The All-WNBA Teams were filled with plenty of expected names. A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart headlined the first team along with Kelsey Mitchell, Olivia Miles, and Caitlin Clark. Angel Reese, Rhyne Howard, Jackie Young, Paige Bueckers, and Shakira Austin made the All-WNBA Second Team.
Two things stand out here: Three of the five players on the All-WNBA First Team didn’t even make it past the first round of the playoffs, and the Golden State Valkyries are suspiciously absent from both teams despite making it to the finals. Votes are sent in before the playoffs, but it’s still a curious look when Gabby Williams and the Valkyries are battling the Atlanta Dream in the finals right now as the No.2 seed without a single top-ten player in the league this season.
There are two ways to look at the situation. Either voters underestimated Gabby Williams, favoring bigger names over her and weighing her light minutes load during the regular season heavily, or it’s a nod to the Valkyries’ depth, coaching, and strength-in-numbers identity.
Either way, the All-WNBA results make the Valkyries’ playoff run even more impressive. Not only did they reach true title contention in just their second year of existence—faster than any other expansion team—but they also did it without a single contributor voters deemed a top-ten all-around player.
This is only the fourth time in WNBA history that a team with no All-WNBA selections made it to the finals. The Charlotte Sting were the first to do it in 2001. The Sacramento Monarchs followed in 2006 and then the Chicago Sky in 2014. In over a decade, no team without an All-WNBA talent had made it to the finals. That just shows how extraordinary this Valkyries season has been.
All-WNBA honors obviously don’t automatically translate to playoff success
Players can have great individual seasons on bad teams. For example, Paige Bueckers made the All-WNBA Second Team last year, even though the Wings finished with the worst record in the league.
This year, every player on an All-WNBA team made it to the playoffs. Still, great regular seasons and individual honors don’t always lead to postseason success either. The Fever, for example, have two players on the first team but couldn’t even advance to the second round. The Aces have one player on each team, but lost to the Valkyries.
At least the Valkyries got plenty of recognition for their defense
The Valkyries may not have had representation on the All-WNBA teams, but they dominated the All-Defensive team voting. Gabby Williams made the first team as the runner-up in Defensive Player of the Year voting, and Veronica Burton and Kiah Stokes made the second team.
Defense has always been the Valkyries’ recipe for success, and it continues to be just that in the finals. They just held the Dream to 62 points in the finals, and Stokes already set a new record for total blocks in a finals run.
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