SAN FRANCISCO — In the three seasons Iliana Rupert has played in the WNBA, she has never been in training camp or started the season with her team. In both 2022 and 2023, she came to the WNBA late after finishing her season with the Italian club Bologna. She was a part of the Las Vegas Aces’ championship team in 2022 but averaged less than 4 points per game in each of her first two seasons in the league.
She came over late again this year for the Golden State Valkyries, but she has made an immediate impact and shown a lot of growth from her first stint in the WNBA.
“Obviously, knowing [Valkyries head coach] Natalie [Nakase], I know where her mind is going,” Rupert told The Next on Tuesday about her transition to Golden State. “When I came here, I knew what she was expecting from me.
“Also, a lot of the girls [on the Valkyries] have played with me. I think six of the girls on the team [have], whether it was overseas or in the league, so that also helps. The girls and the staff are amazing. They really tried to explain everything to me and made me feel at ease from the jump.”
Rupert, a 6’5 center from Sevres, France, was the Valkyries’ expansion draft pick from the Atlanta Dream, the team she’d played for in 2023. In her first seven games with Golden State, Rupert is averaging 9.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per game while shooting 50% from 3-point range.
In her first two seasons in the WNBA, Rupert showed flashes of her skill, but her potential never fully blossomed. She only scored in double figures twice during her time in Las Vegas and Atlanta and never took more than seven shots in a game. Rupert didn’t get a ton of opportunity in Las Vegas behind the team’s star players and struggled shooting the three in Atlanta.
In 2024, Rupert decided, like many of her French teammates, to skip the WNBA season in favor of preparing for the Olympics, which were in Paris. For her, the opportunity to play in front of her home country deserved all her focus and effort. With the national team, Rupert developed more of her game and built her confidence.
In the 2024 Olympics, Rupert averaged 7.6 points and 3.8 rebounds in five games. She shot 36% from three and 50% on twos. She scored 15 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the semifinal victory over Belgium. She followed that up by averaging 8.7 points and 4.2 rebounds per game with France at EuroBasket this June.
The biggest area of growth in Rupert’s game with the French national team was her ability to score around the basket. In 11 games between the two competitions, Rupert took 42 2-pointers and made 54% of them. That was more 2-pointers than she had taken in her first 37 games in the WNBA.
The time she spent with her national team put Rupert in different situations and positions, both of which were key in helping her open her game up.
“Obviously, it’s not the same way that we play in [the] national team that I can play overseas or that I can play here,” Rupert said about playing with her national team and in the WNBA. “But I always try to bring as much as possible, bring all the things that I can do best for the team. Bring what I do to fit this group well.
“And with the national team, obviously you have to do it every single time, and coming in here was kind of the same thing.”
Her play with both her national team and overseas has shown itself quickly with Golden State. In seven games with the Valkyries, not only is Rupert shooting lights out from three, she also has already taken more 2-pointers than she did in either of her first two seasons in the WNBA. She is averaging career highs in both points and rebounds and has already scored in double figures four times.
When you watch Rupert this season, you can see growth in her game. She is setting a lot more ball screens and rolling to the basket instead of popping every time. She also is a lot more mobile than she looks and does a good job of cutting to find openings at the rim and in the midrange. Opposing teams are so concerned about her 3-point shooting that they overplay her, and she can find lanes to cut to the rim. Rupert is being used in a lot more ways in the Golden State offense than she was for most of her first two years in the WNBA.
Rupert’s improvement has even impressed one of her former coaches.
“She’s just a lot [more] consistent, confident; you can tell she’s grown up a lot,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon told reporters on Wednesday. “She’s always had that ability to shoot the ball, but I think adding in those other layers, mixing in a little bit of post game, pick and pop, just learning the league, having a better feel and grip on the league.”
While you can see the work she’s put in, Rupert thinks her confidence has improved the most. She believes more in herself, and that has allowed her to show her full game with Golden State. She also feels the Valkyries coaches as well as all the experience she’s had overseas have helped her with her confidence.
“I’ll say just my confidence in general [has improved],” Rupert told reporters on Friday. “I don’t feel like it’s one specific aspect. It’s all the things that I’m doing now. It’s stuff that I know and knew also in the past that I could do. I just didn’t have that much confidence to actually do everything that I wanted to on the court. … You have to feel good to know that you can just be yourself on the court.”
Another thing that has helped Rupert acclimate quickly is previously knowing some of the Valkyries from playing with or against them in the WNBA or overseas. There are two she has an extra special connection with: Rupert, Carla Leite and Janelle Salaun have all played together on the French national team.
Rupert and Leite got to know each other at France’s training camp for the 2024 Olympics. And Rupert and Salaun’s relationship dates back 10 years. They went to a French sports boarding academy called INSEP, which is where they met. They also played together on a lot of France’s youth national teams growing up.
Salaun described Rupert as a goofy person and said it is hard not to have fun around her. When it comes to the court, Salaun said Rupert is a competitor first and foremost and will never quit once the ball is tipped, similar to Salaun. Salaun believes that mindset has helped them both get to where they are today.
Salaun didn’t expect to play with Rupert again so soon and enjoys being able to speak French on the court, something she noted most opponents can’t understand. However, she knew from early in her relationship with Rupert that she was going to be special.
“What is crazy with Illy is that she’s always been good,” Salaun told The Next on Friday. “Since I met her, she was ahead of everyone, and she just kept going. It was impressive because she had some struggles in Europe. There were some times where it was harder for her, but she still thrived and worked, and she became one of the best players in Europe. … She’s been good since she’s been here; she’s just been a great player for us.”
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Rupert’s arrival and quick acclimation couldn’t have come at a better time for the Valkyries. With the loss of forwards Kayla Thornton to a season-ending knee injury and Monique Billings to a multiweek ankle injury, Rupert has slid in perfectly. Her skill set has fit beautifully with the way the Valkyries want to play.
While Rupert has worked on her game since she was last in the WNBA, her 3-point shot is still her biggest strength. That’s why she has been such a good fit for Golden State, which attempts a league-leading 29.9 threes per game. In her small sample, Rupert is knocking down 50% of her threes on 4.3 attempts per game. That is the best 3-point percentage of any WNBA player who has averaged at least four 3-point attempts per game and taken 30 in a given season.
Rupert believes her height gives her an advantage when she’s shooting the ball because it forces her to keep the ball high every time she catches it. So far with Golden State, she has hit many of her threes and midrange jumpers with longer defenders closing out hard on her.
Rupert has brought a different look and skillset to the Valkyries than any other player they’ve had this season. She quickly acclimated herself and is having a major impact on the Valkyries’ push for the playoffs. Her confidence in herself has allowed her to tap into her full potential with Golden State quicker than many people expected.
However, it has come as no surprise to her team.
“What I’ve seen in her growth is her confidence. Her confidence has raised,” Nakase told reporters on Wednesday. “I think it’s from all the experiences that she’s had, obviously, with the French national team and the teams that she’s played on. So just kind of credit to her coaching staff prior, credit to her circle. …
“Credit to our coaching staff to make sure we hit her early on, feeding her our offense and our defense. So then when she came in, a lot of us sacrificed early mornings to get up with her and make sure she feels acclimated to everything. I think, credit to our whole organization and everything, but also credit to Iliana for accepting everything and … [being] pushed to her limits.”
