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The subsequent constructing block is in place for the Golden State Valkyries.
The WNBA enlargement workforce introduced Thursday the inaugural head coach will likely be Natalie Nakase, who simply accomplished her third season as a Las Vegas Aces assistant.
Nakase joins normal supervisor Ohemaa Nyanin and president Jess Smith in Golden State’s management group. The Valkyries will start play within the upcoming 2025 season. Their first alternative to construct their roster will come on Dec. 6 within the league’s enlargement draft.
When she was introduced as the overall supervisor, Nyanin stated, “For the coach, I’m simply on the lookout for an individual who’s unafraid to embrace the unknown, that has a historical past of understanding the sport and simply empathy and openness to develop on this area.”
Nyanin stated Thursday the teaching search included worldwide, collegiate {and professional} candidates.
“Why Natalie? She is extraordinarily pushed,” Nyanin stated. “She’s a unifier. By means of the interview course of, she had a give attention to surrounding herself with a various teaching employees that will be capable to develop and preserve belief for all of our future athletes. She’s a poised, arduous employee.”
Nyanin additionally highlighted Nakase’s “inquisitive” attributes, saying the coach “likes to ask questions on how and why issues are occurring, which I believe is a vital trait for constructing one thing from scratch.”
Nakase has an extended, adorned basketball resume in California and has constantly sought out new challenges. She was a three-year starter at UCLA after strolling on as a freshman after which performed two seasons within the now-defunct Nationwide Girls’s Basketball League, together with one for the San Jose Spiders.
After retiring because of accidents, she coached in Germany and the highest Japanese males’s league earlier than returning to the U.S. to intern for the LA Clippers. She finally rose to grow to be a Clippers assistant coach beneath Doc Rivers earlier than leaving to affix Becky Hammon in Las Vegas, the place she received two titles.
Now, Nakase takes over the pinnacle job for California’s latest franchise.
“Natalie has performed an enormous function in our Aces’ success during the last three years,” Hammon stated. “Her shiny thoughts, relentless work ethic and talent to construct relationships with our gamers has had a long-lasting influence on not simply our group, gamers and employees but in addition all through the Las Vegas neighborhood. We want her the very best in her subsequent nice alternative as the primary head coach of the Golden State Valkyries.”
Aces gamers have credited Nakase’s work ethic and a spotlight to element. Hammon referred to as her “an ideal basketball thoughts” and has relied on her to assist lead drills in observe and shootarounds alongside fellow assistant coach Tyler Marsh. Nakase labored frequently with Jackie Younger within the offseason previous to her second-team All-WNBA season in 2023.
She’ll have a clean slate in Golden State and should foster comparable participant growth trajectories for the Valkyries to realize proprietor Joe Lacob’s objective of profitable a championship inside 5 years. Though that is her first time stateside as a head coach, Nakase was one of the vital enticing names on the teaching market.
Normal managers recognized her as one to look at in The Athletic’s nameless ballot final season, and she or he was beforehand a finalist for the Phoenix Mercury emptiness in 2022. The Valkyries additionally took Nakase off the market 4 days after the Aces’ season ended, earlier than different groups with openings, together with the native Los Angeles Sparks, might rent her.
Her absence will essentially change the make-up of the Aces — Hammon was already lamenting how totally different the locker room would take care of Las Vegas misplaced within the WNBA semifinals — however that is the championship expertise and recent perspective that Golden State stated it desired.
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(Picture: Garrett Ellwood / NBAE by way of Getty Pictures)
