SAN FRANCISCO — The Valkyries are no longer the feel-good story of the WNBA.
Now they’re so much more.
They are the league’s hottest team entering the All-Star break, winners of nine consecutive games before their loss Monday to Washington and playing the kind of collective basketball that is forcing the league to take notice.
What started as a season with more questions than answers has turned into the best stretch in the franchise’s brief history — and Golden State is riding straight into championship contender territory.
The Valkyries are second in the standings after the most dominant run of their two-year existence and unmistakably part of the championship conversation. They ended the first half of the season with a 19-8 record, using a style built on defense, depth and 3-point scoring to emerge as a contender.
Golden State is holding opponents to a league-low 76.4 points per game and its bench is averaging a league-high 35.4 points.
The Golden State Valkyries bench celebrates a 3-point basket by Golden State Valkyries’ Gabby Williams (1) against the New York Liberty in the second quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, June 28, 2026. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
The Valkyries have made a league-best 286 shots from 3-point range.
When Golden State won at Toronto this month, the reserves scored 52 of the Valkyries’ 83 points, which included 26 points and five 3-pointers – three in the game’s final minutes – from Janelle Salaün. After making her third consecutive 3-pointer, Salaün shouted to the opposing crowd on her way back down the court, bumping chests with an elated Veronica Burton, who had assisted her final basket, and high-fiving guard Kaitlyn Chen as the trio reveled in a comeback win.
Two days later, with All-Star Gabby Williams out due to a back injury, the backups picked up the slack by scoring 42 points in a 79-64 victory at Connecticut. Earlier this year, the bench had 53 in a blowout win over the same Connecticut Sun team.
“The best thing about our team is we have a selfless team that understands matchups,” coach Natalie Nakase said. “Having a deep bench was intentional. But it also comes with the humility that each player has to have that sometimes they can start, sometimes they’ll have a night, sometimes they might not start, sometimes they might not have a night.”
The feel-good vibes are a stark contrast from where things stood in April after a couple roster moves that sparked questions from the fan base.
“This is a very special group,” Nakase said. “They have meshed a lot better together than I anticipated.”
On the court, the Valkyries look like a team built for a title run.
“I think we’re playing at a level that we’re really excited about, but that’s what we expect of ourselves at the same time,” point guard Veronica Burton said. “I think about our growth and what we’ve been carrying over from game to game, and how we’re not just getting leads but maintaining leads. We are coming out and winning in many different forms and fashions. So I think that is probably more advanced than what we would have expected this early.”
Following an inaugural season in which the Valkyries became the first WNBA expansion team to make the playoffs in Year 1, the expectations for Year 2 were high.
The offseason opened with a bang as the Valkyries inked former Seattle Storm forward Williams to a multi-year deal to solidify their need for a star-level player. Golden State then brought back multiple players from the 2025 season such as Burton, defensive stopper Kaila Charles, rookie sensation Salaün and All-Star Kayla Thornton to bring back the foundation of last year’s team.
Golden State Valkyries’ Veronica Burton (22) and New York Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu (20) fight for the ball in the first quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, June 28, 2026. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)
But on draft night, the questions started.
The Valkyries selected LSU star Flau’jae Johnson with the eighth overall pick, only to flip the talented guard for former Cal and TCU forward Marta Suarez, who was taken with the 16th pick by the Seattle Storm. For a fan base still riding the high of an inaugural playoff appearance, it was a curious bet – trading a known, marketable commodity for a player, who fit better in theory but didn’t have a ceiling as high.
The move was only amplified by general manager Ohemaa Nyanin’s refusal to explain why she did it, then cutting Suarez two weeks into training camp. Nyanin eventually explained two weeks later that the move was solely to maintain cap flexibility, but it left a bad taste in the mouths of fans who believed Johnson would have flourished in Nakase’s system.
And then, just before the season tipped off, the Valkyries absorbed a hit nobody saw coming: Starting center Iliana Rupert’s pregnancy announcement was a genuinely happy occasion — but it also meant Golden State was down a frontcourt player it had planned around. To keep a roster with frontcourt depth, the Valkyries cut fan favorite Kate Martin to make room for backup center Laeticia Amihere.
Between a trade that raised eyebrows, a run-it-back approach that invited doubt and a roster crunch nobody had scripted, training camp closed with a lot of questions about the team’s identity.
But once the season started, those questions started answering themselves.
From the opening tip, Williams looked like exactly the star Golden State signed her to be. She’s been dominant on both ends of the court.
The forward with Oakland roots is averaging a career-high 14.8 points to go along with 3.3 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.7 steals per game en route to earning All-Star starter recognition. Through the first half of the season, she’s been the engine of everything the Valkyries wanted to build around, the missing piece that turns a good roster into a complete one.
“I told you guys Day 1, she’s one of the best two-way players in the world,” Nakase said after Golden State’s win over Atlanta last month. “We’re just providing the stage for what we already knew. …She’s the most humble star I think I’ve ever coached before, and that’s what makes her shine even more.”
But if Williams has made her star turn, the story of this Golden State team has been what’s happened around her. Ask anyone in the locker room what has fueled the run, and the answer comes back the same way almost every time: chemistry.
“We have a lot of people that came from last year’s team, but we added new faces and so I think our chemistry is building every single game,” Charles, the Valkyries’ top defensive guard, told the Bay Area News Group on Monday. “I just think the energy is just contagious. You see that we’re having a lot of joy and fun because we genuinely love each other and have great times with each other on and off the court.”
That trust has shown up in the numbers.
Golden State’s defense ranks among the league’s best, a product of players who’ve spent enough time together to anticipate where their next move will be. The Valkyries’ offensive efficiency has dipped, but they’ve made key shots – like Salaün’s trio in Toronto – with their chemistry translating into the kind of spacing and ball movement that turns contested shots into open looks.
None of it happened by accident, and none of it happened overnight. But winning nine games in a row has a way of making a slow build look sudden.