Liberty add assistant coaches in Kelly Raimon and Dustin Gray
A former Aces assistant and a well-known performance enhancement coach join Walt Hopkins and Shelley Patterson
In post-draft interviews, both General Manager Jonathan Kolb and Head Coach Walt Hopkins referenced coaching staff additions to assistant Shelley Patterson.
“Our coaching staff are the best player developers in the league,” Kolb said during a New York Liberty Facebook live interview. Moments later, Hopkins noted that “every assistant called” the players that New York drafted on April 17.
Now we know exactly who was behind the scenes in drafting the Liberty’s “targeted” 2020 WNBA draft class.
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New York has hired a player’s coach in former Aces assistant and 2x WNBA champ Kelly Raimon (née Schumacher), and another assistant in experienced player developer Dustin Gray.
“We are extremely excited about the diversity of experiences, skills, and ideas that Kelly and Dustin bring to the Liberty organization,” Hopkins said in a press release on both hirings.
“Between Dustin’s elite understanding of player development and team “X’s and O’s”, and Kelly’s valuable perspective as both a coach and former player, we’re rounding out our coaching staff with a pair of very talented, high-character people.”
In January during Hopkins’ introductory press conference, he was asked what qualities are essential in forming a coaching staff. In addition to targeting a diverse group, he wanted a group with a common set of principles and who are simply “good” people.
The rationale behind both hirings
Gray, who is less known in WNBA circles, came to the Liberty as someone Hopkins trusted and has known for quite some time. For 24 years, Gray’s father coached basketball at Reed High School, Hopkins’ alma mater.
Gray graduated with Bachelors of Science in Kinesiology from Arizona State University. His degree focused specifically on the fundamental principals that are intrinsic to teaching movement, including the physiological, biomechanical, and psychological.
Similar to Hopkins and first-round pick Sabrina Ionescu, Gray is a “lifelong student of the game” and continued his career in training and performance at EXOS, a human performance company based in Phoenix, Arizona. While at EXOS, he played a role in designing and executing player enhancement programs for current and former NBA players in Kevin Love, Brandon Jennings, DeMar DeRozan, and two-sport athlete Chase Budinger.
Post EXOS Gray formed his own company, Playmakers Basketball Club, which combines skill development with the psychological tools that every player needs to achieve success on and off the court. Gray’s Playmakers has also developed programs that provide athletes with resources to decrease their risk of injury.
Playmakers has attracted a notable crop of pupils including Rudy Gay, Quincy Pondexter, Ish Smith, and Kendall Marshall, who all played either the guard or wing position.
Another connection: Raimon’s husband Donnie is the director of biomechanics at DCB fitness, a sports performance company that was founded on incorporating biomechanics into training programs for professional athletes.
Now back to Kelly Raimon. She played center at the University of Connecticut from 1997-2001, which included her shining moment in the 2000 National championship game where she recorded nine blocks against Pat Summitt and Tamika Catchings‘ Tennesee Volunteers.
Drafted by the Indiana Fever in 2001, she played in the W for nine seasons. She played alongside Diana Taurasi, Penny Taylor, Katie Smith and Plenette Pierson and won two straight championships, with both the Phoenix Mercury in 2007 and Bill Laimbeer‘s Detroit Shock in 2008.
After playing professional volleyball, Raimon returned to the WNBA and served as a player development coach and advanced scout for the Chicago Sky under Amber Stocks. After a year with the sky, she reunited with Laimbeer on his Las Vegas Aces staff, serving for two years.
Now how does Raimon fit Hopkins’ criteria? Our Ben Dull reported the evidence last July before All-Star Weekend. She discussed how exactly Liz Cambage and A’Ja Wilson worked together on the court. She pointed out how “unselfish” they were, and for her, that’s a winning characteristic.
“On teams that I’ve been on where I’ve won championships or been successful, that’s been the thing that sets you apart,” she told Dull. “You know that you can trust in each other and what you can do and you have an openness and a feel to do it knowing that everybody has your back.”
Last season, Wilson spoke about Raimon to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. According to the 2018 rookie of the year, her former assistant coach “has many tools in her toolbox,” and she emphasized Raimon’s presence as a player’s coach who taught Wilson post moves and how she could use them on the court.
Another upside to Raimon apart from her experience as a post player and her ideology regarding team dynamics is how she values defense. When the Aces transformed from worst to first defensively in 2019, this was something that made her proud.
Delegation remains confusing
Back in January, Hopkins discussed changing up how typically a coaching staff approaches the different responsibilities on a professional basketball team. He had the idea to delegate rather than by position, but instead with a three-pronged staff of specialists.
He mentioned executing a system with an offensive coordinator, a defensive coordinator, and a player’s coach who would “focus on the pulse of the team.”
Raimon occupies two potential prongs out of three with her strong foundation in defense, and the fact that she’s the only member of the staff who is a former WNBA player.
According to UP Sport, Gray specializes in: ball handling, big (wo)man play, finishing, guard play, and shooting. That sounds very vague and that puts him into multiple prongs as well. So where does that leave Patterson who is known as a sorcerer of shot mechanics?
Jonathan Kolb touched on this briefly in an interview with The Boardroom. He and Hopkins have created a system that’s more horizontal than vertical.
“The biggest thing was, they all see different things in players,” he said when discussing the coaching staff. “And we have created a system within our staff where every single person no matter the level of coach, how long they’ve been coaching. They have a voice and we want to hear that voice.”
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