Juste Jocyte has touched down in the Bay and Valkyries fans are ready

Juste Jocyte, the Golden State Valkyries’ 2025 fifth overall draft pick, has had an unclear role since being selected. She did not join the team in her first year, instead continuing to represent Lithuania at EuroBasket, an Olympics-qualifying tournament. After five games of the 2026 season, she practiced with the Valkyries for the first time and is expected to make her debut during the team’s homestand. The key question is whether she will become the franchise player. At EuroBasket this winter, she averaged 16 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 5.2 assists per game. She is 20 and has not previously played professionally in the United States, but the team expects her to be WNBA ready and a top offensive playmaker.

"Ever since the Valkyries took Lithuanian star Juste Jocyte with their first draft pick, fifth overall in the 2025 WNBA Draft, her role has been a question mark. Unlike the American players in the draft whom fans had come to know from their time playing in the NCAA, like Paige Bueckers and Sonia Citron, Jocyte was not a household name. And then, she didn't join the team last year at all, instead continuing to represent her country at EuroBasket, an Olympics-qualifying tournament."

"On Sunday, five games into the season, the 6-foot-2 wing practiced with the Valkyries for the first time. During this week's homestand, she should finally make her debut, and answer a pivotal question that has lingered for more than a year. Is Jocyte going to be the Valkyries' franchise player? Jocyte is a 20-year-old who has never played a professional game in the states and will be joining a team that expects her to be WNBA ready and potentially one of their best offensive playmakers."

"She averaged 16 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game at EuroBasket this winter before joining the Valkyries. "It's a different league, but it's the same game," Jocyte said on Sunday after her first practice with the team. "I've been professional for quite some time, and I came here later, but it's the same game for me." Her debut has been long anticipated by a front office that has been building around the idea of their 2025 draft pick for the past few months."

Read at Mission Local