{"id":385809,"date":"2026-01-03T17:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/385809\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T17:12:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T17:12:07","slug":"unrivaled-sets-the-perfect-stage-for-one-guard-to-complete-her-breakout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/385809\/","title":{"rendered":"Unrivaled sets the perfect stage for one guard to complete her breakout"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veronica Burton had a very exciting last year. First, she won a WNBL championship and was named to the All-WNBL Second Team. Then, she emerged as one of the top two-way guards in the WNBA and led the Valkyries to a historic first playoff appearance. Burton was rewarded with the Most Improved Player award<\/a> and a spot on the All-Defensive Second Team. After the WNBA season, Burton won a gold medal at the 3×3 AmeriCup and went to a training camp for the five-on-five national team.\u00a0She did all of this not long after the Wings waived her.<\/a><\/p>\n

Burton took the basketball world by storm. Making her Unrivaled debut offers her a chance to conquer yet another setting. After the WNBA season Burton just had, she is prepared for a big Unrivaled season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Veronica Burton should thrive in Miami<\/p>\n

Burton will play on Mist BC alongside Breanna Stewart, Arike Ogunbowale, Alanna Smith, Li Yueru, and Allisha Gray. While Burton may come off the bench in this setting, she should make an immediate impact on her team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unrivaled plays in a full-court (although the court is smaller than a WNBA court) three-on-three setting that creates a fast-paced environment and a lot of space. In that setting, it\u2019s crucial that every player can hold their own on defense, especially at the point of attack. Burton can do just that. She spent the entire WNBA season defending all of the best guards in the league and did so well that she was one of only two guards who made an All-Defensive team. The other one was Rhyne Howard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the other end of the floor, Burton can, first and foremost, provide the playmaking necessary to get Smith and Yueru going and help Stewart, Gray, and Ogunbowale get easy shots they don\u2019t have to create themselves. Burton finished the 2025 WNBA season averaging six assists per game\u2014fourth most in the entire league. She also took good care of the ball, averaging the fewest turnovers of the top four players in assists per game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Burton also emerged as a much-improved scorer. Her efficiency was a problem, as she only converted 38.7% of her field-goal attempts, but a lot of that was likely because of the newfound defensive attention she got on the Valkyries. Burton was the engine that made the Valkyries\u2019 offense go, and other teams were well aware of that. On the Mist, teams won\u2019t be able to zero in on Burton as much because of who she is playing with.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Burton can put together a successful Unrivaled season, there is little left for her to prove. Unrivaled is filled with some of the top players in the game right now, including three of the top five WNBA MVP candidates now that Napheesa Collier is out for the season. Thriving against that kind of competition will only further prove that Burton\u2019s 2025 breakout was legit.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Veronica Burton had a very exciting last year. First, she won a WNBL championship and was named to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-385809","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}