Will 2 Thibaults Plus 1 Stanley Equal a Championship for the Washington Mystics?
The Washington Mystics are currently the No. 1 team in the WNBA, but none of their players were No. 1 draft picks. In fact, they have just two lottery (top-4) picks to go along with six late first-round picks, three second-round picks and one undrafted player. But if you were to hold a draft of all of the WNBA’s current coaches, Washington’s Mike Thibault, Marianne Stanley, and Eric Thibault would all be picked pretty quickly.
Mike Thibault is the winningest coach in WNBA history, with a record of 334–242 in 17 seasons in Connecticut and Washington. He is a 3-time WNBA Coach of the Year (and could add a fourth award this season) as well as a 2-time NBA champion as an assistant coach. Stanley was the Mystics’ head coach in 2002 and 2003 and has been a college or professional coach every year except one since 1977. And Eric is a rising star in the profession who, according to his father, has already turned down one WNBA head coaching job to stay with the Mystics. In its seventh season together, this coaching staff has figured out a winning formula that relies not on drafting the consensus top players, but on finding players that fit the staff’s vision, improve during their time in Washington, and rise to the challenge whenever their names are called.
Mike Thibault arrived in Washington after 10 seasons with the Connecticut Sun. The Sun fired him despite making the playoffs eight times and reaching two WNBA Finals during his tenure, and the Mystics quickly hired him to replace Trudi Lacey, who had posted a 11–57 record in two seasons. One of Thibault’s first jobs was to assemble his coaching staff. Despite the Mystics’ abysmal record in 2010 and 2011, Thibault set his sights on one coach from Lacey’s staff: Stanley. Stanley was in her second stint with the Mystics, having rejoined the organization in 2010, and she and Thibault had known each other for a while. “It’s kind of funny,” Thibault recalled. “… I always used to kid with her when I was in Connecticut that someday we would end up working together. Who knew?”
But Stanley took some convincing to join Thibault’s staff. According to Thibault, because the Lacey years had been so difficult, Stanley wasn’t sure that she wanted to stay in Washington. But Thibault managed to sell her on his vision for the team and how things would be different. “I think it’s turned out well,” he said, his voice betraying no hint of how much of an understatement that is. Stanley spends a lot of time working with the team’s post players, including MVP candidate Elena Delle Donne and second-year forward Myisha Hines-Allen, and game-planning for future opponents.
Thibault’s son and associate head coach, Eric, called Stanley “the encyclopedia of women’s basketball.” He explained, “She’s been in our league, she’s been in the college ranks, there’s probably no situation … she hasn’t had experience with. So especially when you’re hitting some bumps in the road, it’s just so valuable to have that type of person.”
It’s not always easy for assistant coaches to adjust to having a new boss — or for former head coaches to slide over to the second chair. But Stanley says she enjoys working under Thibault for several reasons: “He’s got a lot of experience, I think he’s open to other ideas — he’s very collegial in that way — and so it makes for a great work atmosphere.”
Along with Stanley, Eric Thibault also joined the Mystics’ staff in 2013. He had been primarily a college coach until then, including at Virginia Commonwealth University about two hours from Washington. But he’d also spent his summers helping his father’s Sun teams with scouting and individual workouts and knew the professional game well. With the Mystics, he can frequently be found reviewing film with individual players, including Delle Donne and wing Ariel Atkins, before games and after practices.
Both Thibaults put a lot of thought into the decision to bring Eric on board, including whether players would buy into working with the then-25-year-old coach’s son. Mike Thibault even asked some of his former Sun players for their opinions. “They said I was crazy if I didn’t hire him,” the elder Thibault said. He heeded their advice, and Eric said that the Mystics players accepted him from the start: “I always credit Ivory Latta especially and Mo Currie for just really just not ever making it an issue. … Ivory was the new signing and kind of the new face of the franchise, and she was great with me from day one. So that really made it easy.” Mike added, “When players who are older than [Eric] respect him and see him as a viable coach, I think that’s probably the greatest compliment you can give.”
The partnership has worked well for all parties: father, son, and team. Mike Thibault said, “It’s a great deal when you can go to work with your son every day and have both a dad relationship and a coach relationship.” Eric echoed that and explained how the familial ties affect their working relationship: “It’s good because there’s a certain level of trust there that allows us to say things probably more openly and frankly to each other than [if we were not family] … Hopefully that helps the rest of the staff be the same way.” The flip side is that when they disagree, their arguments can also be more animated, but, according to Mike, that is “only because we’re both comfortable with it and we don’t get hurt feelings.” Eric said, “I probably get to say some things to him that maybe I wouldn’t say to a normal boss. Because he knows where I’m coming from.”
And, of course, the Mystics organization appreciates the on-court results. The turnaround began with a 17–17 record in 2013, a 12-win improvement over the previous season. In just the past two seasons, the team has twice set a franchise record for wins, advanced to the WNBA Finals in 2018, and has clinched a top-two playoff seed and a bye to the semifinals in 2019. Stanley summed up the Mystics’ winning culture: “We’re very invested in each other both on and off the court. The growth that we seek for our players to develop is both as people and as basketball players … What I love about our group … [is] that we’re very collaborative, and we share ideas and then we get out and get to work. And it’s all about, how do we put the best product on the floor every day[?] … That’s a fun place to be in.”
Mystics fans hope that Washington will be a fun place for the current coaching staff to remain for quite a while, but 2019 might be their best shot at a championship. Nearly half of the current roster will enter free agency in 2020, and as the team’s general manager as well as its head coach, Mike Thibault will likely have some tough decisions to make to stay under the salary cap. In addition, while Thibault, who will turn 69 this month, and Stanley, 65, haven’t publicly discussed retirement, both could conceivably close out their careers within the next few seasons. Stanley could also opt to pursue another head coaching job; she told Her Hoop Stats that she “would welcome that opportunity if it came” but is currently happy with the Mystics. Eric, too, could also be on the short list for future WNBA openings and might opt to coach against his father if the opportunity feels right.
However the future plays out for the Mystics’ coaching staff, it’s worth appreciating what they’ve brought to the WNBA over the past six-plus seasons. They have completely turned around a franchise that had more seasons with fewer than ten wins (four) than winning seasons (three) between its inaugural season in 1998 and 2012. They’ve also brought an unprecedented amount of experience and knowledge to Washington: combined, they have nearly 100 years of coaching experience across college, WNBA, NBA, and Olympic basketball, and two of them (Mike Thibault three times and Stanley in 2002) have won WNBA Coach of the Year. Together, they could secure the one piece of hardware none of the trio have: a WNBA championship.
If you like this content, please support our work at Her Hoop Stats by subscribing for just $20 a year. Thibault’s coaching record reflects games through September 5, 2019.
