{"id":611347,"date":"2026-04-28T14:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/611347\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T14:12:12","slug":"kaitlyn-chen-seeks-valkyries-roster-spot-with-new-growth-in-year-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/611347\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaitlyn Chen seeks Valkyries roster spot with new growth in Year 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

OAKLAND \u2014 While the gym emptied and footsteps faded toward the locker room after a long Monday afternoon practice, Kaitlyn Chen<\/a> stayed rooted to the hardwood.<\/p>\n

Chen joined starting Valkyries <\/a>point guard Veronica Burton and coach Natalie Nakase on the far side of the practice facility as they gave the second-year floor general pointers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Burton pointed, Nakase corrected and Chen<\/a> absorbed. Eyes locked. Shoulders squared. Questions spilling faster than the answers could land.<\/p>\n

The session stretched long enough that a cluster of reporters lingered awkwardly across the court, watching and waiting until it became clear Chen had forgotten about them entirely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was the work now. Not the spotlight. Not the roster math<\/a>. Just the climb.<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Valkyries\u2019 Kaitlyn Chen (2) runs drills during the team\u2019s first day of training camp at the Sephora Performance Center in Oakland, Calif., on Sunday, April 19, 2026. (Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what this training camp has become for Chen. Less about making a team and more about proving she belongs running one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A year after bouncing from third-round pick to cut, then clawing her way back into a guaranteed role, Chen has returned sharper, steadier and unmistakably more in command.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her second half against Seattle on Saturday felt like a quiet declaration. The handle is tighter, the pace more deliberate, the reads cleaner.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And for a Valkyries team searching for stability behind Burton, Chen has made her case to be on the team stronger as Golden State inches closer to making its roster final before the season opener against Seattle on May 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHer leadership in terms of commanding and demanding on the court, it\u2019s loud, it\u2019s clear and it\u2019s decisive. That\u2019s what you want in a leader,\u201d Nakase said. \u201cShe does a great job of tailoring everyone to their strengths and also supporting her teammates when she needs to. And then obviously her effectiveness in pick and roll. You can see how dangerous she is now, like she\u2019s looking to either get to the rim, get to her floater, shoot a 3. She\u2019s shooting at all three levels.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Valkyries\u2019 Kaitlyn Chen (2) and Golden State Valkyries\u2019 Laeticia Amihere (3) celebrate during a preseason game against the Seattle Storm at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, April 25, 2026. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

After being selected in the third round of last year\u2019s draft, Chen lasted all the way to the end of training camp but was eventually waived just before the start of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t go far.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After a wave of injuries and EuroBasket departures depleted the Valkyries\u2019 roster, Golden State signed Chen to a hardship contract. Chen made the most of her second chance, proving she could be a steady presence off the bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When injuries thinned the Valkyries\u2019 backcourt, she was ready. Chen earned her way into games with steady, disciplined play: limiting turnovers, running the offense without disrupting its rhythm, and defending with the kind of effort that coaches notice even when the stat sheet doesn\u2019t show it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chen\u2019s solid play in the middle of the season forced Golden State to part ways with veteran point guard and fan favorite Julie Van Loo to make room for the then-rookie point guard.<\/p>\n

Going into this year\u2019s training camp, Chen faces a familiar predicament.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Golden State brought Chen back on a non-guaranteed training camp contract, meaning that she once again has to prove that she belongs. And with a roster crunch that is tighter than nearly every team in the league, Chen has a harder hill to climb than last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But this time, Chen didn\u2019t spend the offseason expecting that her showing last year would land her a guaranteed spot on this year\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Valkyries\u2019 Miela Sowah (7) falls back on Golden State Valkyries\u2019 Kaitlyn Chen (2) after making a three-pointer in the fourth quarter at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, April 25, 2026. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

She went to work.<\/p>\n

Chen headed overseas to the Czech Republic, where she spent the winter months sharpening the parts of her game that had carried her onto Golden State\u2019s radar in the first place. Then she came back stateside and took command in the Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball league where she averaged 14.8 points, 4.9 assists, and 3.6 rebounds per game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reps accumulated. So did the confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying overseas in Prague was definitely a super fun experience, and to be able to play with (Janelle Sala\u00fcn) there too was great,\u201d Chen said. \u201cAnd then playing at (Athletes Unlimited) I felt like I had a lot of freedom, and I was sort of able to just be myself out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

As her on-court skills developed, so did her leadership traits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nakase said what has most impressed her about Chen is her ability to be more of a vocal presence when she\u2019s on the floor, even if it means barking back at Nakase when she thinks she\u2019s wrong.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Kaitlyn got into it a little bit, which is fine just because we were both passionate about what we want to do in terms of winning,\u201d Nakase said. \u201cI love those conversations. I actually will probably create chaos myself just to see them in these internal battles with me, and I\u2019m testing them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Valkyrie\u2019s Kaitlyn Chen (2) chats with former NBA player Jeremy Lin after their WNBA game at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025. The Golden State Valkyries defeated the Washington Mystics 99-62. (Jose Carlos Fajardo\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Chen\u2019s improved skills were on full display.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She played 28 minutes \u2013 including every minute of the second half \u2013 scoring 11 points and dishing out three assists while recording a plus-minus rating of +7. Chen looked noticeably more comfortable handling the ball, not shying away from pressure and using an array of finishes once she got to the rim.<\/p>\n

At one point in the second half, Chen tugged on her jersey to signal Nakase to give her a breather. Nakase, liking what she saw from the young point guard, told her no.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was trust. Quietly given, loudly felt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe told the players ahead of time that (Veronica Burton) wasn\u2019t going to play in the second half, so Kaitlyn had to take the whole second half,\u201d Nakase said. \u201cHer ability to push through \u2013 that\u2019s what I like to see sometimes, especially when a player is really uncomfortable. How are they going to respond? \u2026 Her confidence, I think, grew at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Burton, \u201cI know she had this in her last year too, but it\u2019s her rookie season and there\u2019s learning curves. This offseason, she\u2019s been here getting better. I think she\u2019s an offensive threat at all three levels. She\u2019s very difficult to guard, and so I\u2019m really excited about Kaitlyn, and I think she\u2019ll have a lot to show this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase (35) talks to Golden State Valkyries\u2019 Kaitlyn Chen (2) during their game against the Connecticut Sun in the second quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

Whether it translates into a guaranteed roster spot remains to be seen. Golden State\u2019s roster crunch leaves little room for sentiment, and Chen knows better than anyone how quickly a training camp can turn. She\u2019s lived that side of it already.<\/p>\n

But a coach doesn\u2019t ride a player through an entire second half \u2014 doesn\u2019t wave off her request for rest, doesn\u2019t trust her to run the show without a safety net \u2014 unless something real has been established.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Something beyond potential. Something that looks a lot like belief.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chen will take it.<\/p>\n

She tucked it away the same way she tucks everything away, filed alongside the extra sessions with Burton, the reps in Prague, the minutes logged in Athletes Unlimited. Another piece of evidence in the case she is quietly building for herself.<\/p>\n

The roster math is still there. It always is.<\/p>\n

But so is she.<\/p>\n

\"Valkyries'Valkyries\u2019 Kaitlyn Chen (2) celebrates during a game against the Dallas Wings in the third quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, July 25, 2025. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 While the gym emptied and footsteps faded toward the locker room after a long Monday afternoon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2356,99,434],"class_list":["post-611347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-california","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611347","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=611347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}