Congratulations to the Golden State Valkyries’ Veronica Burton, the 2025 WNBA Most Improved Player.
After posting career highs in points (11.9), rebounds (4.4), assists (6.0) and steals (1.1) per game in her fourth WNBA season, Burton won the award in resounding fashion, earning 68 of 72 first-place votes. The Los Angeles Sparks’ Azurá Stevens finished second with two first place votes, while the Atlanta Dream’s Allisha Gray and Minnesota Lynx’s Natisha Hiedeman each received one vote.
Burton’s award-winning improvement is exemplary of what makes WNBA players special, where adversity becomes opportunity and, eventually, acclaim.
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Cut by the Dallas Wings two seasons after she was drafted her No. 7 overall in the 2022 WNBA Draft, Burton was picked up by the Connecticut Sun early in the 2024 season, cracking the rotation of one the league’s best teams as a defensive-minded reserve guard. It then was surprising that Sun did not choose to protect Burton in the Golden State expansion draft, but that misevaluation was a boon for the Valkyries—and for Burton.
Before she would suit up for the WNBA’s newest team, she took her talents Down Under, joining the WNBL’s Bendigo Spirit. As our Łukasz Muniowski documented, Burton flourished for the eventual WNBL champions, posting 15 points, almost five assists and more than two steals per game. The reps she gained as a primary playmaker proved valuable, an evident deposit into her development bank that paid off when she earned the starting job in Golden State.
And the improvement did not end there.
Over the course of the season, Burton assumed greater responsibility for the Valkyries, but as she did, her diligence as a point-of-attack defender did not diminish with her expanding offensive obligations. Burton thrived with the burden of being the Valkyries’ best player. After the All-Star break, when Golden State went 13-9 to become to first WNBA expansion team to earn a playoff berth, Burton played nearly 30 minutes per night, netting almost 13 points, 6.7 assists, 4.6 rebounds and more than a steal per game. That stretch included the high point of her season, when she had 30 points, six 3s, seven assists, seven rebounds and a steal in a win over the Washington Mystics, a masterful display of her progress that our Zack Ward was lucky enough to witness.
Burton will receive a trophy, as well as a prize of $5,510, to commemorate her achievement.
