Many teams upgraded their rosters for the upcoming season, with the Aces, Liberty, and Fever cracking the top five starting lineups for 2026. Expansion teams also showed their thirst with strong expansion draft picks and free-agent signings. One team that quietly made strong moves in the off-season is the Golden State Valkyries, and coach Natalie Nakase is ready to set a high standard for the new side.
Even though the team lost many veterans from the 2025 lineup, the front office managed to add a few strong candidates to replace them, making the head coach happy with the selections. In the recent interview, she even spoke about the Valkyries’ goal for the 2026 season.
Natalie Nakase Sets Goal For Valkyries’ Players
The 2025 expansion team created history with a qualification in the postseason. Coach Nakase won the AP Coach Of The Year award for the incredible season, and Veronica Burton also won the Most Improved Player award. But now in ‘year 2’, the coach gets realistic as she speaks on the goal for the season.
Talking about the aim for the 2026 season, Nakase said, “So for year 2, we understand that after a successful year one, nothing carries over. Not one basket, not one award, Nothing. So, for us, our goal for the season is to win the championship. Here at Golden State, that’s the standard, that’s the expectation.”
Natalie Nakase has one goal for the @valkyries this season 👀 pic.twitter.com/wcgzkNwTcr
— WNBA (@WNBA) April 30, 2026
Interestingly, during the offseason interview, Nakase shrugs off owner Joe Lacob’s “title in five years” mandate, and now she is targeting a championship in year 2.
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Also, the coach had been very straightforward about her words as she famously mentioned that winning coach of the year means nothing to her, unless she wins a championship. Still, the coach looks at two particular players to make the dream come true for the franchise.
Natalie Nakase Singles Out Veronica Burton And Kaitlyne Chen
The Valkyries had been a surprising challenger in the 2025 season, and now, with a championship in mind, they will go all in. The former Aces’ assistant coach sees fire in Veronica Burton and Kaitlyn Chn as she spoke highly about them in a recent interview after the practice session.
“They come right back at me. I think the trust there is [that] they’re screaming right back at me, very quickly. Especially on the court, me and Kaitlyn got into it a little bit– which is fine because we were both passionate about what we want to do in terms of winning. And so I love those conversations. I actually like it like that,” Coach said.
Not much from Valkyries practice but I thought Natalie Nakase’s explanation for how she challenges players is interesting.
— Kenzo Fukuda (@kenzofuku) April 29, 2026
“How can I press them in terms of correcting this, or if they're not correcting it, how can they I push them to put them in a tough situation in the game.” pic.twitter.com/CrLv60pfvQ
Chen was one of the players who had limited gametime in the 2025 season and will be looking to make the most of the opportunity now, while Burto would love to change the MOP award to the MVP Award with a solid outing in the season.