How competitive can the Valkyries be this WNBA season?

Yahoo

06-05-2025

On Wednesday, the Golden State Valkyries — the WNBA's first expansion team since 2008 — will take to the court for the first time when they face the Los Angeles Sparks at Chase Center in their first preseason game.
On the latest episode of 'No Offseason,' Zena Keita, Ben Pickman and Sabreena Merchant discussed what success might look like for the Valkyries' inaugural season.
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Watch the full discussion below.
Keita: Natalie Nakase (the Valkyries head coach) was very big on keeping things open-minded, and she didn't want people to come into this space and think, I did it like this in New York. I did like this in Atlanta, or I didn't like this in Las Vegas. She wanted something that was brand new, and I thought that was really cool to see. Now we've got to talk big picture because this year is about setting a foundation, having fun, and there was lots of talk about joy today as well. So what does success look like for the Golden State Valkyries in their first season, Ben?
Pickman: I'm going to steal the phrase that Jonathan Kolb, the New York Liberty GM, used over the weekend. And I cite him as a specific example because Ohemaa Nyanin, the GM of the Valkyries, used to be the assistant GM of the Liberty, so there is some connectivity there. What Jonathan said, and I think he put it really well, is that, this year's Valkyries team is trying to find out who is going to be on the first great Valkyries team. So it's not necessarily about this year, it's about trying to see who's going to be a part of their long-term plan and what kind of player is going to be a part of their long-term plan, whether that is a specific name or a specific style of player. So it's very much an experimental year, and the expectation from talking to people around the league is that this Valkyries team is going to be pretty competitive in games. There are some questions about whether they have a 20-point scorer on the roster. Or how they're going to close games at crunch time and what that's going to look like. Because those are some things where continuity makes a difference. But I do think they are going to compete even though they might come up short in a bunch of games because they're just not as talented yet as a bunch of other teams.
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But again, it's about finding who those next great players are. And you've got to think there are two looming things out there. Number one is that in the WNBA, unlike in the NBA, draft lottery odds are normally based on your two-year cumulative record. But because the Valkyries are going to have just one year of history, presumably this year is going to be the end-all be-all in determining where they fare in the 2026 WNBA Draft lottery. The other thing is that they're going to have a ton of cap space next year. And so again, if you find a player or two, or three, that will be part of this team going forward, I think that's a success. And if you maybe get a high draft pick heading into next year, that's also a success. Then you can market yourself to free agents, which they certainly can do. Zena, you were just there and saw they have a great world-class facility that's just for them. So their franchise is investing, and there's a lot to like even if they only win 12 games this year or something like that.
Merchant: It's so interesting when you think about building a team from scratch because I'm certain the way we see Toronto and Portland do it next year is going to look entirely different from what Golden State did. Nakase said that they prioritized ultra competitiveness and high character in terms of the kind of people they wanted in the building. And that resulted in them getting players who had a bit of a longer track record in the W. There are a lot of veterans who have really high references from people around the league. You look at Kayla Thornton; she was beloved in New York and Dallas, and just a quality teammate who they were very sad to lose in the expansion draft. You look at Tiffany Hayes and how highly people spoke of her in Las Vegas and Atlanta, and just what she's meant to the franchises she's played for before Golden State. Even someone like Kate Martin was spoken so highly of in Vegas. And again, the fact that Natalie Nakase came from Vegas and they have multiple Vegas players shouldn't come as a surprise. Even Iliana Rupert, another player taken in the expansion draft, played in Vegas with Nakase.
So even though these players don't have any familiarity playing with each other in this specific context, they do have little tentacles attached to one another in previous lives. Hayes, Martin and Rupert, who I don't think will be reporting until after EuroBasket this season, all played for Nakase in Las Vegas. You also look at their assistant GM Vanja Černivec, she has experience with the London Lions, and Temi Fágbénlé also played with the London Lions. So everybody knows everybody in women's basketball, and they all have reasons to believe that these things are going to fit together. It is interesting that they chose a lot of complementary players who people are going to want to play with, because they haven't found the star that wants to play with all of them yet. But these complementary players are going to come to work every day, set a good culture, show up for their younger teammates and express what it means to be a pro at this level. Even if Golden State doesn't really know what their team specifically looks like, they have a bunch of pros who know how to play in the WNBA. And that's important when you have a team where there is no history, and you have to make sure that you set a standard of work and a work ethic to make it a destination that people want to come to. The players had nothing to look forward to when they signed in 2025. So this year is about just setting the blueprint for what they want to be in future years.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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