It’s not easy for anyone in the league to shut down A’ja Wilson, so it’s not fair to make declarative statements about the Valkyries season as a whole for their inability to stop her.

But allowing 38 points in the paint is still a concern and exposes the issue we already know they have: depth at center.

This was not supposed to be how the 2026 Valkyries were constructed. Iliana Rupert was going to start as a stretch five and Kiah Stokes would come off the bench as a defensive stopper.

But Rupert won’t play this season, and Stokes is starting. She has done well at points, leading the Valks with 4.1 defensive rebounds per game, and Laeticia Amihere has shown sparks off the bench, averaging 5.0 points and shooting 42.4% with a team-high plus-6.3.

“I'm always excited for another opportunity to compete as kind of player I am, I love to compete,” Amihere told Valkyries Beat. “I love to get down and nitty gritty, so yeah, another opportunity for me to just go out there and kind of like lock into that mentality of being the toughest worker out there.”

But there is still clearly an issue in the front court. The duo of Stokes and Amihere have played 293 minutes, 91.5% of the team’s total minutes.

“As the post group is kind of limited to me and her,” Amihere said. “We just spend a lot of time together in workouts and just trying to get better, and just going out there and kind of playing off of each other as well.”

They’ve gone with a small-ball set of Janelle Salaun and Kayla Thornton, which has played a total of 17 minutes and are a 0.0 plus-minus.

“A’ja is great, right?” Thornton said. “That’s who she is, so being undersized, I had to do a little more work and just kind of rely on helping my teammates, doing my work early. She gets what she gets, but you just got to play through it.”

There likely isn’t an overnight solution, but it’s the clear weakness for a team that has some depth, is the second-best defensive team in the league and a better scoring team than a season ago. So, what can be done?

Juste Jocyte

The best on-roster solution is getting the rookie involved. In her 26 total minutes, she has scored 4.3 points per game with 50% shooting and 1.7 assists. She is still a bit away from being in the regular rotation by the way Nakase has utilized her, but she will clearly be a huge part of the team at some point.

“She’s still four practices in so far and still letting her body adjust,” Nakase said. “We’re just easing her in because again, if I throw her out there and then all of a sudden she goes down, I’m gonna look in the mirror and be like, ‘What are we doing?’ I have to make sure we ease her in at the right time.”

A 6-foot-2, she is a big guard who can play physically and give the Valkyries a little more oomph from the backcourt like she did against Indiana.

Ashten Prechtel

On paper, the 6-foot-5 Prechtel is kind of similar to Stokes with a little more offensive potential. She works best as a defensive specialist in a hyper-specific role, but has never been an offensive threat

But in the WNBA, her Stanford defense hasn’t translated quite yet. She spent training camp with Phoenix before being cut and joining the Valkyries, where she has played just five minutes total. She probably isn’t a long-term solution or even short-term unless she hits a turning point.

Small ball

Salaun works best when she can be a pure wing and not worry about the extra defensive and rebounding responsibilities the Valkyries as her to do in the small-ball lineup. She is a +30 when on the floor with Amihere, the fifth-best duo on the team, but just a plus-2 with Stokes. Her and Thornton have combined as a plus-9 as a duo overall.

Thornton had her best game of the season against Las Vegas, scoring 12 points on 4-for-7 three-point shooting. Nakase even noted her ability to create spacing with her perimeter shooting helps every other area.

“What was great with KT is that she maintained her space,” Nakase said. “The way we were trying to ramp our defense up, I wanted to make sure that we got fresh bodies, but there was no way I even wanted to take KT out today.”

This lineup hasn’t worked yet. Perhaps Jocyte and Williams in the backcourt would put them in position to do better, but we’re yet to see it.

A trade?

A few weeks ago, Megan Gustafson might have been a player to target, but she’s thriving with the expansion Portland Fire.

Cameron Brink’s name keeps coming up, and the Sparks have frontcourt depth with Nneka Ogwumike and Dearica Hamby. But the Sparks are also in a weird place after a disappointing 4-4 start.

They have been awful defensively, and Brink is one of the only players producing on that side of the court for them.

The money would work to trade for Washington’s Shaika Austin due to their loaded, young frontcourt, but they did just sign her to a three-year deal after Toronto offer-sheeted her, so they might be reluctant to move her.