Natalie Nakase, donned in the violet gear of the area’s freshest professional sports team, was on her way for coffee in San Francisco when a man called out to her on the street. He correctly identified her as the Golden State Valkyries new head coach and enthusiastically asked, during the first week of December, if they were playing that night.
No, Nakase thought. No, I don’t think so? Right?
“I really thought because of his energy, like, ‘oh crap, do I have a game today?’” Nakase told Yahoo Sports. “His energy was so energetic and as we go through this process, we keep saying we haven’t slept that much. He really got me.”
The energy around the Valkyries, the WNBA’s first expansion team since 2008, is no doubt elevated after golfer Michelle Wie West, rapper E-40 and former NBA All-Star Baron Davis announced the team’s initial roster selections at a packed expansion-draft event last week.
That initial 11-person roster (the Valkyries skipped picking from Seattle) is not the one those fervent fans will see when the team begins play at the Chase Center in five months. The expansion draft was a single step in the journey, providing a baseline for Golden State to build upward alongside the rest of the league’s 12 teams in the coming months.
Nakase, general manager Ohemaa Nyanin and vice president of basketball operations Vanja Černivec began by balancing out the various avenues to construct a team from scratch within the $1.5 million cap for 2025. After taking on a mere $305,595 in salary after the expansion draft and taking the rights to multiple players who might not be involved in the WNBA next season, the Valkyries front office will enter a loaded free agency with $1.2 million in cap space.
Nyanin, previously the New York Liberty’s director of basketball operations and then assistant manager, worked with Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb when he wrote three major names on a whiteboard. He landed them all. The “hard reset,” as described by Nyanin, resulted in the league’s first true super-team built via free agency and ultimately the franchise’s first championship in 2024.
Nyanin doesn’t have a whiteboard yet, because the offices are under renovation, but she’s similarly planning where and whom to prioritize.
“Philosophically speaking, yeah, we have athletes that we’re interested in,” Nyanin said. “And we are being just a lot more thoughtful about which athletes we want to bring in and why, because our culture is going to be representative of them, and we want them to be active participants.”
The player supermax is around $250,000 and the contract for their No. 5 pick in April’s collegiate draft is $75,643, allowing Golden State to add multiple near-max salaries. Most players likely won’t sign past 2025 because a new collective bargaining agreement will bring larger paychecks and potential rule changes. This offseason’s unrestricted free agent list includes veterans Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot, Kelsey Mitchell, Nneka Ogwumike and Gabby Williams.
Two-time Aces champion Kelsey Plum also is an unrestricted free agent who might be intrigued by a change in scenery and leading a new franchise. She did not sign a contract extension with the Aces, an unusual occurrence for their core four players, and Nakase knows firsthand the Olympic gold medalist has the “dawg” factor she wants.
Sun free agent forward Alyssa Thomas has been more vocal about the lack of professional-level facilities and support in Connecticut, but the 11-year veteran might want a more championship-ready squad than Golden State. She has yet to win a WNBA title. DeWanna Bonner, Thomas’ fiancée, is also an unrestricted free agent, as is Sun center Brionna Jones.
Satou Sabally would be another enticing free agent to build around (though she’s dealt with injuries much of her five-year career). Adding the German national team forward as their star would add another layer to the already complex dealings of Golden State’s international heavy roster.
Seven of the 11 players the Valkyries selected in the expansion draft are international, and there is a strong chance many do not suit up for Golden State. They have shown varying levels of commitment to the WNBA over their careers, instead prioritizing national teams and domestic clubs. The WNBA’s prioritization clause, enacted in 2023, makes it difficult for some international players to play at home and in the WNBA, where they now have to show up to training camp on time or else be suspended.
Exclusions to the CBA’s prioritization rule allow for players to leave their W teams for international competitions. That is still difficult on a franchise and coach to go without a key contributor while cycling through hardship contracts to keep a bench.
EuroBasket will potentially eat up all of June for a combination of the Valkyries’ Temi Fagbenle (Great Britain), Cecilia Zandalasini (Italy), Stephanie Talbot (Australia), Julie Vanloo (Belgium), Maria Conde (Spain), Iliana Rupert (France) and Carla Leite (France). Should their teams qualify in February, they would be unavailable for one-quarter of the Valkyries season (11 of 44 games). Some might choose to skip the WNBA altogether to stay home for the tournament.
“We were very intentional about the athletes [we selected] because their talent jumps off the screen,” Nyanin said. “And to be able to even have the inaugural opportunity to welcome them into this organization, whether they make it to training camp or not, we just wanted the opportunity to be able to connect with them and continue to kind of elevate them in their respective roles.”
The Valkyries trio had video meetings with each player selected before finalizing the roster and the official announcement Friday. It was important for Nyanin to add positivity to what would be a negative of knowing they were left off their former teams’ protected list.
“[We] just wanted to put their minds at ease that we know that this is a moment that they have to think through [and] they have to be thoughtful about,” Nyanin said.
Nyanin wants the new players to do more research on the franchise as they decide on plans for 2025 and as the Valkyries front office continues to work on a roster in flux.
“When we come back to the table to just talk about next steps,” she said, “we’ve all kind of gone through the different emotions and are able to talk about what’s mutually best for us.”
