WNBA coaching candidates – Who could be the next coach of the New York Liberty and Phoenix Mercury?

A very busy Monday in the WNBA offseason ended with two head coaching vacancies. First came the news that Walt Hopkins was out as the New York Liberty’s head coach after two seasons. A few hours later, the Phoenix Mercury announced Sandy Brondello was out after eight seasons, despite having just led her team to the WNBA Finals.

The Liberty are coming off a 12-20 season in which they nabbed the last spot in the playoffs. There are good building blocks to work with in New York, including forwards Natasha Howard and 2021 Rookie of the Year Michaela Onyenwere, wing Betnijah Laney and guard Sabrina Ionescu.

The Liberty and the Mercury are both original WNBA franchises, dating to the league’s beginning in 1997. The Liberty came into the league affiliated with the Knicks organization, but now are with the Brooklyn Nets under owner Joseph Tsai, who hired Hopkins in January 2020. New York has never won a championship.

Phoenix has won three WNBA titles, the most recent in 2014, which was Brondello’s first season as Mercury coach. She led Phoenix to the playoffs in all eight of her seasons, but with Diana Taurasi at age 39, and Brittney Griner and Skylar Diggins-Smith both 31, a window is closing. The Mercury fell 3-1 to the Chicago Sky in the WNBA Finals in October.

One coaching position already has been filled in the offseason, as former WNBA player Tanisha Wright took over the Atlanta Dream after being an assistant with the Las Vegas Aces. What will the Liberty and Mercury be looking for in their hires? We take a look at some possible candidates.

New York Liberty

Teresa Weatherspoon: The former Liberty guard is probably the most popular player in franchise history, competing in New York from 1997 to 2003. She also worked for the Liberty in a coaching and…