SAN FRANCISCO — Golden State Valkyries owner Joe Lacob said the WNBA champions can field a better roster next season than the one that won the 2026 title.
Lacob spoke with Tim Kawakami on The TK Show in an interview recorded late Monday, Nov. 9, and released Nov. 10.
“I think every year we want to do the same thing, be as good as we can possibly be. And I know we can improve on the roster. We can have a better roster next year than this year, and that’s the goal,” Lacob said. “Plus, some of these players, they’re young, have the experience now of winning. They’re going to be better.”
Golden State beat the Atlanta Dream 68-63 in Game 7 of the WNBA Finals on Oct. 31 in its second season, and it became the first champion without an All-WNBA honoree on its roster that season, according to WNBA.com.
Lacob said he had spent part of that afternoon on offseason planning with general manager Ohemaa Nyanin and Kirk Lacob.
“We have some salary cap room to add some people if we wanted to. There’s some interesting free agents out there, and I think we just have to assess how we want to build the team for next year,” Lacob said.
Chemistry Factors Into The Decision
Lacob said the group’s closeness has to be weighed against any move for a star.
“Our team was so together, as you’ve all heard, they all love each other and played for each other. And look, we may wind up bringing back the same team,” Lacob said.
He said neither he nor Nyanin has a preordained plan, and they will look at everything over the next month or so.
Lacob also said the Valkyries would love to have Justė Jocytė back. The 20-year-old, who averaged 3.1 points in 8.1 minutes over 16 regular-season games as a rookie, told BasketNews’ Lukas Malinauskas in an interview published Nov. 8 that she was unsure whether she wanted to return next season.
“I think she can be a very good player, and we’d really love to have her back,” Lacob said.
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