If the history of sports has taught us anything it is that expansion franchises typically encounter their fair share of growing pains at the start of things.
One can expect the Golden State Valkyries to be no different. The Valkyries are looking ahead to their upcoming expansion draft in December and it was recently announced that the Valkyries will select fifth in the 2025 WNBA Draft.
In other words, Golden State is scheduled to have the first pick in said draft outside of the four lottery selections.
At the very least it appears that the Valkyries have its head on straight that established WNBA franchises could take some lessons from. Recently, it was announced that Natalie Nakase, who was a former assistant coach at the Las Vegas Aces, will be the head coach of the Valks.
This is a great hire on the part of Joe Lacob and Jess Smith. Nakase comes from the winning culture that has been established at the Aces. Not to mention she is Asian-American. There is a massive Asian population throughout the Bay Area, so this will certainly be a popular hire among locals.
But while the Valkyries appear to be staffing up, other WNBA franchises are looking more like expansion teams rather than the actual expansion team. As of this writing there are four – count it – four WNBA franchises that currently do not have head coaches. Three of those teams are a month away from taking part in next month’s draft lottery.
Those three are the Dallas Wings, Chicago Sky and Los Angeles Sparks. The other team that as of today is sans a head coach is the Atlanta Dream which barely qualified from the 2024 playoffs only for the New York Liberty to make short work of them in the first round.
The other team in that lottery is the Washington Mystics. Eric Thibault (son of general manager and former Washington coach Mike) was still the Mystics coach until recently when the organization let go of Eric as head coach and Mike as general manager.
Look at the now five teams currently without head coaches. The most egregious one is the Sky by a long shot. Teresa Weatherspoon was only in her first season as coach. She built a strong rapport with players including Angel Reese and Chennedy Carter and if not for injuries down the stretch to Reese, Carter and Kamilla Cardoso, the Sky probably qualify over the Dream for that eighth and final spot in the postseason.
All one had to do is look at Reese’s tweet after the news of Coach Spoon’s firing became public. She was heartbroken. Even when the Sky held its exit press conference after the season, virtually every player on that press conference had nothing but glowing words to say about Weatherspoon. The 2024 season was a very emotional and mentally draining one for Chicago and Spoon was the rock that kept those players protected and lifted every step of the way. Michael Alter and Jeff Pagliocca have some explaining to do. Pagliocca did not do a good job of explaining himself at the recent groundbreaking for the Sky’s practice facility.
Then – there is the matter of the Wings. Dallas has, for a long time, been a franchise, that has been susceptible to questionable front office moves. The 2024 season was the definition of riches to rags for the Wings. A year after qualifying for the WNBA semifinals, the Wings find themselves back to where they were for many years prior to 2023 – the draft lottery.
Dallas also recently let go of its coach – Latricia Trammell and Natasha Howard has all but tweeted following the season that 2024 will be her final season sporting blue and volt. In addition, Amber Cox left Dallas to take on a front office role at the Indiana Fever. At least the Wings have the upcoming move to Dallas proper coming in 2026, but Arike Ogunbowale, Teaira McCowan and Satou Sabally deserve to be centerpieces of a contending team.
Then – there is Atlanta. One can see why the Dream decided to part ways with Tanisha Wright. The 2024 season was very disappointing for the Dream. Yes, Tina Charles had a resurgent 2024 and proved that she can still play in the WNBA. But this was supposed to be a year where Atlanta took that next step to be part of the W’s upper echelon and instead Atlanta regressed.
And that did have to do somewhat with injuries, but it also had to do with questionable play on the Dream’s part. One could also tell as Wright was getting a bit testy with the media in some of her press conferences that she felt her seat getting hotter and hotter as the Dream continued to struggle.
Lastly, there is the Los Angeles Sparks. To Los Angeles’ credit, it has the building blocks to be a team of the future. Rickea Jackson may not have been as ballyhooed as Reese or Caitlin Clark when it comes to the Rookie of the Year conversation, but Jackson proved she did not lose a step since being selected second overall out of Tennessee.
Cameron Brink also showed herself to be ready for the W with her play on both ends of the floor before an ACL injury sidelined her for the season. The team that Curt Miller had at the beginning of his tenure with the Sparks was very different from the team he left the Sparks with.
The former team still had Nneka Ogwumike while this team is in a rebuild – one that plenty of Sparks fans are likely hoping results in JuJu Watkins sporting purple, gold and teal in 2027. And, of course, the Sparks are another team that has been rightfully taken to task regarding facilities as well.
That makes four teams sans head coaches in the WNBA – yet the expansion Golden State Valkyries have its and already are showing signs of being a more well-oiled machine than a few established franchises. Of course, that will certainly change once the Valkyries hit the court and encounter what will likely be some early stage growing pains.
But in comparison to a few franchises that have been around the block (including the Sparks which is an Original Eight franchise), the “ascent” of the Valkyries already appears more promising.
