What to Know About Seattle Storm’s 2 New Coaches
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New Seattle Storm player development coach passes the ball during warmups while with the Phoenix Mercury in 2023. Credit: Elijah Knox/Instagram [/caption]
The Seattle Storm made multiple staff adjustments on Wednesday as draft season approaches, hiring multiple new coaches and promoting a front office staff member.
Seattle brought in former NBA G League assistant coach Mitch Thompson and former Phoenix Mercury player development coach Elijah Knox. Director of basketball operations Drew Stanich was also promoted to assistant general manager under GM Talisa Rhea.
Storm assistant coach Pokey Chatman, who is remaining on staff, also served as an associate general manager before Stanich’s promotion. It’s currently unclear whether Chatman is maintaining that role or whether Stanich’s new job is replacing it.
The team’s 2025 staff under head coach Noelle Quinn is now set with the additions of Knox as a player development coach and Thompson as an assistant coach. Nick Saenz (manager of video and analytics), Marcus Tibbs (player development), Ebony Hoffman (assistant coach) and Chatman make up the rest of the staff.
Here’s everything you should know about Knox and Thompson, the most recent additions to the Storm’s staff.
Mitch Thompson
Thompson and the Stockton Kings posted the best regular season record in the G League in 2023–24, finishing 24-10. Stockton’s offense posted the best 3-point percentage (38.3) in the league while coordinating the offense and helping the team earn the top Western Conference seed. The Kings’ staff won NBA G League Coaching Staff of the Year.
On an international level, Thompson has been a significant piece of the Mexican Women’s National Team as the head coach. Thompson’s staff became the first to lead the team to a World Cup pre-qualifier victory in August 2024.
Additionally, Thompson served as a player development coach for the NBA Academy Latin America from 2022–23 and began his experience in similar roles with the G League’s Wisconsin Herd in 2019.
The exact nature of Thompson’s assistant role should become clearer in the months leading up to the 2025 season, but his offensive acumen lends itself to that kind of role in Seattle.
Elijah Knox
Bringing experience in multiple areas, Knox is more of a do-it-all coach in player development. Knox runs Arizona Athletics Youth Sports — his own private coaching business — and previously was the player development coach for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury from 2020–23.
He specializes in scoring efficiency, helping shift the Mercury’s field goal, 3-point and free-throw percentages from outside the top 10 to inside the top 5 in the league. Knox has worked with athletes from high school through professional as a development specialist.
Six-time WNBA All-Star Skylar Diggins-Smith played for the Mercury from 2020–23 and worked with Knox, and has continued to do so since she joined the Storm in 2024, per Knox’s Instagram.
Knox joins Tibbs as Seattle’s two player development coaches entering a critical 2025 season. The pair will have the opportunity to work with whoever the team selects at No. 2 overall in this year’s WNBA Draft, which will be a premium talent no matter who goes first overall.
That potential, coupled with the team’s elite veterans, could catapult the Storm to a deeper postseason run this upcoming season than they accomplished in 2024.
