Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe had thoughts about the Valkyries' Expansion Draft that they shared on the Dec. 11 episode of their podcast, A Touch More. Or, rather, Bird had thoughts, and Rapinoe admitted she was just happy to be along for the ride.
"I have a lot of questions I feel like that you have answers to," Rapinoe said. "I just don't understand a lot of what's going on. So tell me, but tell the people."
Bird had no problem diving right in. She admitted that "there's some questions that come up" in regards to the Valkyries' 11-member roster, but overall, "I think they did great." Bird said three players were her favorite picks: Kayla Thornton from the Liberty, Cecilia Zandalasini from the Lynx, and Monique Billings from the Mercury.
"[Billings], I thought, was a great pickup," Bird explained. "I think with Thornton and Zandalasini, what makes those picks interesting though is you can see why the Valkyries would want these players. They are Championship-level players. Both were on teams that were in the finals last year."
But the fact that both players were in the Championship game raises a big question, she added: how did the Liberty lose a player as accomplished as Thornton in the first place?
Bird also explained Billings' status with the team. As she put it, the Valkyries have the ability to core Billings, and Billings has the ability to either sign to the team "for any amount of money" or test the waters in free agency. If the team does core Billings, "they have to pay her to the max," a decision they are likely to make some time in early 2025.
Like a lot of people, Bird said that she was the most surprised by the fact that former Fever center Temi Fagbenle was available in the first place. "Obviously, it means the Fever didn't protect her," Bird began, "but I don't know, when you look at it, new coach, which likely means new style, which means who knows who they value, who they don't value. And it's not to say Temi doesn't have value. It's just at some point you have to make decisions."
The Fever, she continued, have "a crap ton of money" they can use to their advantage during free agency, so the team's gamble might have been based on the premise that they can bring in another player to replace Fagbenle in the first place.
"You can clearly see they wanted to get players that have experience. They wanted to get players that coach Natalie even said are battle tested. So they did that," Bird concluded.