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The next building block is in place for the Golden State Valkyries.

The WNBA expansion team announced Thursday the inaugural head coach will be Natalie Nakase, who just completed her third season as a Las Vegas Aces assistant.

Nakase joins general manager Ohemaa Nyanin and president Jess Smith in Golden State’s leadership group. The Valkyries will begin play in the upcoming 2025 season. Their first opportunity to build their roster will come on Dec. 6 in the league’s expansion draft.

When she was announced as the general manager, Nyanin said, “For the coach, I’m just looking for a person who is unafraid to embrace the unknown, that has a history of understanding the game and just empathy and openness to grow in this space.”

Nyanin said Thursday the coaching search included international, collegiate and professional candidates.

“Why Natalie? She is extremely driven,” Nyanin said. “She’s a unifier. Through the interview process, she had a focus on surrounding herself with a diverse coaching staff that would be able to develop and maintain trust for all of our future athletes. She’s a poised, hard worker.”

Nyanin also highlighted Nakase’s “inquisitive” attributes, saying the coach “loves to ask questions about how and why things are happening, which I think is an important trait for building something from scratch.”

Nakase has a long, decorated basketball resume in California and has consistently sought out new challenges. She was a three-year starter at UCLA after walking on as a freshman and then played two seasons in the now-defunct National Women’s Basketball League, including one for the San Jose Spiders.

After retiring due to injuries, she coached in Germany and the top Japanese men’s league before returning to the U.S. to intern for the LA Clippers. She eventually rose to become a Clippers assistant coach under Doc Rivers before leaving to join Becky Hammon in Las Vegas, where she won two titles.

Now, Nakase takes over the head job for California’s newest franchise.

“Natalie has played a huge role in our Aces’ success over the last three years,” Hammon said. “Her bright mind, relentless work ethic and ability to build relationships with our players has had a lasting impact on not just our organization, players and staff but also throughout the Las Vegas community. We wish her the best in her next great opportunity as the first head coach of the Golden State Valkyries.”

Aces players have credited Nakase’s work ethic and attention to detail. Hammon called her “a great basketball mind” and has relied on her to help lead drills in practice and shootarounds alongside fellow assistant coach Tyler Marsh. Nakase worked regularly with Jackie Young in the offseason prior to her second-team All-WNBA season in 2023.

She’ll have a blank slate in Golden State and will have to foster similar player development trajectories for the Valkyries to achieve owner Joe Lacob’s goal of winning a championship within five years. Even though this is her first time stateside as a head coach, Nakase was one of the most attractive names on the coaching market.

General managers identified her as one to watch in ’s anonymous poll last season, and she was previously a finalist for the Phoenix Mercury vacancy in 2022. The Valkyries also took Nakase off the market four days after the Aces’ season ended, before other teams with openings, including the local Los Angeles Sparks, could hire her.

Her absence will fundamentally change the makeup of the Aces — Hammon was already lamenting how different the locker room would look after Las Vegas lost in the WNBA semifinals — but this is the championship experience and fresh perspective that Golden State said it desired.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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