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Multiple Contributors
Oct 23, 2024, 05:10 PM ET
The Washington Mystics parted with coach Eric Thibault and general manager Mike Thibault on Wednesday. There are now five coaching openings among the 13 WNBA teams that will play in 2025, plus two more for the expansion teams that will join the league in 2026.
Each of the four teams in the Nov. 17 draft lottery (5 p.m. ET, ESPN) are currently without coaches: Washington, the Chicago Sky, the Dallas Wings and the Los Angeles Sparks. The Atlanta Dream, who made the playoffs as the No. 8 seed, are also looking for a new coach.
Washington and Dallas also need to hire general managers. With the draft lottery looming — not to mention the expansion draft for the Golden State Valkyries on Dec. 6 — big decisions will need to be made for every team in the next few weeks, including by some that don’t have the standard brain trust in place.
The Mystics’ greatest success — capped by the 2019 WNBA title — came during Mike Thibault’s time as coach/GM, which began in 2013. His son, Eric, was promoted from an assistant role to head coach in 2023. Mike Thibault was frank before this season started that the Mystics were in a rebuilding period, and it wasn’t a surprise when Washington missed the playoffs. But an 0-12 start this season and Eric Thibault’s 33-47 two-season record wasn’t enough for Mystics management.
What do the changes mean for the Mystics’ future? What do we make of more than one-third of head-coaching positions in the WNBA being open? ESPN’s Alexa Philippou, Kevin Pelton and Michael Voepel look at the league’s coaching situation.
Was this move surprising?
Philippou: Somewhat. The Mystics didn’t make the playoffs this season, and Eric Thibault’s two-year record wasn’t stellar. But the Mystics dealt with a litany of injuries over the past two years, and the organization was resetting after the departures of Natasha Cloud and Elena Delle Donne. Their 0-12 start was rough, but they were still one game out of making the 2024 playoffs.
This move is more about the Mystics’ future than single-season results. With both Thibaults gone, this is a complete organizational reset meant to keep the Mystics competitive and ahead of the curve amid the WNBA’s exponential growth spurt, a source close to the situation told ESPN. Franchises such as the Las Vegas Aces, New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury and Seattle Storm have leveled up with an influx of talent and resources, and in some cases have adopted NBA styles of play or hired former NBA personnel. And a bar has been set among the new expansion teams, who will have their own practice facilities and with Warriors/Valkyries ownership publicly setting a goal of winning a championship in their first five years. That’s the standard the Mystics want to compete with or surpass moving forward, and they’re hoping an aligned philosophy with their new hires will help them achieve that.
Pelton: Yes, considering that I think the Thibaults left Washington in a pretty good spot long term with trades and player development. In addition to the Mystics’ own lottery pick, they also hold the No. 6 pick via trade, and they landed an extra 2026 second-round pick plus Sika Kone in the deadline deal that sent Myisha Hines-Allen to the Minnesota Lynx.
Kone, still just 22 on her third WNBA team, averaged 8.6 PPG and 4.3 RPG in 10 games in Washington. Emily Engstler, who is 24 and also on her third team, put up 9.0 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 2.8 APG and 2.0 BPG in September as the Mystics’ late push for a playoff spot fell just short. Add in recent first-round picks Shakira Austin and Aaliyah Edwards, and Washington’s next GM and coach will inherit plenty of interesting young players in the frontcourt.
Who made this decision?
Pelton: The Mystics have an unorthodox management structure as part of Monumental Sports, which also owns the NBA’s Wizards and the NHL’s Capitals. Michael Winger serves as Monumental’s president of basketball, which gives him oversight of both the Wizards and Mystics. Winger, who was quoted in the team’s news release Wednesday, is expected to take a larger role in the Mystics’ basketball operations, especially if the organization hires a young GM and/or head coach.
That’s a lot on Winger’s plate. In his more traditional role running the Wizards, he negotiated an extension for wing Corey Kispert and finalized the team’s roster for the start of the NBA regular season earlier this week.
Although there is some level of collaboration in other WNBA front offices that share ownership with NBA teams, the basketball operations departments universally operate independently. Washington is the only team where the same individual manages both the NBA and WNBA teams.
It will be interesting to see how Winger’s NBA background influences the Mystics’ search for a general manager and a coach. Before coming to Washington, he spent time with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Oklahoma City Thunder and LA Clippers. Winger’s network could lead him to coaches and executives with NBA experience, as we saw when new Phoenix Mercury GM Nick U’Ren hired longtime NBA assistant Nate Tibbetts as head coach last offseason.
What does this mean for the Mystics heading into 2025?
Voepel: For the past 12 seasons, Mike Thibault has made the personnel decisions for the franchise, coaching the Mystics for 10 of those years.
He has decades of experience in coaching, talent evaluating and running a business from his days in men’s and women’s basketball. That’s a lot to replace. And his replacement might not have the same kind of power to shape the franchise.
The Mystics also need to decide whether they will continue to play in 4,200-seat Entertainment & Sports Arena, which seems too small.
Philippou: Washington will have a busy next six weeks, all while looking to hire a new coach and GM. First up, they are participating in the draft lottery on Nov. 17, where they have a 10.4% chance of earning the No. 1 pick, which is presumed to be Paige Bueckers. They also have the Atlanta Dream’s No. 6 pick, which they acquired via trade. Building through the draft will be the central component to the Mystics’ future roster construction, a source told ESPN, and they will have an opportunity to further that goal this April.
Then the expansion draft for the Golden State Valkyries follows shortly after on Dec. 6, before which the organization will have to protect six of its players from being selected by the Valkyries — and it’s unlikely that a hire will be made before either of those events.
Washington’s roster seems poised for a stable offseason with a core of Ariel Atkins, Brittney Sykes, Stefanie Dolson, Karlie Samuelson, Austin and Edwards all under contract. Elena Delle Donne’s career in Washington and in the WNBA overall, though, remains unclear.
Still, this is a roster that could make the playoffs, especially if the Mystics have better health luck. But then things will reset in 2026 with the majority of the league hitting free agency — then it’ll be fascinating to see how Winger and the Mystics’ front office can compete with the rest of the league and attempt to shape the franchise in their vision with so much essentially starting from scratch.
With at least six new coaches on the way, what will this mean for the league in 2025?
Voepel: On the plus side, it indicates that franchises are seeing success in other franchises — and the higher profile of the league itself — and want to get in on it. But quick fixes aren’t easy to come by.
The 2022 and 2023 champion Las Vegas Aces’ success was set up by the franchise’s terrible run (23-79) in its last three seasons in San Antonio. That produced three consecutive No. 1 draft picks (Kelsey Plum, A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young) from 2017 to 2019. Becky Hammon has done well in her three seasons as Aces coach, but she would be the first to credit those players.
The Liberty also cratered from 2018 to 2020 — going 19-71 — and during that period got new ownership (2019) and No. 1 draft pick Sabrina Ionescu (2020), which helped make the franchise a destination team. That brought past MVPs Breanna Stewart in free agency and Jonquel Jones via requested trade to New York. Sandy Brondello was the right coach to tie it all together the past three years, but the larger point remains: There’s only so much a coach can do without a winning combination of talent.
