Just nine games into the season, the Golden State Valkyries are already defying expectations. They currently sit in eighth place in the league and have gotten some big wins, including a massive victory over the Las Vegas Aces.
Despite the team’s early success, the Valkyries are not represented in ESPN’s latest award tracker, even though Veronica Burton should be in the conversation for the Most Improved Player award and Natalie Nakase should be recognized for her coaching.
Veronica Burton is excelling in her new role
Until the Golden State Valkyries selected her in the expansion draft, Veronica Burton had a small role in the WNBA. After being drafted seventh overall by the Wings, she played a bench role in Dallas for two seasons, producing little. Then, she was waived by the Wings in 2024 and signed with the Connecticut Sun. In Connecticut, Burton averaged the fewest minutes of her career but also her best scoring numbers.
With the Valkyries, Burton was pushed into a starting role. She has risen to the challenge, drastically improving her production all across the board. She is averaging career highs in points per game, field goal attempts and field goal percentage, rebounds, assists, steals, and free-throw attempts.
Burton was pushed into a huge role, unlike anything she had ever been asked to do during her WNBA career before, and responded perfectly. Instead of crumbling under the pressure, Burton rose to the challenge and became one of the Valkyries’ top players. She went from averaging 3.1 points, 1.4 rebounds, and 1.9 assists in 2024 to averaging 12.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 5 assists, and 1.5 steals per game to start the 2025 season.
Alisha Gray, Aliyah Boston, and Lexie Hull, the three players who received votes for Most Improved Player, are all playing well this season, but Burton has improved her production drastically and should at least be in the conversation for the award.
Natalie Nakase is doing a great job as a first-time head coach
Being a first-time head coach is not easy. Doing it for a new franchise without an obvious star or an established identity makes it even more difficult. And yet, Natalie Nakase has done a great job with the Valkyries.
Leading her team to four wins already and playing close games against New York, Minnesota, and Phoenix is a major success. In a short amount of time, Nakase has established an identity in Golden State and got her players to buy in. Her team battles every game and currently sits in a playoff spot.
While there are some things the team needs to improve, like consistent late-game execution, Nakase should at least be in the conversation for Coach of the Year. Sandy Brondello and Nate Tibbetts were the only coaches to receive votes in ESPN’s award tracker, and both are fair choices, considering how successful their teams have been to start the season.