Who Should the Golden State Valkyries Hire for Head Coach?

From the moment that the Golden State Valkyries expansion team was announced, there has been no shortage of news off the court. The team quickly took on a large number of ticket deposits on their launch day and that number has continued to grow even before more active marketing. Off to a good start on the business side, the team has hired a number of executives with a variety of success and experience around the sports industry. With this WNBA season in full swing though, the big question remains who will fill the important roles on the basketball side. The first piece to the puzzle was unveiled in May when the team announced the hire of Ohemaa Nyanin as General Manager after she had spent five years as the assistant GM of the New York Liberty. Today, the person reporting to her as vice president was announced as Vanja Cernevic, the first woman to be a scout in the NBA, joined having just succeeded in putting together a continental championship winning team for London Lions. While she has no direct WNBA experience, she did work on the girls’ side of the NBA Academy program, in addition to international and NBA experience. The next big hire will be the team’s head coach and there are many paths that could be followed.

Managment History

The Valkyries may be a new team, but they are part of an established organization, possibly showing a blueprint of what direction the team could take. The Golden State Warriors have had three chances to hire a head coach since the group led by Joe Lacob and Peter Guber took control. The first hire was not really much of an indicator of their intentions as assistant coach Keith Smart had to be elevated quickly after Don Nelson’s departure shortly before the season. Their other two hires, Mark Jackson and Steve Kerr, were more unexpected choices that helped the team win.

With the NBA championships won during the Steve Kerr era, there were immediately a lot of questions about how ambitious the Valkyries would be and Joe Lacob immediately put out a goal of a WNBA championship before 2030. For a team starting from scratch, head coach figures to decision that could make that seem more possible or prevent that dream from being a reality. Based on that goal, it would seem likely that the team would be willing to spend a significant salary on getting the coach that they want. Coaching salary is a complicated topic in the WNBA, especially given recent growth. After Mat Ishbia took control of the Phoenix Mercury, he made it clear that his first head coaching hire would have the highest salary in the league. Given the existing payscale, he ended up choosing someone who almost certainly would not have taken the position at a lower salary in Nate Tibbetts, but that created great controversy given his lack of women’s basketball experience.

A budget to hire the head coach is only part of building the staff and history from the Warriors has shown that a commitment to a large assistant coaching budget is important, especially if the head coach is not as experienced. Different head coaches will approach filling those assistant slots in different ways, but the Valkyries should be expected to pursue strong options for their entire staff. Given that the team is completely new, being able to bring in significant WNBA experience for multiple parts of the staff will help build a culture that can also help them in free agency, when players might feel that they are making a career gamble by joining the expansion team.

There is no doubt that the Valkyries could go with an unexpected choice with little coaching or WNBA experience as the organization has a track record of success down that path. Broadcasters and former players could certainly enter the mix, especially with the trend across all American sports, and increasingly global sports, to hire younger head coaches who are willing to embrace the most current trends in their profession. Outside of the less predictable options, there are some more traditional categories of coaching candidate that could be pursued.

WNBA Experience

One path to quick championship contention would be to bring in a proven head coach with a history of WNBA success, but there are not many options in that category right now. While Curt Miller recently made the move from Connecticut to Los Angeles, a similar move is unlikely to be repeated. The current successful coaches seem very entrenched in their positions and other coaches seem to have some question marks and the Valkyries would not want to bail out another team and make their fans happy about a potential coaching upgrade. When it comes to successful coaches who are not employed by any team right now, they are generally outside the ideal age range and some of them were having doubts raised about their continued capability by the end of their careers.

A promising WNBA assistant coach would also be an appealing option, but there are varying levels of experience there as well. Atlanta assistant Vickie Johnson and Minnesota assistant Katie Smith both had coaching experience before landing head coach positions that ultimately did not work out, but those experiences and more time as assistants may position them to succeed at their next opportunity. Plenty of players are touted as future coaches while they are still playing and then transition quickly to their next career. Connecticut assistant Briann January spent some time with college programs during the offseason as a player and then immediately took on a WNBA role after hanging up her sneakers. Phoenix lead assistant Kristi Toliver got that role after her playing career, but she had already spent years working her way up as an NBA assistant in the offseason. Another candidate with a variety of coaching experience is Las Vegas assistant Natalie Nakase, whose time in a winning culture could be beneficial along with NBA and overseas experience. In terms of experience, it would be hard to match Shelley Patterson at Washington, who has been an assistant coach for nearly every season in the history of the WNBA and this might be the last chance she could have to be a head coach.

Other Professional Experience

There were two new WNBA head coaching hires made in the offseason and neither of them had any WNBA coaching experience, instead most recently holding NBA assistant roles. The controversy after the hiring of Nate Tibbetts may not be something that teams want repeated anytime soon. The other coach hired was Teresa Weatherspoon, who did have WNBA playing experience and women’s college basketball coaching experience, and early returns are positive for her.

There are three women who are full assistant coaches on NBA teams right now, although Brittni Donaldson does not have women’s basketball coaching experience. Lindsey Harding, who recently interviewed for an NBA head coaching position as a current G League head coach after years as an NBA assistant, had a WNBA career, but only has brief experience in coaching on the women’s side with the national teams of South Sudan and Mexico. Jenny Boucek currently has the most prominent role as a front of the bench assistant, but she also had two WNBA head coaching stints that were ultimately unsuccessful. A candidate that might be of interest to this organization is Sonia Raman, whose coaching experience came at the NCAA Women’s DIII level before being hired by the Memphis Grizzlies, due to her reputation on the analytics side.

While NBA teams have made an effort to have at least one assistant coach from outside North America or with primarily international experience, early attempts to hire head coaches with that background have not paid off immediately yet. Based on that, it would seem to be an unlikely path on the WNBA side, but one major difference is the number of WNBA players who have overseas club experience from their offseasons, meaning that many top players have familiarity with the top coaches and vice versa.

In the recent past, Spanish coach Roberto Iniguez would certainly have been a candidate to make the crossover, but the timing might not be right for that now. Another interesting name would be Serbia’s head coach Marina Maljkovic, who has had quite a successful career with club experience in a number of different countries while still being very young. Given that the WNBA has a foreign head coach with over a decade of experience and a championship in Sandy Brondello, the team could also look at her husband Olaf Lange, who has lengthy WNBA assistant experience, but whose head coaching experience came overseas, although it has been a few years since his last gig there. Another option where the timing might not work out is Germany head coach Lisa Thomaidis, who helped their national team break through after a long tenure with Canada’s national team and time as a college head coach there.

College Coaching

Due to the large number of familiar names, any head coach opening in the WNBA will draw suggestions of active college head coaches. Even with the increased resources available in the league, college head coaching salaries also continue to rise and, with long term contracts with significant buyout provisions usually in play, this continues to be an unlikely source for the team’s first hire. Historically, compensation is not the only factor in coaches staying in college as the greater control of rosters and not having to deal with a front office have been appealing. The changes in college rules with money being a factor and greater player movement could lead to more successful college coaches not hanging around as long. It is still difficult to see a scenario of a college coach demonstrating success, sitting in the right age range, and having some indicators that they would be successful at the WNBA level combining with an interest in making the move for this to be the ultimate direction.

Timing

In terms of public comments, the team has been clear that the coaching search would start once the basketball operations side started being filled so it is no surprise that a few rumors started as soon as Ohemaa Nyanin was named GM. With the WNBA about to take their Olympic break, there is certainly a period where interviewing current assistant coaches would make sense so more news could be on its way. If the choice ends up being actively involved with a WNBA team, that could delay the announcement to after that team’s season ends, but an assistant coach could conceivably be announced while completing the season in their role. Most other candidates would not have such restrictions and could be hired and announced shortly after the decision-making process.