Report: Lynx beef up coaching staff, hire Lindsay Whalen, Eric Thibault
The biggest changes for the Minnesota Lynx this off-season seem to be coming off the court.
The WNBA Finals runner-ups made two big hires on Saturday, bringing in franchise legend Lindsay Whalen as an assistant coach and former Mystics head coach Eric Thibault as an associate head coach to help out reigning coach of the year Cheryl Reeve, per ESPN’s Alexa Philippou.
After losing in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals to the New York Liberty, associate head coach Katie Smith left for Ohio State and general manager Clare Duwelius joined the Unrivaled league.
Whalen, 42, is a Hall of Fame point guard who made her biggest marks playing for the dynastic Lynx of the 2010s, helping them to four WNBA titles from 2011-2017. She retired from the game in 2018 with four championship titles, five All-Star, five All-WNBA and three assist leader titles to her name.
“It just feels like it’s time to get back, work hard and be a part of a team and a group,” Whalen toldPhilippou. “It just all felt like the timing was really right.”
She averaged 11.5 points, 3.8 rebounds and 4.9 assists per game in 480 regular season appearances over 15 years between Minnesota and the Connecticut Sun. She was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022.
Prior to joining the Lynx, Whalen spent five seasons coaching the NCAA’s Minnesota Golden Gophers from 2018-2023, earning a 71-76 record before being fired.
Thibault, meanwhile, was one of the seven WNBA coaches fired this off-season. He was let go by the Washington Mystics following his second season in the head role, leading the team to a 14-26 record and fifth place in the Eastern Conference.
His father, Mike Thibault, is a well-renowned former WNBA coach. He spent 20 seasons in the league, winning coach of the year three times and taking home the championship in 2019 with the Mystics. Before taking the head job in Washington, Eric worked under his father from 2013-2022.
According to Philippou, Reeve said that Thibault has a “great feel” for the type of basketball she wants her team to play in Minnesota, as her five-out offence is similar to the one he ran in Washington.
“The Thibaults and the Whalens have always been very tight,” Thibault told Philippou. “Now we get to put our heads together and try to help Cheryl and the Lynx get back to being champions.”