How the Valkyries made it to the WNBA Finals ... just two years after their debut

As a general rule, expansion teams aren't really supposed to be very good right away. Sure, the initial player draft offers a chance to assess the league's potentially undervalued and overlooked players on the off chance of finding a hidden treasure, but from there, contention usually requires a lot of patience: A bunch of losing seasons provide the high draft picks to slowly accumulate talent, with a legitimate chance to contend finally waiting at the end of that long building process.