The Valkyries might lack “star power” in the traditional sense, but they have seven people who all have a legitimate chance at a postseason award. That makes sense for the team with the second-best record in the WNBA, of course.
All seven likely won’t win, but they do all have a case. Below, the team makes the argument for each of them.
Sixth Player of the Year: Janelle Salaun
Salaun has the most ironclad case of any award candidate. She leads the league in bench points with 12.9 per game.
“She’s a fighter,” Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase said of Salaun. “She wants to win at everything. She wants to win at a free throw game. She wants to win at a sprint. She wants to just win. Period. And I think kind of with that type of mentality, it pours into our team obviously because the level of competition is always high. She always wants to learn. She always wants to work on her moves.”
In her second WNBA season, Salaun has become more efficient despite playing fewer minutes than when she started in her rookie campaign. She’s shooting 39.7% from three on 6.1 attempts per game. ESPN notes that among bench players averaging at least five 3-point attempts per game, that’s the league’s best percentage.
She has come off the bench in all 38 games this season and is averaging 3.9 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 22.3 minutes. She is second on the Valkyries in scoring, behind only Gabby Williams.
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Defensive Player of the Year: Gabby Williams
Williams was second in the voting last year, but this year has been the leader of the best defense in the league.
A couple of factors hurt Williams’ case. First, the Valkyries have several great defenders. Then, her usage: Williams’ 24.8 minutes per game are the fewest for her since 2020, and the other candidates are relied on more heavily from that perspective.
But Golden State has built the league’s No. 1 defense, and Williams is its primary defensive stopper. She often takes the toughest assignment against the opposing team’s best player night after night.
“Gabby, she just causes havoc on the ball,” Nakase said. “She’s just relentless on the ball. Her length, her feet.”
Williams has a 98.3 individual defensive rating this season, according to StatMuse. She’s also produced 61 steals and six blocks while playing nearly 25 minutes per game.
Most Improved Player: Kaitlyn Chen
This is a crowded field, and Chen probably won’t win, but there is a case to be made that she should be in the top five, at least.
Her jump isn’t only in the box score since she went from a player who barely had a role as a rookie to a legitimate rotation piece who can change games offensively for one of the WNBA’s best teams.
“Kaitlyn has grown in her confidence,” said Valkyries guards coach, Ta’Shauna “Sugar” Rodgers. “She’s playing very well for us. She does exactly what we ask, but for her, just keep grinding, keep taking one day at a time.”
As a rookie in 2025, Chen averaged just 2.0 points, 0.9 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 10.3 minutes, appearing in 24 games. This season, she’s at 6.8 points, 1.1 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 14.8 minutes, while appearing in 40 games.
That’s a 240% increase in scoring while playing substantially more minutes. Chen also went from shooting 38.0% from the field and 33.3% from three as a rookie to 53.2% from the field and 40.0% from three this season. Her effective field-goal percentage has jumped from 43.0% to 58.5%.
She’s become dramatically more efficient with shots in addition to getting more of them.
All-Defensive Team: Williams, Veronica Burton, Kiah Stokes
These three should be locks between the two defensive teams. We’ve already made the case for Williams, so will stick to Burton and Stokes here.
Burton forces turnovers without gambling herself out of position. Burton has 60 steals and ranks third in the league in forced turnovers per game.
The shooting numbers against her are excellent. Opponents have posted a 47.6% effective field-goal percentage when Burton is the closest defender, 10th among players with at least 300 defended shot attempts, according to Yahoo Sports.
Golden State’s defense is exceptionally good with her on the court. The Valkyries have a 98.6 defensive rating in Burton’s minutes, the best mark in the league, according to Swish Appeal’s analysis.
Stokes ranks second in the WNBA in total blocks with 66, is tied for third at 1.7 blocks per game and she has recorded 10 games with at least three blocks, including a career-high seven against Atlanta on June 26.
“Kiah Stokes is our anchor,” Nakase said in August. “She is always there, no matter sometimes if she’s communicating or sometimes she just shows last minute and puts in a block. It’s almost like we are constantly always relying on Kiah, and she loves it. I think that’s the thing, is she loves to just not let anyone score, and when someone scores on her, she gets really, really pissed.”
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All-WNBA: Williams, Burton
Williams should be a first-team lock here as a candidate for the best defensive player in the league.
Burton is a tougher argument, but she is the starting point guard for the No. 2 seed in the WNBA, has a historically elite assist-to-turnover ratio and has improved on her Most Improved season from a year ago.
“She’s someone who makes her teammates better,” Williams told Valkyries Beat. “We obviously aren’t a team that stuffs the stat sheet because we are more focused on winning than individual accolades. So I think her stats don’t even really, even though she has amazing stats, especially if you look at her assistant turnover ratio. But I think it just doesn’t show just how much she makes everyone around her better.”
Golden State’s defense has been historically good, and Burton is one of its most important perimeter defenders. She has also been among the league leaders in forced turnovers and has regularly drawn difficult assignments against opposing guards.
That’s what makes her All-WNBA case stronger – she isn’t only an offensive point guard who happens to defend well. She’s an elite defensive guard who also happens to run an efficient offense.
Coach of the Year: Natalie Nakase
This really should be Nakase or Washington’s Sydney Johnson, who has led a young Mystics team to a surprise playoff appearance.
But opponents knew exactly what Golden State wanted to do. Yet the Valkyries have gone from an expansion playoff team to a team competing near the top of the standings.
“She always has a game plan,” Burton told Valkyries Beat. “Every single game I know what to expect going in, and I know what she wants of me, and I know what she expects of me, and so it’s really game-by-game focus, and I think it really helps me feel prepared going in.”
What’s remarkable is how many players contribute to it. When Golden State clinched its playoff spot, seven Valkyries ranked among the WNBA’s top 15 players in defensive rating, including Stokes, Cecilia Zandalasini, Laeticia Amihere, Burton, Kayla Thornton, Kaila Charles and Williams, and that speaks directly to coaching.
Nakase has created a system in which multiple players can defend, switch, communicate and rotate, rather than asking one player to clean up everyone else’s mistakes.
