next season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Valkyries fans got a chance to see Jocyt\u0117 play during EuroBasket this summer<\/a>. She led the Lithuanian national team to a quarterfinal appearance, averaging 16 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 5.2 assists over six games. Her best game came against Turkey. She scored 23 points, grabbed five rebounds, and dished out eight assists. While Jocyt\u0117 is only 19, this wasn\u2019t her first stint with the senior national team. She made her debut in 2019 when she was only 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jocyt\u0117 is an incredibly exciting young prospect who could be part of the Valkyries\u2019 core for years. However, her WNBA debut will still have to wait. First, she will take the EuroLeague by storm.\u00a0<\/p>\n Just\u0117 Jocyt\u0117 is poised for a big 2025-26 season\u00a0<\/p>\n After spending several years with ASVEL F\u00e9minin in Lyon, Jocyt\u0117 will play this season with the Spanish Club Spar Girona. She will play in EuroLeague games for the first time since the 2023-24 season. Last year, Lyon competed in the EuroCup\u2014a second-level competition across Europe\u2014and saw Jocyt\u0117\u2019s best season yet. She averaged 12.1 points, 3 rebounds, and 2.6 assists in around 25 minutes over 14 games. In the LBWL, she averaged 11.9 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.8 assists over 21 games.<\/p>\n Jocyt\u0117 played in EuroLeague games in the 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2023-24 seasons. In 2019, she became the youngest player ever to play in EuroLeague Women at 14 years and 29 days old. Hungarian star Diana Kmezic had previously held the record. She was 14 years, 10 months, and 20 days old when she made her debut. While Jocyt\u0117 made waves as a young phenomenon, her averages didn\u2019t jump off the page.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her best EuroLeague season saw her average 3.7 points, 1.7 rebounds, and 0.7 assists in 10.7 minutes over three games. She should be able to greatly exceed those averages this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n This season marks the first EuroLeague season in which Jocyt\u0117 will have a starting role and act as one of her team\u2019s go-to players. Her new team played one game so far, securing an 80-58 win over Estepona. Jocyt\u0117 started and recorded 14 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, and 3 steals in 25 minutes. She finished the game with the second-most points on the team and the third-most minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jocyt\u0117\u2019s role should look similar for the rest of the season, which will cause her averages to skyrocket. It is the perfect opportunity for Jocyt\u0117 to take EuroLeague by storm and prepare for her eventual WNBA debut.\u00a0Although younger, Jocyt\u0117 could follow into Janelle Sala\u00fcn\u2019s footsteps with the Valkyries. Sala\u00fcn immediately became a key player and made the All-Rookie Team. Now, she hopes to continue her successful run <\/a>with the Czech club ZVVZ USK Praha. Spar Girona and Praha are in the same group this season, so the Valkyries youngsters will face off early. The two teams are scheduled to meet for the first time on October 15. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Golden State Valkyries surprised many people this season. One early surprise was the team\u2018s first-ever draft selection.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-207049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}