The Case for the Chicago Sky to Keep Emre Vatansever as Head Coach
Often times, when your star player describes a just completed season as a ‘roller coaster,’ it doesn’t bode well for the way things went…
Often times, when your star player describes a just completed season as a ‘roller coaster,’ it doesn’t bode well for the way things went between the lines. But for the Chicago Sky, 2023 served as a weirdly satisfying roller coaster that exceeded the pre-season expectations of most and built an exciting, albeit yet to be completed, foundation for the seasons ahead.
As the franchise looks to capatlize off that strong finish and move into what Copper described as a ‘new era’ in 2024, the decision on who to hire as the franchise’s new head coach will be a crucial one in solidifying that foundation. In steps Emre Vatansever, the Sky’s longtime assistant and interim boss for the final two-and-a-half months of this season. Vatansever is not your average interim coach — given he replaced a championship-winner who left on his own terms — and the 11–13 record he compiled as the lead man wouldn’t normally make him a frontrunner to retain the job. But then, nothing about the Sky’s campaign in 2023 was particularly normal.
After the mass exodus in free agency and the recruitment of a new core around Copper, James Wade positioned the franchise to continue competing even while, theoretically, rebuilding. While that vision led to a lot of the positives (including the playoff berth) the Sky achieved this season, it also pushed the team into a position where accepting losses was simply never going to be in its DNA. But when you couple the aforementioned departures with key injuries and absences (Astou Ndour-Fall, Rebekah Gardner, Isabelle Harrison), the Sky’s squad was left in a position where — to truly compete — nearly everyone had to maximize their current potential.
There is, of course, lots of room to grow leading into next season, but there’s a fair argument to be made that most of the Sky’s squad did deliver on their potential over the eight game closing stretch that clinched a playoff berth. Looking at the squad’s individual skillsets and the game plans Vatansever and his staff put into place, it would be difficult to argue that the interim coach didn’t at least play a hand in putting his players in the best position to succeed. Courtney Williams, for instance, was often highlighted this season due to her new role as the primary ball handler, but Vatansever’s slant towards the pick and roll game seemed to maximize the opportunities for the veteran’s new found point guard duties to overlap with her other worldly ability to shoot from the mid range. At its best, the Williams-Williams pick and roll was virtually capable of sustaining the offense on its own for an entire game. At its worst, the set-up was still strong enough to give the Sky a foundation to build off of when their offensive game was struggling.
Defensively, there was also adaptations that reflected well on Vatansever’s tactical knowledge and his ability to teach. Early on in his interim tenure, the Sky’s defection towards using the zone defense in stints started to become apparent, but the results were mixed with the occasional wide open three coming from its implementation. But as the season went on, Vatansever’s work on the practice floor (and to their credit, the player’s work in the film room) was evident as the zone defense become a more valuable asset with more coordination. Key to this was Chicago’s front court pairing of Elizabeth Williams and Alanna Smith. With a zone defense, Williams could roam the low block and reinforce her position as one of the game’s premier shot blockers while Smith could serve as something of a free safety — patrolling the court as one of the league’s elite help defenders due to her combination of strength and lateral quickness. Vatansever and his staff didn’t stumble upon this discovery by accident and likely implemented these changes with an eye on getting the most from key players.
There’s even obvious personal development that occurred under Vatansever for two of Chicago’s guards. For highly prized acquisition Marina Mabrey, the emotional aspect of her game took a clear step forward as the season went on with her drive more clearly channeled and focused on a ‘next play’ mentality. It’s more difficult to specifically attribute that growth to Vatansever as compared to the tactical elements he implemented, but his calm hand on the wheel likely didn’t hurt the guard’s maturation. Likewise, the evolution of Dana Evans from a bench spark to a premier second-unit floor general is likely due in part to the trust Vatansever placed in her (and the guards as a whole) from the day he took over. [Granted, Wade was always a fan of Evans so I anticipate the evolution of the ex-Louisville guard’s role in year three was inevitable.]
On top of helping the players perform near to their best, Vatansever also took clear steps forward as an individual this season. Emre and his staff delivered a motivational strategy that seemed to boost the team on the push towards the playoffs following the loss to Connecticut in mid-August. It seems obvious, but the team’s focus on an entire eight-game stretch from the Seattle home game onwards as opposed to the time-honored ‘one game at a time’ mentality seemed to contribute to increased consistency and focus throughout the decisive eight games. Rotational management, while not perfect, was also more consistent in the latter half of the season (playoffs excluded) — allowing players to develop a better rhythm (for instance the Dana/Ruthy pick-and-roll) with the teammates they frequently played alongside.
From a human perspective, Vatansever was careful to focus on the impact of his assistants and the players — an item which doesn’t go unnoticed by those who work so hard around him to make winning possible. His conduct with the media usually portrayed him as an eloquent student of the game, but his media appearances later in the season became increasingly transparent and cut through the ‘coach speak’ that (understandably) fills up the majority of most press conferences to give fans and media a real insight on what he was seeing and how that impacted key decisions. Even in marginal areas — like his behavior on the sideline — there was obvious changes as Vatansever adapted to the head coaching role. In the back-to-back home defeats to Atlanta that started his tenure, the Turkish coach was as active on the sideline as his players were on the court — jumping and leaping around in an attempt to communicate key concepts. He certainly maintained that desire throughout the season but his energy was more focused and consistent — likely helping him (and the players) avoid burning out.
If all of the positives from his three month audition weren’t enough to convince the Sky ownership to move forward with Vatansever as the team’s head coach, his profile alone makes him a worthy candidate. For his relatively young age, Vatansever has already been an assistant in three different organizations (Galatasaray, Seattle, Chicago) who achieved some degree of success and was, most recently, the lead assistant to a coach who had recently won a title and a coach of the year honor. In the wider women’s basketball community, Vatansever’s connections are vast with the coach frequently seen interacting post-game with an opposing player whose path he crossed in the W or overseas. Most recently, Becky Hammon was full of praise after Sunday’s close out game saying “I think Emre’s done a fantastic job under really difficult circumstances…getting his team into a position to even be in the playoffs.” Aside from hiring a college coach or a recently fired coach from another successful franchise, rising assistants with Vatansever’s resume are exactly the type of candidate you’d be chasing during a coaching search like the one Chicago is about to undergo.
Getting the chance to give that candidate a two-month audition is the type of thing a GM (which Chicago also still need to hire) would dream of, and the Sky have had that opportunity. From the outside, Vatansever would seem a popular pick from the players’ perspective (though I can only speculate on that matter), and there’s no doubts about where his intentions lie this offseason. Asked Sunday about his desire to retain the position, Vatansever said, “There’s twelve teams. I am (for) one of them, the head coach…If this opportunity is given to me again, I’ll take it in a heartbeat.”
That desire, more than anything, to be in the WNBA, in Chicago is what the Sky should be looking for in a candidate to be the team’s next head coach. It’s that single-minded attitude (and, to be fair, her incredible growth as a player) to do it for this team which has made Kahleah Copper the ideal piece to build the Sky’s roster around, and the next coach needs to have the same approach. There’s no reason to believe that any of the high profile candidates the Sky are rumored to be interested in (Teresa Weatherspoon, for instance) couldn’t possess and develop that same mindset, but there’s every reason to believe that Vatansever already has it. The voice of Copper and some of the other key players (and indeed the yet to be hired GM) will likely (and should) go a long way towards deciding who becomes the Sky’s new head coach, but if the stretch run was any indication, the right person for the job is already in house.
