The Phoenix Mercury announced Sunday they fired head coach Vanessa Nygaard amid a 2-10 start to the 2023 WNBA season.
Nikki Blue will coach the team on an interim basis. Nygaard leaves with a 17-31 overall record during her season and a half in charge.
She was dealt an almost impossible hand before the 2022 season even tipped off.
No coach can plan for one of their best players to be wrongfully detained in a foreign country. Beyond Brittney Griner's value on the court, her plight weighed heavily on the minds of her teammates.
Then came drama of much lesser significance.
Tina Charles appeared in 16 games before pushing for her exit. Diana Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith got into an argument on the bench during a game. Diggins-Smith appeared to call Nygaard a clown on social media after the coach emphasized how she thought Taurasi was snubbed for the 2022 All-Star Game, which many read as downplaying Diggins-Smith actually earning a sixth All-Star nod.
Bleacher Report @BleacherReportSkylar Diggins-Smith and Diana Taurasi had to be separated after a heated exchange on the bench. <a href="">
The pressure to win was squarely on Nygaard heading into Year 2, and the way this season has unfolded left the front office with little choice.
The Mercury have the WNBA's worst net rating (minus-13.0) by a fairly sizable margin, per WNBA.com. The Washington Mystics are 11th at minus-9.3.
Phoenix maintains a bottom-half offense despite Griner performing at an elite level. The veteran center is averaging 19.1 points and shooting 61.8 percent from the field.
The only surprise is that Mercury team governor Mat Ishbia waited this long to initiate a coaching change considering he hasn't been shy about wielding his influence on the Phoenix Suns since assuming control of that franchise.
The team's results could improve with a new voice in the locker room, but Nygaard isn't the sole reason for Phoenix's dreadful record.
The 41-year-old Taurasi is continuing to show her age. She's averaging 15 points per game with a true shooting percentage (50.1) that's on pace to be her worst over a full season, per Basketball Reference.
Diggins-Smith remains out of action after announcing last fall she was pregnant, and Moriah Jefferson simply doesn't possess the same kind of offensive ceiling in her place.
Phoenix doesn't have a lot in the way of perimeter defending. The Seattle Storm earned a 23-point win Saturday and shot 13-of-32 from three-point range in what was Nygaard's last game.
Under normal circumstances, you might expect Blue to finish out the year in an interim role before a full coaching search is launched. The Mercury's win-now timeline might lead general manager Jim Pitman to eventually tab a more experienced replacement in the hope of salvaging something from this year.
