Warriors Urged to Consider Valkyries Coach as Steve Kerr's Replacement
The Golden State Valkyries have put together a historic 2025 season, and despite being just one loss away from getting knocked out of the playoffs, they have been the best story in sports this year.
The Valkyries have become the first expansion team in WNBA history to make the playoffs in their inaugural season. The Valkryies are starting to be recognized for their incredible season, as Veronica Burton won WNBA Most Improved Player of the Year on Monday, and head coach Natalie Nakase will likely be the next Golden State award winner.
Nakase's incredible season
Nakase is in her first year as a WNBA head coach after spending four seasons as a top assistant with the Las Vegas Aces under Becky Hammon. Even as a first-year head coach, Nakase has cemented herself as one of the top in the league, and after taking the Valkyries to a 23-21 record with a roster filled with players that other teams did not want, she is en route to winning Coach of the Year.
Nakase has been widely recognized as one of the league's top head coaches throughout her debut season, and the Valkyries' management has received some well-deserved praise for the decision to hire her.
In our first season, she set the standard. Natalie Nakase is the Associated Press Coach of the Year after guiding the Valkyries to the playoffs in year one. pic.twitter.com/tagHwHO0bM
— Golden State Valkyries (@valkyries) September 12, 2025
From Valkyries to the NBA?
After such an incredible 2025 season with the Valkyries, the San Francisco Chronicle's Scott Ostler proposed a very interesting scenario. Since Joe Lacob owns the Valkyries and the Golden State Warriors, Ostler wonders if he is thinking ahead by having Nakase lined up to be Steve Kerr's successor.
Kerr is one of the NBA's oldest head coaches at 59 years old, and while retirement does not seem to be an option for him right now, he could be considering it in a couple of years. Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Jimmy Butler's contracts will all be up by the 2027 NBA offseason, which could raise a scenario where they all retire together at that point.
"In a stroke of genius, Lacob might have already hired Steve Kerr's successor," Ostler wrote. "...Natalie Nakase, the coach of the Golden State Valkyries, would need to move her stuff down the hall — and a few light-years."
Nakase has NBA experience, as she spent a handful of years with the LA Clippers organization before being hired by the Aces as an assistant. While Ostler admitted that this idea is a long shot, he proposes it as a way for Nakase to be a trailblazer, as she would become the first woman head coach in NBA history.
Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase receives a warm welcome at Chase Center 💜 pic.twitter.com/OsW3YeqfPY
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) October 12, 2024
If Lacob had the opportunity to replace Kerr with the league's first woman head coach, Ostler believes he would do it, as it is a much-needed step the league needs to make eventually.
Nakase's former boss, Becky Hammon, spent years as a top assistant with the San Antonio Spurs, and many assumed she would eventually be the first woman head coach in the NBA, but Nakase could unexpectedly be the one to break that barrier, with the help of Joe Lacob.
“Nakase may have already done enough with the Valkyries to convince Lacob,” Ostler continued. “Having been an assistant with both the NBA's Clippers and the WNBA’s Aces, she took a team of castoffs, gave them a game plan and an attitude, and made it work.”
Of course, this would not just be a move that the Warriors make just to say that they hired the first woman head coach in league history, but Nakase is legitimately an incredible coach. Of course, she needs some more years under her belt to truly prove herself, but this is an incredible proposal by Ostler.
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