Kate Martin will be among the bigger names on the Golden State Valkyries’ first roster.
The Las Vegas Aces fan favorite will be among the selections in Friday’s 2025 WNBA expansion draft, according to The Athletic. The Valkyries are also reportedly selecting New York Liberty veteran Kayla Thornton.
The rules of the WNBA expansion draft allow each of the league’s 12 teams to protect up to six players on their roster as of the final day of the 2024 regular season. Athletes with previous core player designations, such as DeWanna Bonner and Brittney Griner are also ineligible to be selected. The Valkyries are then allowed to choose one unprotected player from each team.
Martin being selected means the Aces opted to not protect her, which isn’t much of a surprise given how they used her toward the end of last season. The 18th overall pick of the 2024 WNBA Draft was a pleasant surprise early in the season when Vegas was struggling with injuries, but her playing time plummeted as the team got healthy.
After seeing double-digit minutes in 16 of the Aces’ first 21 games, Martin cracked that threshold only twice in her final 13, also missing a chunk of time in July and August with a lower leg injury. She saw a grand total of three minutes in the postseason.
