The Phoenix Mercury are off to a dismal start to the 2023 season with a 2-10 record through their first dozen games. With the summer beginning to slip away from them, the club made the decision to fire head coach Vanessa Nygaard effectively immediately.

   “We have chosen to make a change at head coach,” Mercury GM Jim Pitman said in a statement. “We thank Vanessa Nygaard for the way she endured and managed the adversity of the last year-plus. Our organization and our fans have high expectations for this team, and we have not reached those with our performance this year.”

   Assistant coach Nikki Blue will assume the role of interim head coach for the remainder of the season, after which the club will evaluate options for a permanent replacement.

   The Mercury are currently riding a 5 game losing streak, and were recently drubbed 97-74 by the 2nd to last place Seattle Storm despite both Brittney Griner and Diana Taurasi returning from injury.

   The loss caused a visibly frustrated Griner to tell reporters “What’s happening isn’t going to cut it…It’s the first time I’ve ever had a record like this. It’s really frustrating.

I don’t know. I guess tear it down and rebuild it back up. I really don’t get it. It’s not going the way we want it to go. It’s not the Phoenix Mercury basketball we all know.”

   Nygaard, 48, joined the Mercury in January of 2022, where she helped the team navigate the challenging Griner detainment throughout the season. A former WNBA player herself, the Scottsdale, Arizona native came over from the Aces coaching staff where she was an assistant coach in 2021. With a 15-21 record amidst near constant turmoil last season, expectations for 2023 were much higher.

   The Mercury play host to the Dallas Wings on June 27th at 10pm ET in Coach Blue’s HC debut with the club.

Photo: Lorie Shaull. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

The post Phoenix Mercury Fire Vanessa Nygaard appeared first on Dynes Pressbox.