Valkyries' 5 key questions for 2025: What's realistic for an expansion team?

San Francisco Chronicle​

15-05-2025

As the WNBA season tips off Friday, the Golden State Valkyries, the league's first expansion team in over 15 years, are a sort of blueprint for what's ahead. With a roster built from veteran role players, international stars and promising young talent, expectations are cautiously optimistic, but history offers a sobering reminder: Expansion teams rarely win early.
Still, the Valkyries have pieces that could surprise.
Here are five questions that will define their debut season.
What's realistic as an expansion team?
The last expansion team, the 2008 Atlanta Dream, finished their inaugural season with a 4-30 record. Of the seven WNBA teams to post a sub-.150 win percentage, three were expansion teams in their debut seasons. That includes the 2006 Chicago Sky (5-29, .147).
'Nothing is built overnight,' Valkyries guard Tiffany Hayes said. 'We know practices are different from games. We can have as many practices as we want, but we're going to need game experience to build chemistry.'
Most media outlets have picked the Valkyries to finish near the bottom — ahead of Connecticut, which lost its entire starting lineup after making the semifinals last season, and Washington, expected to be among the league's worst.
Nobody expects the Valkyries to be a playoff team, but their upside is higher than some. Carla Leite and Janelle Salaün are European stars, and if their games translate, the veteran-led squad might spring a few surprises.
Will the Valkyries score enough?
Hayes, who averaged 9.5 points per game off the bench last season, is the top returning scorer on the Valkyries' roster and will likely be their offensive leader.
'I know the biggest thing for me, for this team, is that I can get past almost anybody in this league,' Hayes said. 'So that's kind of like my role, I have to be a playmaker. So if I'm getting past somebody, of course, I'm going to be in the paint. That's when I need to make the right read. … You're either going up to score, or you're finding an open person.'
Beyond Hayes, the offensive picture is less clear. The projected starting five have a combined total of 66 WNBA starts with more than half of them (34) coming from point guard Julie Vanloo during her time with the Mystics.
There are some promising stats: Vanloo posted the seventh-best assist rate in the league last season (30.8%), and Cecilia Zandalasini shot 44.3% from 3-point range, the sixth-best mark in the WNBA.
'This is the first time I've been on a team where I don't have to come in learning a system or feeling like I need to catch up,' forward Kayla Thornton said. 'We're all starting from the same point. It's also the first time I've played with so many internationals, which has been an honor. They bring a different discipline and style of play that we're learning from.'
How will EuroBasket impact the season?
Several Valkyries — Kyara Linskens, Temi Fagbenle, Salaün, Vanloo and Zandalasini — are expected to compete in the EuroBasket tournament this June. The top six finishers will earn a spot in one of the qualifying tournaments for the 2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup.
That could leave the team short-handed, forcing the Valkyries to sign players to hardship contracts during that stretch, as they could have up to five spots to fill over at least five games.
Four of those players are in the frontcourt. Leite's decision to stay could ease the loss of Vanloo for a bit, especially if Burton also starts strong, but the other departures would leave the Valkyries with just Billings and Talbot as their bigs.
For a team that needs to build chemistry, the pending interruption in June will be challenging.
Can role players become central figures?
The Valkyries aren't the least experienced team in the league in terms of minutes played; that distinction currently belongs to Connecticut and Washington.
Thanks to the expansion draft, the Valkyries added multiple established rotation players even if many of them weren't regular starters last season.
Most players are being asked to stretch far beyond their prior roles. Kayla Thornton was a 3-and-D player off the bench. Kate Martin was primarily a spot-up shooter. Veronica Burton served as a defensive specialist, and Fagbenle came off Indiana's bench to space the floor.
'It's a big responsibility,' Fagbenle said. 'It's one I take in full stride. I'm happy to be in this role. I'm used to doing whatever I need to do for my team to win, whatever that looks like. Being in a fairly new role in the W poses a great challenge for me.'
What happens to the roster after this season?
The 2025-26 offseason is shaping up to be transformative for the WNBA. With Toronto and Portland entering the league and creating 24 new roster spots, player movement could be significant. Nearly every non-rookie contract in the league is set to expire, including those of all Valkyries players except Leite and Martin.
This sets the stage for a potential roster overhaul. The Valkyries will have cap space to work with, but so will nearly every other team. High-profile Bay Area-native free agents such as Sabrina Ionescu and Chelsea Gray could be available.
First-round pick Juste Jocyte will also join the team next year, and if she makes the final roster, she will be one of the few core players the Valkyries can build around.