10-08-2025
- Sport
- San Francisco Chronicle
Valkyries' pace continues to slow as injuries mount, schedule gets busier
Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase described the kind of team she wanted before they ever took the court as playing at a quick rate.
'We're gonna play fast pace and obviously, we're gonna shoot some 3s,' she said on Dec, 12. 'That's what we're gonna do.'
But the Valkyries haven't been very fast, especially lately.
Golden State averages a WNBA-high 16.1 seconds per offensive possession, per analytics website pbpstats. Excluding second-chance opportunities (when the shot clock resets to 14 seconds), the Valkyries average 15.1 seconds. Their 2,233 total possessions are the fewest in the WNBA.
Nakase attributed the slowing pace to the condensed schedule and mounting injuries.
'After this, we'll have six (games) in 10 (days),' Nakase said following last Wednesday's loss to Las Vegas. 'So I think that has something to do with pace. We play with so much energy, especially on the defensive end, obviously, and the physicality to rebound, that the schedule kind of doesn't help. I think that's why.'
With so many players in and out of the lineup — Golden State has used a league-leading 19 players — and little consistency in where they go for their scoring, the Valkyries have had to be more deliberate about offensive process than anticipated.
By far, Golden State has been the slowest team in the league off opponent misses at the rim — which is usually a fast-paced situation for offenses to move in transition. The Valkyries average 13.21 seconds per possession, more than a full second slower than any other team.
'It's a long season, and teams get to know you and how you play better, and you have to adjust,' Cecilia Zandalasini told the Chronicle before Saturday's 72-59 win over Los Angeles. 'I think teams have made adjustments to us defensively, but we just want to take our good shots when they're there, sometimes that's sooner or not.'
The universal stat for judging speed in the WNBA is pace — the number of possessions a team uses per game or, more commonly, per 40 minutes. It measures how quickly a team plays, reflecting the number of offensive possessions it has within a given timeframe. The Valkyries' pace per game is 77.49, the lowest in the WNBA.
The Valkyries' top runners are no longer with the team. They had their fastest pace with Julie Vanloo (94.2 on and 91.7 when she was off the floor) and Steph Talbot (93.5 pace on and 91.7 off). Other players who have moved on like Kyara Linskens, Bree Hall and Chloe Bibby ranked near the top in pace.
Kayla Thornton, out for the season with a knee injury, was Golden State's best transition finisher before the All-Star break with 2.3 fast break points per game, while Monique Billings, currently out for three weeks, is the only big the Valkyries have played with at a rapid pace (92.5, fourth-highest on the active roster).
'A lot of new faces can play into it,' Tiffany Hayes told the Chronicle. 'But also, as everyone knows, defense is our thing, and when we don't get that done, a lot of our stats seem to fluctuate. When we don't get stops, a lot of things don't go our way.'
The Valkyries' pace is only slightly quicker in wins (77.57) than losses (77.42) in defeats. Given their circumstances they have adapted to a more deliberate, intentional offensive approach.
Their pace has slowed during each month of their inaugural season: from a 98.4 in May to 89.7 in August — and is at 89.47 since Thornton last played (July 16). Some of that is that the Valkyries are playing more cohesively when they move the ball well — their assist numbers are better when they win — but they also need to find a way to score in transition.
'We're doing better in our half-court sets,' Temi Fagbenle said. 'Which is good, but I think we also need to have a good balance of transition, quick-paced flow and process, so just finding that balance is our next step.'
