A few weeks back, Natalie Nakase made a bold claim. She is getting more sleep than she did in her first season as the Valkyries head coach.
Kayla Thornton smiled at that suggestion, “I think we might need to check that.”
Nakase’s fundamentals have transitioned from season one. Last year, she was named the WNBA Coach of the Year after leading Golden State to the playoffs for the first time in league history as an expansion team. She was known for instilling a point guard mentality — get the ball and go — toughness, sky-high expectations, the commitment to defense, and of course, the cursing.
“That’s not going to change. Ever,” said point guard Veronica Burton. “Which is for the best.”
But the evolution is also becoming clear. Her demeanor seems more relaxed this year. She rarely answers a question with a question anymore, like, “What do you think?”
Now, for Nakase, what she thinks is what matters most.
“This is the kind of team I envisioned with defensive tenacity, having that energy, picking up 94 feet,” Nakase said after Golden State’s 78-58 win over Los Angeles on Monday night.
In addition to having more returners than any team in the WNBA, Nakase has a healthy roster to work with, if a little limited inside without Iliana Rupert. She is also making use of her team’s depth at some moments, while trusting her stalwarts in others, even if it annoys the fan base (i.e. Laeticia Amihere).
In Nakase’s world, the defense needs to lead to offense and many nights it does. But when it doesn’t — as it didn’t in the final quarter against Seattle on Friday night when the Valkyries were 1 of 16 from the floor — Nakase’s team had just enough poise and experience to win 76-72 anyway.
Winning on a night when you are not your best is the sign of a good team. But it also rankles Nakase.
Nakase has owned her team’s weak spots when they appear, such as the spotty 3-point defense and defensive rebounding or a lack of offensive flow. At various points, she has questioned whether she rolled out too much new terminology too quickly and whether her team was in good enough shape when they started the season. She takes personal responsibility for tough losses, even as she’s challenged her players to give more.
She challenged them after Seattle.
“We had an open, honest conversation the last two days about what each player needs to get that max effort, so I pushed some of those buttons,” Nakase said. “They told me what they needed and I did it. But it’s all about them responding. At the end of the day they are out there fighting, you know. We’re only saying the things that they wanted to hear.”
The Valkryies are in early playoff position with a 9-5 record after Monday’s 78-58 over Los Angeles, their third straight and the second in a run of four games over seven days. She is thinking hard about pacing her players. Because it’s not always about how hard you push.
“This four-in-seven is a first for me,” Nakase said. “This is about the mental focus. It’s not really about the physical. I think they have shown me and proved to me that we’re in really good shape. I’m pretty confident in the way we’ve planned our practices and the off-days in between.”
Golden State has already notched high-caliber wins this season, and their historic inaugural run last season ended with a first-round playoff loss to Minnesota. What gets lost in the haze is the fact that Golden State had four injured starters by the time they got to that final game. Nakase was forced to piece her lineup together at the most important point of the season. And that fact has informed Nakase’s biggest change in approach in year two.
“Everything last year was fast, fast, fast,” Nakase said. “I couldn’t take a breath. This year, we could actually look at the whole schedule and plan out the whole season. Last season, I don’t think I was super intentional in execution on my part, so now I’m aligned with the medical team in terms of usage and days on and days off.
“And I think that’s key because the priority is that everyone is healthy come playoff time,” she continued.
Burton said she sees Nakase “getting more and more comfortable” in her leadership.
“Just in terms of calling the shots, being direct, being super clear in what we want to be doing on both sides of the basketball,” Burton said. “I think our game plans are really clear and precise. And it’s been pretty cool to see.”
Burton also sees Nakase challenging her even more than she did a season ago when Burton went from an expansion draft pick to the league’s Most Improved Player.
“She is holding us to a high standard,” Burton said. “I feel like what Nat does best is bring the energy and the intensity and that was there last year, and it remains there. Everyone is more comfortable in the huddle. I think there’s more balance and communication, but the energy is still the same.”
“From the moment we came into training camp it was like, ‘We don’t have time to play around. We don’t have time to settle in,” Burton continued. “She’s been pushing us from day one and I think that is probably different than last year. Last year she was getting a feel for us and how we liked to be coached. This year is more of, ‘This is what I expect out of you and this is what’s going to happen.”
As far as whether Nakase is actually getting more sleep?
“I mean, I’m not getting texts from her at two in the morning anymore,” Burton said.
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