Valkyries Debut Season Sets Stage for Free-Agent Buzz

There was an audible sigh from the crowd at the SAP Center in San Jose on Wednesday after Cecilia Zandalasini’s elbow jumper clanked off the back of the rim as time expired. The Golden State Valkyries were officially eliminated from the playoffs, swept by the top-seeded Minnesota Lynx in the first round, despite holding a double-digit lead entering the fourth quarter.

But it took only a few seconds before the Valkyries crowd changed its tune. 

As Zandalasini’s teammates picked her up off the ground, the Ballhalla crowd—one that had to transfer to the SAP Center from the Chase Center in San Francisco for Game 2 due to a schedule conflict—showered the Valkyries players with cheers.

Golden State, the WNBA’s first expansion team since 2008, was not supposed to reach the playoffs. No other expansion team had ever qualified for the postseason, yet they were inches away from pushing the title favorites to the brink. 

The team’s unprecedented success makes owner Joe Lacob’s lofty preseason ambitions much more realistic. Newly crowned Coach of the Year Natalie Nakase said last year that Lacob challenged her to win a title in the team’s first five seasons. That marker hasn’t changed. 

“He was super impressed with our season. He said a lot of positive words. … But he knows the goal is the goal: We’ve got to win a championship in five years. I love that challenge. I wanted to win this year so, to me, I disappointed myself,” Nakase said Wednesday following the loss.

Offseason Sales Pitch

Golden State’s first season will be difficult to ignore as the WNBA enters its most consequential offseason in history. The majority of the league will be free agents, including all but two Valkyries players, as the league and union attempt to agree on a new CBA expected to exponentially increase player salaries.

The Valkyries will offer free agents a chance to play under Nakase, who WNBA Most Improved Player Veronica Burton said “changed my career.” Nakase, who was an assistant with the Las Vegas Aces when they won two championships in 2022 and 2023, has garnered respect around the league following her first season as a head coach.

“You can definitely tell that they’re well-coached. … They just play hard. Like really, really, really hard,” Minnesota Lynx wing Kayla McBride, a five-time All-Star, said after the game.

Free agents will also be able to play games at the ultra-modern Chase Center (launched in 2019), which was sold out for every game this season. They will also practice at the newly renovated Sephora Performance Center in Oakland, which was previously occupied by the NBA’s Warriors, whom Lacob also owns.

“The energy and the atmosphere in there is amazing. It’s so great to play in there, especially as an expansion team,” McBride said.

The organization made so much noise in its first season that execs from other expansion teams are changing their own expectations. 

“It’s very interesting how successful the Valkyries have been this year when that traditionally had not been done,” Allison Howard, president of Cleveland WNBA, told Front Office Sports last month. “Before, we thought: It’s going to take us two, three-plus years to be really competitive on the court now. Because of what’s going on in the Bay Area, we can continue to raise the bar on our expectations there, too.”