Juste Jocyte told the Valkyries’ GM, Ohemaa Nyanin, that she didn’t want to return next season. Nyanin’s response: “Okay.” Shortly after the Valkyries won the title, Jocyte expressed her frustration with her role and playing time under HC Natalie Nakase and admitted that she was unsure of her return to Golden State, prompting a response from team owner Joe Lacob.
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“I kind of understand, she’s competitive and would like to win and didn’t play,” Lacob told Tim Kawakami during his appearance on the TK Show. “But she’s also only 20. We had a pretty great roster, very deep. I think she can be a very good player, and we’d really love to have her back.”
“So I think she will certainly earn a lot more playing time in the future. … She didn’t get to play as much as she wanted to, and that’s understandable.”
The Valkyries selected her as the first choice at No. 5 overall in the 2025 draft. Jocyte, who spent a year playing for the national team, returned as a rookie with even more experience. She has been a star in Lithuania and was excited about her contribution. However, she ended up playing only 16 games, averaging eight minutes a game. She averaged 3.1 points and 1.1 assists.
Jocyte took part in the championship parade. However, when she reached her home country, her words revealed how unhappy she was with the Valkyries, who had lived with a team-first and play-for-each-other identity. She had “mixed feelings” about her future with the team. Despite Lacob’s appeal, Jocyte has already informed the Valkyries’ front office of her reluctance to return.
“I had very mixed feelings about this victory,” Jocyte said to BasketNews. “… I’m happy for the team, but on the other hand, I didn’t really contribute much. It’s both really fun and, in a way, a bit sad because you don’t feel the same way; you don’t care as much.”
Jocyte’s most brutal words came against Natalie Nakase. The Lithuanian player alleged that the Valkyries head coach, who had all season preached to players to leave ego at the door, didn’t play her because of her personal feelings.
“We just became champions, but from the perspective of my personal growth, it’s hard to imagine going back to the same coach, who doesn’t really communicate well and doesn’t seem to like me very much,” Jocyte added.
The initial part of the season was good for the Lithuanian player who was hoping to leave her mark on the roster and be a part of the regular rotation. However, her playing time significantly dropped, and Nakase failed to communicate with her about the decisions being made.
“Honestly, the whole month of June was just one excuse after another,” Jocyte further added. “At first, you understand that it takes time to get into the groove, the plays and everything else…I think it took me more or less a day, and that was it…If you don’t like me as a player, if I don’t fit the style—that’s fine, but just communicate it.’”
Jocyte didn’t play the first five games of the regular season. But for the next five games, she was part of the rotation. However, after that, her appearances significantly dropped in June. In her first and third game appearances, against Connecticut and Las Vegas, she scored five points in five minutes, shooting 100% in one and 50% in another.
In a win over the Indiana Fever in May, she played 16 minutes, and in a June 2 contest against Portland, she scored eight points in 13 minutes. Jocyte appeared in a loss to Minnesota in the next game, and she missed all of her four shots from the field in seven minutes. Since then, her playing time was significantly cut.
She appeared in two playoff games for a total of five minutes.
From wanting her to excel in a point guard role and easing her into the rotation with improving conditioning to wanting to put her in a situation to succeed, Nakase’s reasons about Jocyte changed in the first few games, but once the Valkyries started to win, there was barely anyone questioning the head coach’s decision. To her credit, Nakase led her team to a championship, so it’s hard to question her decision-making.
However, it is also hard to ignore Jocyte’s grievances given how much success she has had before joining the WNBA. The 20-year-old European is the youngest player ever to play in the women’s EuroLeague at age 14. She has won the Lithuanian Player of the Year honor twice, and led the Lithuanian team to a gold medal in the 2022 U-18 Euro Championship.
Maybe it’s her age and experience playing the American brand of basketball. Kaitlin Chen, who is 24, was selected in the third round of the same 2025 draft. But she was part of the Valkyries’ regular rotation, perhaps because she played four years in college, including a year at UConn where she helped the Huskies win a national title in 2025. But still, leaving out their lottery pick from the rotation, especially a player who was showing good potential, is a bit confusing.