Justė Jocytė Says Trade Could Be a Way Out of Golden State Valkyries

Justė Jocytė named two ways she could leave the Golden State Valkyries in an interview Monday with LRT, the Lithuanian public broadcaster. One was a trade. The other was a new team.

The 20-year-old guard spoke in Lithuanian after joining Lithuania’s national team camp, a little more than a week after Golden State’s Game 7 win over Atlanta for the WNBA title. Her answers are translated below. A day earlier, she told BasketNews she would not want to come back to the Valkyries.

Jocytė turns 21 on Nov. 19, and she is in no hurry to settle her future.

“It’s possible to change teams through a trade,” Jocytė said in the LRT interview. “If this team agrees with another team to exchange players, that’s possible. A new team is coming next year, so that option is possible too. There are those things, but I’m not in a hurry right now. I’m young, and I’m not in a hurry to go back to America, because it’s not my dream country.”

Cleveland is not due to begin play until 2028, according to the WNBA’s expansion announcement. So although Jocytė raised that possibility, there is no new club on the league’s announced schedule for 2027.

Golden State temporarily suspended the contract in May while she finished her overseas commitment with Spar Girona, according to RotoWire. She made her WNBA debut May 25.

In an analysis of her options, Sports Illustrated’s Elaine Blum wrote that Jocytė could sit out the 2027 season, as some European players have, and that Golden State could suspend her contract in that case. Blum named Seattle, Houston, Chicago, and Los Angeles as teams that might trade for her.

Golden State has $3.2 million in guaranteed money on its 2027 books, according to CBS Sports.

Jocytė has made the national team her priority before. She said after the 2025 draft that playing for Lithuania is an honor.

“The national team is always my priority,” Jocytė explained in April 2025, via BasketNews and FIBA. “If the WNBA told me I couldn’t leave and had to choose, I’d undoubtedly pick the national team.”

“We haven’t been at the Women’s EuroBasket for so long,” Jocytė added. “If we were a country like France or Spain, always qualifying, maybe then I could think about skipping it. But when such a chance comes, and knowing how hard it is for us to qualify, it isn’t even a question what to choose.”

She was the first Lithuanian drafted in the first round. In four qualifiers for EuroBasket 2025, she averaged 17.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, and 3.3 assists, FIBA reported. She also became the youngest player to debut in the modern era of EuroLeague Women, at 14, and won the EuroCup Women title with ASVEL.

She has already signed with Project B, which has announced a Tokyo stop for spring 2027. Her next trip to America, and whether it will be to play for Golden State, can be decided later.

Lithuania plays at Finland on Sunday.