The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
GOOD FOLLOW - What Kind Of Coach Does The Liberty Need? Evaluating New WNBA Head Coaches & More!
28 Oct 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You're listening to DraftKings Network.
Welcome to Good Follow Show presented by DraftKings. I'm Roz Gold on Wood A. And I am here with five-time WNBA All-Star, two-time Olympic gold medalist, Angel McCautry. And you can see we're amped up. We got the practice clap going for any of my former athletes or fellow athletes. You know about the practice clap. Here we go.
Chapter 2: What new head coaches have been hired in the WNBA?
So here is the menu. A whole bunch of head coaches and new coaching hires have happened in the WNBA. We are going to evaluate them. And then we have a new game alert. We're going to build you a New York Liberty coach because they haven't yet hired theirs at the time of taping.
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All right, let's dive into this thing. Let's talk about these coaches. So in the past couple of weeks, we've seen the Seattle Storm, the Portland Fire, the Dallas Wings and the Toronto Tempo sign new head coaches. And that would just leave the New York Liberty as the only team with the remaining vacant head coaching position at the time of taping has not been named.
But we are going to break down all of the coaching hires that have come in. And let's start with the Dallas Wings. The new head coach is Jose Fernandez out of South Florida. He was there 25 seasons. He helped build USF into a consistent postseason threat. He has also worked with mid-range shooter Courtney Williams at USF, who's now in the WNBA. We all know her. Good friends with Gino Auriemma.
So first, Angel, let's just... Let's just start with like the number one draft pick that we have in the building here at Good Follow Show. You've lived that life as a former number one pick. What does Paige Beckers need right now in year two from her head coach?
She needs a coach with head coaching experience. And Jose Fernandez has that. He's been a head coach for 25 years. She needs a coach who's going to communicate with her and build around her and ask her questions. what she wants. You know, when I was in Atlanta, I was never asked like, what do you need to be successful? That's what you have to do with your franchise players.
There has to be a dynamic of communication. And hopefully, Jose has already called. Paige had a meeting, getting to know her, building that relationship. My only concern is Jose has never had pro experience. Okay. And with not having pro experience, you cannot treat these grown women who have graduated college like college players. You have to treat it like a pro level.
So hopefully he'll kind of come in understanding that. I've known Jose for many years. I played against him way back in the Big East when I used to score 40 on USF. He remembers. But he is a respected coach and he's very likable. You've never heard anything bad about Coach Jose. So I'm really hoping that this could be a great dynamic Now, a good hire doesn't mean success, right?
I feel like all these coaches are good hires, but which coaches can be successful? And that's what we can dive into.
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Chapter 3: What does Paige Bueckers need from her new coach?
And I mean, even beyond the fact that there's just historical significance of her being an Indian head coach of Indian descent and Indian American, I'm talking about what's up here and everything that she's experienced and the resume. She's smart. This is somebody who has a reputation for X's and O's analytics, player development. I mean, even beyond basketball stuff.
I mean, there's someone that in the real world understands there's an emotional IQ and intellectual IQ that comes with being a lawyer or being a Tufts graduate, or there's also a passion and a heart aspect of being a walk on onto Tufts. And she's had, you know, difficulties in her life and has overcome them. Um, And then at MIT to have collegiate sex. She's worked her way up the ranks.
And the NBA experience she has. Think about coaches that have had NBA experience and have done well in the WNBA now. Becky Hammond. Natalie Nakase. So, you know, and the players like her. John Morant took to Twitter from the Memphis Grizzlies to show her some love. He was on Twitter. That's huge. Yeah. Liberty players went all over social media to congratulate her. She has a lot of respect.
But, you know, I want to come back to the first point you made about just the representation aspect, too. At the moment, there are no black female head coaches in the WNBA, which has been a big deal for a lot of people. It's a very black female league. But there has been representation in other ways. Natalie Nakase, Asian-American head coach.
Now you've got Sonia Raman, who is an Indian-American, Indian descent head coach, first ever in the WNBA as well. That's so important. What does that mean for you?
It means a lot. I mean, the more diversity... the better. I remember when I played in Atlanta, we had a lot of Brazilians on our team. So we had such a big Brazilian fan base. Even today, if you look at my analytics on social media, I have a lot of Brazilian fans just from playing with Brazilian players. So that diversity helps with the league.
We need more international eyes on the WNBA and it helps.
I think she's going to need like a good former Hooper with like elite level experience. Could even be a you, but like, I know you're still playing, but But like, you know, someone who has lived that life, who understands, I mean, not that she doesn't understand, but just that extra voice on the bench.
And also I feel like, you know, for Seattle, it's going to be important to reset culture and expectations. This is a legacy franchise in the Seattle storm. championships after championships. This is what they're used to. And lately, they haven't been that. And actually, culturally, there have been public issues for players wanting out, whether it was Alicia Clark, Jewel Lloyd.
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Chapter 4: How will Sonia Raman impact the Seattle Storm?
So you want to change it to fits go crazy fashion?
Fits go crazy. I agree that fits and fashion are important, especially in today's WNBA, the tunnel walk-in, and for New York, babe. Come on, nothing's bigger than New York's sparkling lights and Barclays Center in Brooklyn. It's a star-studded event. You know, Sandy got a stylist for this past season. Did you notice she was looking extra fly this season? This has gotten serious. No, she did.
And it was like, it was fun for her. Although that's a little bit outside of her comfort zone. She had her stylist. So come on, coach. You got the pressure. The bar has been set. However, I'm not going to use a dollar for any of those things. Although I also think it's important that this person can handle New York media and not blunder the moment, but still not that. I'm in the $3 and $5 range.
Wow. For me at the $5 range, I think basketball IQ is more important to me than championship experience. You can put that experience on the coaching staff. All that they're talking about, they're looking for a more innovative approach. They've got all the talent in the world. The Liberty roster is stacked. Now it's about how do we put this together? Those girls have basketball IQ, Roz.
Somebody's got to draw the plays, babe. I'm going IQ for five. Thank you. And I'm looking at the $3 level experience in women's basketball, former WNBA player, head coaching experience. I do think head coaching experience is going to be important here because this is a very veteran group. But I still am not going to use $3 there. What? I'm going to do two $5 skills.
My second, my $10 budget is going to basketball IQ and communication skills. Oh, my gosh. And why do I think communication skills are going to be important? Again, you're not talking to a bunch of first and second year players, you know, like you would be with the Dallas Wings.
You're not talking to, you know, role players who you're trying to inspire to do more like you might be doing with the Golden State Valkyries. You are talking to champions. You are talking to future Hall of Famers, veteran, elite players. You are trying to, one, win their confidence. Uh-huh. Two, win their trust. Three, they've played last season with a lot of lack of urgency.
You've got to make sure you have a way of making sure they're ready to play at the time of the game start from the first quarter on. I think this coach has to have a way of... They're commanding their energy and interest. And it doesn't mean they have to be loud or boisterous.
They can be super, you know, just to bring up Chrissy Tolliver, she's more, you know, chill as a person, but you can still be very intense and motivating with that. So whatever your linguistic style is, you've just got to have the ear of the locker room.
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