Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- The Golden State Valkyries have improved to fifth in points per game and third in offensive rating through their first two games this season.
- Janelle Salaun is leading the team with 8.0 3-point attempts per game and a strong 56.3 percent shooting rate from beyond the arc.
- The team's success hinges on whether Kayla Thornton and Gabby Williams can sustain their current 3-point shooting percentages.
Last season, the Golden State Valkyries shocked the WNBA by making the playoffs as an expansion team, with the team's ability to find international players playing a big role in that. But despite the success, one thing stuck out as an issue: Golden State was 10th of the league's 13 teams in points per game and ranked last in field goal percentage and 11th in 3-point percentage.
I was suspicious of Golden State's ability to fix those issues this offseason, and the moves they made didn't inspire a ton of confidence in that. Gabby Williams was a strong addition, but her career has been full of streaky shooting. However, Golden State appears to be on the right track here.
Golden State's offense is humming so far
Look: a two-game sample size is very small. We can't draw anything too conclusive from it. With that said, the early returns for Golden State on the offensive end are looking pretty good.
The team sits fifth in points per game and third in offensive rating. The first is especially impressive when you factor in that, just like last season, the Valkyries sit last in the league in pace. This team plays slow and methodically, but in 2025 it suffered from an inability to make shots to maximize that play style. This season has, thus far, been different.
Improved 3-point shooting has been a key part of this.
Season | 3P% | League Rank |
|---|---|---|
2025 | 32.5 | 11th |
2026 | 40.0 | 3rd |
Again, TWO GAME SAMPLE, but the team is letting it fly from deep in a way that feels like it might work. Three players are taking at least seven 3-point attempts per game, led by 8.0 attempts per game so far for Janelle Salaun. She's almost doubling her attemtps from last season and while it's hard to imagine her 56.3 percent 3-point percentage being maintainable, her 36.6 percent mark last season inspires confidence that she can be around a 40 percent shooter.
That ability to stretch the floor with a big is huge, because it's going to allow to clear out space for Laeticia Amihere to work inside. While she's come off the bench in both games so far, I would expect her to replace Kiah Stokes in the starting lineup soon. She already played more than her against the Mercury.
The downside here is that the Valkyries are counting on Kayla Thornton and Gabby Williams to keep shooting well, which feels a little more speculative than Salaun. Thornton is shooting 42.9 percent from deep at the moment, but she's a career 32.1 percent shooter from deep, while Williams is a career 27.8 percent shooter from deep who is at 35.7 percent right now. You need at least one of those players to keep this current pace up if you really want to say the offense has "solved" its issue.
But the early results show promise, and if this holds up, Golden State has a good shot to not only make a return trip to the postseason but to be in the race for homecourt in the first round.
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