The New York Liberty reportedly landed a boss, with multiple sources linking longtime Golden State Warriors assistant coach Chris DeMarco to the 2024 WNBA champions' head coaching vacancy late last week.

After first joining the Warriors as an intern in 2012, the 40-year-old worked through the Golden State ranks to serve in both an assistant and player development capacity for the NBA side.

Exiting as as front-of-bench assistant, DeMarco aided the team to an impressive four NBA championships (2015, 2017, 2018, 2022) during his tenure.

DeMarco also has experience on the international sideline, leading the Bahama men's national team from June 2019 until August 2025.

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Recent WNBA hiring trends have favored NBA vets, with Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Alex Sarama recently named head coach of 2026 expansion side Portland while Seattle tapped former Memphis Grizzlies assistant Sonia Raman as the Storm's new sideline leader.

According to ESPN, additional top candidates for the New York Liberty opening vacated by now-Toronto Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello included Toronto Raptors assistant Jama Mahlalela, ex-Brooklyn Nets and current Charlotte Hornets assistant Will Weaver, and former assistant to the NBA's Washington Wizards and Dallas Mavericks Kristi Toliver, the current associate head coach for the Phoenix Mercury.

As all but two Liberty players enter free agency, New York is aiming to keep stars like Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and Sabrina Ionescu on its roster — with the hiring of DeMarco potentially playing game-changer in some of those contract negotiations.

ESPN reported that Bay Area product Ionescu apparently reached out to Golden State Warriors icon Steph Curry to ask about DeMarco as part of the hiring process.

The New York Liberty cleaned house this week, officially parting ways with 2024 WNBA championship-winning head coach Sandy Brondello while starting the search for a new sideline boss — with some reported "big swings" in mind.

Multiple league sources told The Athletic that New York is aiming for high-profile candidates, with the Liberty likely scouting coaching talent from both the NBA and the NCAA.

With top New York Liberty stars Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, and Jonquel Jones entering free agency, the pressure is on for the front office to prove that hiring a new head coach will offset the issues that emerged during the team's injury-plagued 2025 run.

WNBA teams have tapped into a diversified head coaching pool in recent years, with Golden State Valkyries boss and 2025 Coach of the Year Natalie Nakase highlighting a rising generation of managers with a mix of men's and women's basketball experience.

The Atlanta Dream's Karl Smesko, an esteemed former college coach, and Phoenix's Nate Tibbetts — who spent years as an NBA assistant coach before joining the Mercury in 2024 — also found success on the WNBA court this year.

Potential replacements fitting New York's reported bill include Los Angeles Lakers assistant Lindsey Harding, Indiana Pacers assistant Jenny Boucek, Mercury assistant Kristi Toliver, and current Liberty assistant Sonia Raman.

"[Toliver's] ready," Tibbetts said recently, singing his assistant's praises. "She's got a great basketball mind. She's got the ultimate respect of the players in this league, which is so important, and her time will come — she just needs one team to give her a chance."

Kristi Toliver is joining the WNBA coaching ranks for the 2024 season as associate head coach for the Phoenix Mercury.

A two-time WNBA champion and three-time All-Star, Toliver played for the Washington Mystics in the 2023 but tore her ACL in September. She has not formally announced her retirement, though her move to the Mercury bench would seem to signal a career transition.

Toliver, 36, brings ample WNBA experience to her new role as an assistant to Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts, who came to the team with no women’s basketball experience. Tibbetts was hired in October to succeed interim head coach Nikki Blue, who took the helm after Phoenix fired head coach Vanessa Nygaard in June.

In Toliver’s 14 seasons in the WNBA, she played for the Mystics, the Los Angeles Sparks and the Chicago Sky. She won titles with the Mystics in 2019 and with the Sparks in 2016, and she was named the WNBA’s Most Improved Player in 2012.

Toliver also brings coaching experience, as she spent four seasons as an NBA assistant coach. She became the first active WNBA player to do so in 2018, when she joined Scott Brooks’ staff with the Washington Wizards. And then she spent two seasons on Jason Kidd’s staff with the Dallas Mavericks.

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Kristi Toliver spent two years as an assistant coach for the NBA's Dallas Mavericks. (David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images)

With injured players making their returns to the court, the Washington Mystics look like a completely different team compared to just weeks ago.

For the first time since early June, Washington has a healthy roster. Elena Delle Donne and Shakira Austin, who both missed significant time with injuries, are back on the court. And in Tuesday’s 83-72 win over the Lynx, not a single name was listed on the injury report.

“It was just a really dope moment,” Natasha Cloud told the Washington Post. “We’ve been through f—ing hell.

“It was a rough month and a half [of] playing down numbers, playing crazy lineups, having to adjust in a lot of minutes. So just to have everyone back [when] we’re making this playoff push and we’re really starting to peak and putting some wins together, it’s like the sweetest moment of the season for me right now.”

Kristi Toliver also made her return Tuesday, playing for the first time since June 16 after suffering from plantar fasciitis. And while Toliver, Delle Donne, Austin and Ariel Atkins remain on minute restrictions, it’s a step in the right direction.

With Tuesday’s win, the Mystics leapfrogged the Lynx into the fifth playoff spot. The Mystics (17-18) now hold a half-game lead on Minnesota and Atlanta with five games left in the regular season.

“It’s huge,” Brittney Sykes said of the win. “No, seriously, it is really big. We don’t want to get too caught up in looking ahead or thinking about, ‘Oh, well, if these teams win, if we win it, if we lose, they lose’ — it’s literally controlling our controllables.”

Of course, the team still has to juggle its returning players and monitor their progress. But the Mystics could be coming together at just the right time.

“It was good to have options,” head coach Eric Thibault said. “It feels a little choppy yet, kind of because I’m putting people in and yanking them out. We didn’t get a great rhythm, but we made some shots. Made some shots late in the clock, which was probably the difference in the game. We’ve been on the wrong end of a couple of those. We kept defending. I don’t know if we win this game earlier in the season.”

Kristi Toliver has a new gig.

The Dallas Mavericks have hired the two-time WNBA champion as an assistant coach. Toliver previously spent parts of two seasons as an assistant on the Washington Wizards’ staff.

Toliver’s current contract with the Los Angeles Sparks runs through the 2022 season. The job would not impact her WNBA playing career.

Toliver, 34, has averaged 9.5 points and 2.9 assists in 16 games for the Sparks this season. The guard, in her 12th season in the WNBA, signed a three-year contract with the Sparks last year after winning a title with the Washington Mystics. She played her first games with the team this year after opting out of the 2020 bubble season.

Toliver tweeted on Thursday that she was “thankful for this opportunity and can’t wait to get to work.”