Writing for The Steinline, Jake Fischer reports Thursday that the New York Liberty coaching search has narrowed to three candidates, including former Brooklyn Nets and Houston Rockets assistant Will Weaver as well as Toronto Raptors assistant Jama Mahlalela and Phoenix Mercury assistant coach and former WNBA All-Star Kristi Tolliver.
NetsDaily’s Lucas Kaplan confirmed the report.The Liberty are expected to make final decision soon, perhaps as early as next week.
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There’s no indication that any of the three — only one of whom has W NBA experience — have the inside track although Fischer reported that Mahlalela met with Clara Wu Tsai two days ago when the Raptors visited Barclays Center.
Sources say that, while Toronto was in Brooklyn recently to play the Nets, Mahlalela had the opportunity to meet with Liberty co-owner Clara Wu Tsai.
It would be irregular timing for an NBA assistant coach to leave a franchise so early in the season, but the Raptors obviously know of Mahlalela’s standing in the Liberty’s process.
Wu Tsai is leading the search with GM Jonathan Kolb. The Libs declined to renew the contract of head coach Sandy Brondello in September, a year after she had led New York to its first WNBA championship.
Of Weaver, Fischer wrote:
Weaver was on Jacque Vaughn‘s Brooklyn coaching staff and thus has familiarity with Liberty ownership. He’s currently a coaching consultant to Charles Lee with Charlotte, similar to the positions former NBA head coaches Steve Clifford and Mike D’Antoni held with Brooklyn when Hornets GM Jeff Peterson was in the Nets’ front office.
Weaver has a lengthy resume’ in the NBA and overseas but no WNBA experience.
The Texas native began as a special assistant to Kenny Atkinson in 2016, ultimately rising to assistant coach, then head coach of the Long Island Nets in 2018-19. Weaver took Long Island to the G League Finals and being named G League Coach of the Year.
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Weaver, currently 41, spent three seasons on the Philadelphia 76ers staff, first as a video coordinator and basketball operations assistant and then as special assistant to the head coach (2014-16). He also served as an assistant coach for two seasons with the Houston Rockets.
In his head coaching role, Weaver worked for a season as the head coach of the Sydney Kings in Australia’s NBL, where he led the Kings to a first place finish in the regular season and a trip to the Finals. Most recently, Weaver served as head coach of Paris Basketball in LNB Pro A, France’s first division.
Mahlalela, 45, is a Swazi-Canadian basketball coach, currently an assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors. Previously he has served as the head coach of Raptors 905 of the NBA G League and an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors. He too as no WNBA experience.
He was named director of basketball operations for NBA Asia in 2009 and oversaw the League’s clinics, youth programs and elite-level development from his base in Hong Kong. Mahlalela began his tenure as an assistant coach with in the 2013–14 NBA season, then spent two seasons with the Raptors 905 before returning to the big club in Toronto.
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Tolliver, 38, has the only WNBA experience of the three both on the court and on the bench but like the two male candidates, Tolliver also has experience as an NBA assistant, having served three years in Washington with the Wizards and another two with the Dallas Mavericks, The Phoenix Mercury named Toliver an associate head coach in December 2023.
She has an extensive resume’ as a player both at Maryland where she won a national championship hitting a game tying jumper to force the title game into overtimes. In the W, Tolliver won two championships with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2016 then again with the Washington Mystics in 2019. She also won four straight Russian national championships with Moscow Dynamo and UMMC Ekaterinaburg.
As a WNBA player, Tolliver played 14 years, was a three-time All-Star, a one-time All-WNBA selection, the Most Improved Player in 2012.
