Marta Suárez is signing a developmental contract with the Phoenix Mercury, days after the Golden State Valkyries waived the No. 16 pick in final roster cuts.
Marta Suárez is signing a developmental contract with the Phoenix Mercury, days after the Golden State Valkyries waived her in their final roster cuts.
Suárez was the No. 16 pick in last month's draft. The Valkyries took LSU guard Flau'jae Johnson at No. 8 first, then immediately traded her to Seattle for Suárez's draft rights and a 2028 second-round pick. The trade drew a surprised reaction from the crowd inside the venue.
"I turned around, the commissioner came out and I saw my name. I saw something. I saw purple," Suárez said. "As soon as I saw purple I said, 'No way.'"
The trade was unpopular at the time. It looked worse three weeks later, after the player Golden State had moved a top-10 pick to get didn't make the standard 12-player roster.
General manager Ohemaa Nyanin spent the post-draft window declining to explain the trade beyond vague references to strategy. She gave more detail in a later media availability.
"The decision-making around the draft had a lot to do with cap flexibility. We thought we had the opportunity to potentially sign another athlete," Nyanin said. "My job, specifically, is to make sure that we maintain understanding of what's happening today and what could happen in the future."
Under the new collective bargaining agreement, rookie-scale salaries went up across the board. Dropping eight slots in the draft saved the Valkyries roughly $40,000 in first-year cap room. A future second-rounder came with it. For an expansion team tight against the cap and still trying to add free agents, the extra room mattered.
The new CBA forces every team to carry 12 standard contracts. There are also two developmental slots, which sit outside the cap. Dev players get a stipend with full benefits and can practice with the team. They can be activated for up to 12 regular-season games this year, and after that a team has to convert them to a prorated minimum deal. To sign someone to a dev contract, a team has to waive the player first. Once she clears waivers, any other team can sign her. The team that waived her doesn't get priority.
Phoenix did.
Head coach Natalie Nakase, asked after the wave of cuts that included Suárez and five others, didn't try to soften it.
"Felt like losing family members. You could definitely feel the energy shift," Nakase said. "But with tough decisions, it's my job to still find the 14 that fit together the best. And right now, we're still in the process of evaluating. It's still early. So seeing the connectivity between the players, both on and, mostly for me, off the court, is the value that I'm looking at right now."
Nakase wouldn't commit one way or another on whether Suárez would be back on a developmental deal. Phoenix moved on her once she cleared waivers.
Suárez didn't get many preseason minutes with Golden State. She finished with 5 points and 3 rebounds across the appearances she did get. The Valkyries went into camp with several frontcourt players already competing for spots.
Suárez averaged 17.1 points and 7.4 rebounds at TCU last season as a graduate transfer. She made First-Team All-Big 12. The Horned Frogs got to the Elite Eight for a second consecutive season. Before TCU, Suárez spent a year at Cal. She started her college career at Tennessee, where a lower-leg injury and a redshirt season cost her time, and where she stepped away from basketball during the 2022-23 year for personal reasons before transferring out. She's 6-foot-3 and plays as a stretch forward.
Nyanin had been one of her loudest backers heading into the draft.
"Marta is fierce, she's fearless. We have looked at her for a really long time. What I would say is her potential is really high," she said. "I think she has a very high basketball IQ. Her high character is off the charts."
Suárez talked that night about what going back to the Bay meant to her.
"The moment they tell me that I'm going back to the Bay, I know my support group, my favorite Chinese spot ever since San Francisco," she said. "I am going back to that. Extremely excited, extremely humbled, extremely grateful."
Golden State waived her in early May, and Phoenix signed her after she cleared waivers. The Mercury can activate her for up to 12 regular-season games this year. They can convert her to a standard contract if she earns it.
The Mercury open their regular season this month. Suárez will be in camp.
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