🏀 THE VALKYRIES SHINE

Being an expansion team is incredibly difficult. You’re starting from zero in a league with established hierarchies. Established teams have an obvious head start, so Golden State must establish an identity and demonstrate that you are a place players will want to join in free agency.

It’s a delicate balance to strike, but if you can do it, the sky is the limit. And for the WNBA’s newest team, they’ve started to lay the foundation for a promising future.

Although the Golden State Valkyries are just 4-5 on the season, they’ve brought an energy and effort to every game and have been competitive in most of them. They don't have a lead option on offense, so a combination of balanced scoring and a bushel of three-point attempts has kept them in games. 

The Valkyries are first in threes attempted at 32.1 a night, but are last in percentage at 27.3 percent. They make up for it by constantly applying pressure and battling on every possession. They've executed the vision of new head coach Natalie Nakase and have already established a style of play and identity that has made them a box office sensation in San Francisco.

The roster is an ensemble cast led by two players who are making the most of their new opportunities. Veronica Burton is a player who has been waiting for the opportunity to establish herself in the WNBA truly. She came off the bench for the Dallas Wings and Connecticut Sun as those teams made deep playoff runs. Now that she's a starter, she's making the most of her opportunity.

Kayla Thornton is someone familiar to New York Liberty fans. Her combination of physicality, fearlessness, and energy made her a beloved figure in New York and someone fans will never forget. She leads the Valkyries in scoring and already has picked up three double-doubles, a career high. All-Star voting is officially underway, so don't be surprised if we see the Valkyries send a few players to Indianapolis for the mid-summer festivities.

With Eurobasket beginning on June 14, the Valkyries will be shorthanded for a bit. They’ll be without Cecilia Zandalasini, Julie Vanloo, Janelle Salaün, and Temi Fagbenle. To offset some of these absences, the team signed Aerial Powers to a contract.

The Valkyries have impressed so far, and as the team moves into the next part of the schedule, they'll look to build on what they've already established.

The latest Black Rosie Media podcasts:

• Tempestade Talk S2.E7: DOWN GOES MINNESOTA

• Gotta Get Up S3.E6: 2024 WNBA Champions off to an 8-0 Start!

🤔 TIME TO WORRY IN LAS VEGAS?

National TV games usually serve two purposes. The first is that it provides teams with a great showcase for their games on the largest platform possible. When you have the games on a channel everyone has, it gives you a chance to reach a whole new set of fans.

On the other hand, if you have a terrible performance on national TV, it shapes the conversation surrounding your team and leads to a whole bunch of questions. For the Las Vegas Aces, their national TV performance is a cause for concern.

On June 7, the Aces traveled to San Francisco to face the Valkyries on ABC. It was a momentous occasion, as the Aces got to go up against their former assistant coach Natalie Nakase for the first time. Vegas had been off since a great road win against the Seattle Storm on June 1.

The Valkyries were coming off a rough loss to the Phoenix Mercury in which they repeatedly turned the ball over in the final moments as Phoenix ended the game on an 18-1 run. The Aces came into this contest as heavy favorites, but the Valks looked like contenders compared to Las Vegas. Golden State won by 27 points and left the Aces wondering just what is going on.

“Effort has to come from your heart, Becky Hammon said after the loss. “The schemes, the discipline, the habits, that’s your head. And right now, we not only have a heart issue, but it’s (becoming a) head issue.”

The Aces are a veteran group with years of championship and big-game experience. They’ve been in just about every situation imaginable, and they know what to do in order to right the ship.

With a few days off following that loss, the Aces returned to action on June 11 at home against the Los Angeles Sparks. It didn’t start well; they fell behind by as much as 20 points before rallying to make it a close game. It wasn’t enough, as the Sparks held on and handed the Aces their second straight loss. Vegas is now 4-4 on the season.

More concerningly, A'ja Wilson left Wednesday’s game due to a head injury. She was announced as unavailable for the game against the Wings and entered concussion protocol.

With Wilson out, the team will need a LOT more from Jewell Loyd. She was the centerpiece of their off-season, replacing Kelsey Plum, but she hasn’t looked like her usual self.

She currently has career lows in points, field goal percentage, free throw attempts, and free throw percentage. Jewell is only shooting 20.5 percent on two-pointers and has only taken seven shots inside the restricted area. This level of decline raises alarms.

There has been some discussion as to Loyd coming off the bench. We’ll see how things develop from here.

The Aces still have time to right the ship, but things are certainly rocky right now.

📰 WHAT WE’RE READING

At Black Rosie Media, we love to give flowers to other writers and creators in the women’s basketball community.

Here’s what we’re reading:

• From Silence To Celebration: The WNBA’s Evolution On LGBTQ+ Visibility by Roberta F. Rodrigues for Forbes

• What the Knicks can learn from the WNBA champion Liberty by Fiifi Frimpong for the New York Daily News

• Who is Ellie the Elephant? A day with the New York Liberty icon by Jana Lee for ESPN

• VIDEO: Talking the Golden State Valkyries with Steve Jones Jr | On Veronica Burton, Natalie Nakase and more by Taka Kauri for Team Thirteen: A Valkyries Podcast

• Parenting and game plans: Inside Jenny Boucek's extraordinary basketball journey to the Pacers by Ramona Shelburne

• WNBA’s “Line ‘Em Up” initiative has league’s three-point line installed at outdoor courts around the country by Jackie Powell for NBC Sports

• Why Do Dads Watch TV Standing Up? by Josh Gondelman for GQ

• I’m fighting Parkinson’s one punch at a time by Bill Plaschke for the Los Angeles Times

⛹🏽‍♀️ UPCOMING GAMES

Here’s the schedule for the next few days (Eastern Standard Time)

💰 MONEY MOVES

MANAGING THE NEW SCHEDULE

The WNBA season is at a record high of 44 games in 2025. It’s been years in the making, and the W has progressively been adding games to the calendar since the collective bargaining agreement was signed in 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that we're at 44 games, discussions about how to prevent players from being overworked continue to arise.

On June 7, the Phoenix Mercury played their fifth game in nine days. They were home to take on the Seattle Storm, but fell short. After the game, the topic of scheduling came up.

"I think this is a conversation that could also be important for the next CBA,” Satou Sabally said in the postgame press conference. “Cathy [Englebert] added a lot of games, and for us as players, recovery is so important. We put our bodies on the line every single time. We had nine games in 18 days. That's not really responsible for a commissioner.”

At New York Liberty practice on June 9th, I spoke with Natasha Cloud, who spoke extensively about the issue and echoed Sabally's comments.

Following their win against the Chicago Sky on June 10, Breanna Stewart was asked about the issue and walked us through a bit of history along the way

A great deal has been written about the importance of rest and recovery in basketball. Players frequently travel across time zones, and having enough time in between games ensures their bodies are fully recovered for the next game. Injuries have increased across the league in recent years, and playing more games within a compressed timeframe only adds to that risk.

As we continue on the road to CBA negotiations, health and safety will play a significant role. Interest in the WNBA continues to grow, and as a result, fans want to see their favorite players and rising stars on the court every night.

That starts with ensuring they're as close to full strength as possible each time they step on the court. By expanding the season's length, it provides players with more consistent rest between games, while also helping to reduce the risk of overuse. And as teams continue to invest more, they can devote those resources to funding even better training staff who can aid in player recovery.

The WNBA has done a lot right in recent years as the league has expanded its footprint. There's still plenty of room to improve, and if they can fine-tune aspects like the schedule, they can reach even higher heights.

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