The Golden State Valkyries were not supposed to be in this position.
They are in just their second year as a franchise and yet are playing in the WNBA Finals. It's a shocking trajectory up from the bottom to the very top of the sport. And to get there, they defeated the team that was supposed to be on that trajectory (Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings) and the defending champions (5-time MVP A'ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces).
How did they do it? By identifying the players that other teams didn't want and putting them in a position to succeed. And the bitter pain for the Wings and the Aces is that the Valkyries took those players from their very own rosters.
The Valkyries took the Wings' castoffs
Kaila Charles has been a key rotation player for the Valkyries all season long, playing in all 44 games and starting 11 times. The 6'1" wing is not a knockdown shooter, nor an adept playmaker, but she does all of the little things that help drive winning as a role player.
That lack of a single undeniable skill bounced her around the league to start her career. She caught on with the Dallas Wings for training camp in 2025, then played the waived - re-signed - waived game as they suffered injuries over the next couple of months. On June 30, 2025, she was waived for good.
That is when the Valkyries scooped her up, signing her first to a few 7-day contracts and ultimately to a rest-of-season contract. Her locker room presence and competitive fire made her a favorite of head coach Natalie Nakase and her teammates, and she was signed to a new two-year deal this summer.
Charles averaged more than 23 minutes per game in taking down the team that cut here in the first round.
All-Star point guard Veronica Burton was also a Dallas castoff. A first-round pick of the Wings in 2022, she spent two seasons with the team before they waived her outright just prior to the 2024 season. She caught on a few months later with the Connecticut Sun, from where she was plucked in the expansion draft.
Burton was not an All-Star player in Dallas, but this ability was clearly inside of her, waiting to be unlocked. The Wings failed at the task and cut her loose; the Valkyries have helped her find it, and she has absolutely thrived. Burton has played and started all 44 games each of her two seasons in Golden State, received a vote for Defensive Player of the Year this season, and hit some absolutely massive shots during this postseason run.
Dallas just didn't want her.
The Aces gave Golden State some players
The Valkyries did not have the best player on the court in their second-round sweep of the defending champion Las Vegas Aces. For all that Gabby Williams may have outplayed A'ja Wilson, the truest reason that Golden State beat Vegas was their superior depth.
The Aces won the 2025 title, then lost a number of role players this summer as they reconfigured the roster around their three stars. That included saying goodbye to Kiah Stokes, a three-time champion with Las Vegas who often started beside Wilson at center.
Head coach Natalie Nakase, formerly an assistant with Las Vegas, called and recruited Stokes to come to the Valkyries. Whether the Aces didn't offer enough to keep her, or the role was better with Golden State, she walked away in free agency and is now starting in the WNBA Finals for the second consecutive season.
It is very possible the Valkyries don't get to this point without Stokes, who started 43 games for Golden State this season as an All-Defense level center. Her defense on Wilson all series long stymied the MVP.
In a closely contested Game 2 victory, Stokes had the game-sealing block in the closing seconds. In the clinching Game 3, Stokes went 5-for-5 with 10 rebounds, two steals and three blocks. She was the primary defender on Wilson, who shot just 6-of-19 from the field, as she was unable to lead the Aces to a single win in the series.
Tiffany Hayes won Sixth Woman of the Year for the Aces in 2024, playing alongside Stokes and the Vegas stars. Instead of returning to the Aces or retiring, Nakase recruited her to come start something new in San Francisco. Fast forward two seasons, and Hayes dropped 21 points on her former team in Game 2.
Nearly everyone on the Valkyries was unwanted by other teams in the WNBA. Gabby Williams was rejected by the Chicago Sky to start her career. Kayla Thornton and starting forward Cecilia Zandalasini were scooped up in the expansion draft. No one signed French big Janelle Salaun until the Valkyries scooped her up; she just won Sixth Woman of the Year. Even spark plug backup point guard Kaitlyn Chen was a third-round pick.
The Valkyries built the best team in the WNBA by taking the players other teams didn't want and building something great with them. And it's bitter irony for the two teams that they defeated; the Valkyries quite literally could not have done it without them.
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