SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - MAY 31: Kiah Stokes #41 of the Golden State Valkyries shoots against the Las Vegas Aces in the first quarter at Chase Center on May 31, 2026 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
The following story ran in collaboration with Mission Local on July 16, 2026.
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INDIANAPOLIS — Kiah Stokes knows she is quiet. She has never considered herself a vocal leader, so when Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase told her she needs to command the defense, it didn’t come naturally.
Halfway through her first season in Golden State, Stokes has found her voice, and that’s a big reason they have the league’s best defense.
“Our coaching staff basically tells me like, no, you need to tell them what you want them to do,” Stokes said before the Valkyries game in Indiana on Wednesday. “ Like tell them to wait on screens, tell them you want this. Tell them you have a high pass or a bounce pass. Like just tell them. So for me, it's more like just vocalizing what I want. That's just new to me.”
After the Valkyries win against Atlanta on June 26, Stokes joked that the guards started listening to her. She could then handle defending the rim and hit a season-high seven blocks.
“The way she protects the paint is great for us,” said guard Janelle Salaun. “Whenever someone gets past us we know we have Kiah behind us there. It helps you gain confidence in the defense.”
Stokes, 33, is making a case to be on the all-WNBA defensive team, a group of the league’s top10 defenders. She is second in the WNBA with 1.8 blocks per game, the most she’s had in a single season since her rookie year in 2015.
Stokes has made the all-defense team before – as a rookie in 2015 – and has won three WNBA titles, and was known as an elite defender on each of them. But after a rough time fitting into the scheme early, her consistency since those first few games have given the Valkyries a reliable post presence.
Even if she wasn’t originally the plan.
“She knew who she was,” said head coach Natalie Nakase. “I knew who she was too when we were in Vegas. You can see that type of trust that she has with our staff, but also her teammates..”
Stokes signed with the Valkyries expecting to be the backup center to Iliana Rupert, a 6-foot-4 post player who was more known for stretching the floor by shooting efficiently from 3-point range – a rarity for the position.
“(I’ve been surprised) by how well she shoots the damn ball,” said assistant coach Kasib Powell, who coaches the centers. “didn't know she was as talented as she is once she got here. So I think working with her, almost sometimes when she's doing things, you get goosebumps just realizing, wow, she had that much talent, and we get to get it out of her.”
As the backup, Stokes would have come in late in games to lock down defensively and play a similar style to how she has her whole career.
Then, the team announced Rupert was pregnant and would miss the season. Just days before their first game, Stokes found herself the consistent starting center for the first time since 2024.
“I understand a little more of what my teammates like, what they don't like,” Stokes said. “I try to get them in the best positions for them to score as well. I definitely feel like now that we're almost halfway through the season, I have a little more idea of what they want from me.”
Stokes is even contributing offensively. In the first 10 years of her career between New York and Las Vegas, she never scored more than 6.9 points per game or took more than 6.2 attempts per game. This season, her 3.7 points and 3.3 shots per game are both her most since 2020 with New York.
Her minutes in Las Vegas had gone down over the last three years and she averaged just 1.3 field goal attempts per game last year.
“We have the space, and so she understands that here we rely on you know quality spacing, but also attacking,” Nakase said. “So if she's attacking or killing, and she's popping, that's the shot that we want. She had this in Vegas. It's just we're putting her in an environment and spaces where we're kind of just allowing her to shine into the shots that she already knew how to play.”
As a comfortable member of the Valkyries’ starting contingent, Stokes is a big reason why the Valkyries have won eight games in a row.
She has a shot at being recognized as one of the best defenders on the best defensive team in the league, and using her voice, now the guards even listen to her, too.
“She was even telling the players, which I did not sign off on, to just pressure (opponents) and send them to the rim,” Nakase said with a laugh. “I'm like, that's not how we play defense! But the trust she’s earned from the players, that’s been really cool.”