For the Golden State Valkyries, patience will be part of the blueprint.

Holding the fifth pick in Monday’s draft, the WNBA expansion team is hoping to find an impact player but tempering expectations that it will land a franchise cornerstone.

“We aren’t looking for the face of the franchise just yet,” general manager Ohemaa Nyanin said in a conference call with reporters on Friday. “I think we need to build our identity, and throughout the season, hopefully the face of the franchise emerges.”

Historically, the fifth overall pick has not been a place to find All-Star talent. In the last 10 drafts, only Dallas’ Arike Ogunbowale and Las Vegas forward Cheyenne Parker-Tyus have received All-Star recognition out of the fifth spot.

Though this year’s draft pool has a number of big names, Nyanin didn’t tip her hand about what the team will do Monday. She just wants to see how things play out.

“I very much want this to be an organic process,” she said. “There are athletes that come in with a lot of notoriety. There’s some that a lot of athletes don’t know themselves, and the fan base for sure doesn’t know them. Who’s going to earn it? Who’s going to earn the opportunity to be the face of the franchise? I don’t want it to be given to anybody because I genuinely believe that if you work really hard at it, then you don’t mismanage it once it’s being given to you.”

The Valkyries will surely miss out on UConn’s Paige Bueckers, who is expected to go first overall to Dallas. The Seattle Storm have the second pick and the Washington Mystics have the third and fourth selections, leaving Golden State on the fringes of landing a player who can make an immediate impact.

In December’s expansion draft, the Valkyries acquired a mix of promising young players such as former Las Vegas Aces’ guard Kate Martin and savvy veterans such as Kayla Thornton, who won a championship with the New York Liberty last season. In free agency, Golden State added 12-year veteran Tiffany Hayes and 28-year-old Phoenix Mercury guard Monique Billings.

The roster could still use an athletic wing who can defend and score. Players such as USC’s Kiki Iriafen and LSU’s Aneesah Morrow might fit that role should they drop to fifth.

Outside of what a player brings to the court, Nyanin and the Valkyries are looking for someone who can set a winning tone — even as a rookie.

“In terms of attributes, we want a competitive athlete,” Nyanin said. “Someone who is not afraid of stepping into what is the newest franchise, and one that is ready to be a team player, regardless of how old they are or how much experience they’ve had in college.”

But whether the Valkyries land a star with their pick, the team’s expectations for the player will not change.

“I think we’re expecting the athlete to know the situation that they’re coming into,” Nyanin said. “We have high expectations for all of our athletes coming in. … So, every athlete that comes into training camp is really important for us to help continue to define our identity for the season.”