Mercury HC Nate Tibbetts ready to go for his first season in WNBA

Phoenix Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts, guard Diana Taurasi, Natasha Cloud and forward Kahleah Copper having a conversation during the Mercury’s training camp in San Diego, Calif. © Phoenix Mercury

Bringing his 18 years of expertise to the Mercury, the South Dakota native wants to build chemistry and achieve success with his new team.

“We’ve got a great group of individual players, but over the course of this journey together, we need to figure it out,” Tibbetts said. “Our strengths, our weaknesses. That’s the fun part about coaching, that’s the fun part of being on a team is getting a group to a common goal and that’s to win a championship.”

For Taurasi specifically, the Mercury star is turning 42 on June 11 and will be a free agent after this season which could be her last. She scored 16.0 points, and had 4.3 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game in 26 games last year.

But with no signs of slowing down, however, she will help guide the Mercury this season and Tibbetts is ecstatic to work with her.

“It’s been amazing to see her work, I am just so thankful and glad I have the opportunity to see one of the greatest ever,” Tibbetts said. “She is a culture setter for how she goes about her business, it’s great for our young players to see. She’s had a tremendous offseason, give credit to her and how she has worked. She is ready to have an unbelievable year.”

During training camp, some players had season-long contracts and others were fighting for a roster spot. Unlike the NBA where there are 15 players per team, the “W” has just 12.

With the Mercury’s young players like Charisma Osbourne, Jaz Shelley and others not guaranteed to crack the roster, Tibbetts expressed that there is more meaning to Phoenix’s training camp when compared to others in the league.

“We have some roster spots we go get,” Tibbetts said. “Some of the WNBA training camps, rosters are already set. Now they have an opportunity to compete for something and that’s a position of need and we need them to step up for sure.”

Becoming reportedly the highest-paid coach in the WNBA last October, Tibbetts replaced Nikki Blue and Vanessa Nygaard after going 9-31 in 2023. Nygaard was fired only 12 games into last season after a 2-10 start.

As interest levels in the WNBA are skyrocketing, Tibbetts is glad to be involved in the growing sport and can’t wait to get started.

“It’s super exciting, it’s a great time to be involved in women’s sports in general,” Tibbetts said. “I just want to play a part and help push this forward. All the hard work has been done before this. This is great momentum and our team, our organization wants to help raise the level in every way that we can.”

The Mercury open up their 2024 schedule with a preseason matchup against the Seattle Storm on May 7 at 7 p.m. in Seattle.