After leading the Golden State Valkyries' historic inaugural season, Natalie Nakase has earned the 2025 WNBA Coach of the Year award, the league announced today.

In just her first season as a head coach, Nakase led the Valkyries to a 23-21 record, the most in WNBA history by an expansion team, as well as the eighth seed in the playoffs to become the first-ever expansion franchise to reach the postseason in their inaugural season.

With a team built entirely on talent scrounged together from an expansion draft, in which teams could protect six players, Nakase's squad became one of the best defenses in the league, ranking 3rd in defensive rating (99.8) and 1st in points allowed (76.3). At practice this week, the WNBA's most improved player of the year recipient, Veronica Burton, spoke

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