Before the Golden State Valkyries’ inaugural season, their owner, Joe Lacob, publicly stated he aimed for the franchise to win a WNBA title within its first 5 seasons.
1 WNBA team is quietly dominating — and doing so way ahead of schedule
The Golden State Valkyries weren’t supposed to be this good, this quickly. But that hasn’t mattered.
Noa Dalzell is a senior writer covering the WNBA and all of women’s basketball for Breakaway, SB Nation’s women’s sports vertical, as well as the Celtics for CelticsBlog.
Just a few weeks into their second season, the Valkyries appear to be right on track. After making the playoffs in Year 1, they’re already one of the WNBA’s best teams through the first few weeks of their second season. The Valkyries are 4-2 to begin the year and have outscored opponents by an average of 9.5 points per game, the highest point differential of any team in the WNBA.
They’ve tallied double-digit wins against the Seattle Storm, Phoenix Mercury, New York Liberty, and Connecticut Sun. And, they’ve done it by assembling one of the league’s most elite defenses; the Valkyries are holding opponents to 76.3 points per game, the fewest of any team in the NBA.
On the offensive end, it’s been a well-balanced attack. The Valkyries, unlike most WNBA teams, aren’t built around a traditional superstar.
Veronica Burton, last year’s breakout player, is averaging 14.3 points and 6.3 assists per game.
Gabby Williams, the Valkyries’ most coveted free agency acquisition, is tallying 13.5 points, 2.3 assists, and 1.7 steals per game, while anchoring the team’s perimeter defense. Second-year forward Jannelle Salaun is pouring in 12 points per game off the bench.
Kayla Thornton, named an All-Star last year for the first time, is tallying 9.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game. and Kaitlyn Chen, who was drafted in the third round last season, only to later be waived, has carved out a role as a legitimately impactful backup point guard.
Around that core, Kaila Charles, Cecilia Zandalasini, Laeticia Amihere, Tiffany Hayes, and Kiah Stokes have all been impactful contributors in the rotation.
“Everybody that checks in is ready,” Burton said after the Valkyries beat the Liberty. “Nobody cares who scores.”
Juste Jocyte, last year’s No. 5 overall pick, finally made her WNBA debut on Monday night, and could become a critical part of the Valkyries moving forward.
“We play really well together, and we utilize that as our superpower,” Nakase said before the season started. “Any given night, anyone can get hot.”
The Valkyries received some bad press for a draft night trade that saw them flip Flau’jae Johnson for Marta Suarez, only to waive Suarez later. That transaction was poorly explained to fans by general manager Ohemaa Nyanin, but that might be her only major misfire at the helm thus far. (It’s also possible that not protecting now-Portland Fire guard Carla Leite will go down as a mistake, as Leite’s been dominant for Portland).
But it’s clear that Lacob, Nyanin, and Nakase had a vision, and that vision is coming to fruition sooner than most anticipated.
On Monday night, as the Valkyries blew out the Sun, the identity of this team was on full display.
“It just felt like a shared celebration,” Nakase said, per the San Francisco Chronicle. “Everybody contributed, everybody brought energy, and that’s what makes this group special.”
They just might also be one of the best teams in the WNBA.
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