INDIANAPOLIS – Janelle Salaun’s bench productivity is easy for her to explain.
“It’s not like I have a choice,” she said following the Valkyries’ practice in Indiana on Tuesday. “As long as I’m getting in the game, I’m preparing the same. I’m the same person. I’m the same player, and I’m gonna do the same things. Doesn’t matter if it’s half the bench or not. I got used to it, and I think I’ve handled it good.”
In her second WNBA season, Salaun is averaging 13 points, a high for any bench player in the league, and is shooting 39.7% from 3-point range on 6.5 attempts per game, a WNBA high for reserves.
After being named to the league’s all-rookie team last season, Salaun has taken on a vastly different role for the Valkyries this year. She started 33 of her 36 of her games last season as a rookie, primarily serving as a volume-shooting forward.
This year, she has come off the bench in every game, but she has still improved as a scorer.
“Playing with her makes it so easy,” said backup point guard Kaitlyn Chen, who spent time playing with Salaun with USK Praha in Czechia in the offseason. “She’s so talented, and it’s like you could throw her at any position, and she finds a way to be successful. She’s such a key piece for us.”
Salaun is still mostly used as a shoot-first forward, but in head coach Natalie Nakase’s small-ball sets, the French forward has worked alongside Kayla Thornton as a small five as well.
At 6-foot-2, it’s not a role that comes naturally for Salaun, but it hasn’t affected her ability to score, either.
“Whether she starts or she comes off the bench, it doesn’t matter,” Nakase said. “I’m still gonna have a fighter who wants to kill the other opponent, and she’ll exhaust her minutes.”
Salaun is second on the Valkyries in shot attempts per game (10), even as the fourth-most used player (22.8 minutes per game, about four fewer than in her rookie year), and many of her shots are contested. The 24-year-old is known for firing off attempts even with a defender in her face, which Nakase said she works on often.
“She has that high release,” Nakase said. “That helps, but it’s just how she shoots, it’s how she’s comfortable. That’s who she is and she works on it a lot.”
Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women’s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women’s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!
Even with fewer minutes, Salaun is shooting the same number of attempts per game and her efficiency is slightly better, at 41.3% compared to 40.6% last season, which is fifth on the team. She is taking more 3-point attempts after making 4.5 per game last season and 65% of her attempts this season have come from range and 70.3% of them have been assisted,
The Valkyries also have a 109.2 offensive rating when she is on the floor, trailing just Kaila Charles among rotation regulars.
With the reputation as a shooter, Salaun has noticed teams guard her differently than a year ago, even as she comes off the bench.
“I can feel way less help (coming off) me,” she said. “Like they don’t go and help on the drives. They also have these really hard closeouts on me, so it makes me work on different things, which is not bad.”
Salaun is the frontrunner for the WNBA’s sixth player award as the league’s best bench player, especially after the early favorite, Chennedy Carter, was waived by the Las Vegas Aces.
Make no mistake, just because she hasn’t started a game all season, it doesn’t mean that she isn’t arguably Golden State’s most essential scorer. She has led the Valkyries in points four times this season, including a season-high 26 points in Toronto last week (which was the second-most points a Valkyrie has scored in a game this season, one shy of a 27-point showing from Gabby Williams), and rebounding on five occasions.
Any deep playoff run will happen because Salaun gets hot from the floor, and outwills whoever is in front of her, as a reserve, starter, shooter or center.
“She’s so competitive,” Nakase said. “We even played some game this week just for fun, and she just was, however you want to call it, she was cheating in every single way until we called her out, and so that’s how competitive she is… She will always empty the tank, that’s just Ja.”
