Former Phoenix Mercury guard Celeste Taylor has joined Grand Canyon as an assistant coach, she told ESPN on Tuesday.
Taylor, who played at Texas, Duke and Ohio State, joins the coaching ranks after spending her rookie campaign in the WNBA with the Mercury, Connecticut Sun and Indiana Fever. Indiana selected her No. 15 overall in the 2024 draft, but Taylor -- who's known for her defensive prowess -- played most of the summer for the Mercury (15 games). Overall, she averaged 2.6 points, 1.3 assists and 1.3 rebounds in 14.9 minutes.
Taylor has been nursing a foot injury that she suffered while playing for the Sydney Flames in the WNBL, cutting short her season in Australia. She tried to work her way back to full health while with the Mercury for training camp, but she wasn't a full participant until the final preseason game and was ultimately waived in the final roster cuts before the regular season.
Taylor told ESPN she will spend the summer recovering from the injury and hopes to return to the WNBA in 2026.
"There have been teams who wanted me to come back this season, and I think for me, it's trying to get healthy and trying to maintain in the space of being fit and looking at what's right for my body, listening to my body," she said.
Taylor links up with her former collegiate assistant coach at Duke, Winston Gandy, who's taking over at Grand Canyon after serving on the staffs of Dawn Staley at South Carolina and Kara Lawson in Durham. Coaching is a long-term goal for Taylor, who said she has always enjoyed working with younger kids, even at camps in college.
"When the opportunity presented itself, it honestly worked out perfectly with timing and everything," Taylor said. "Once I had explained to [Gandy] what the situation is, of wanting to get healthy but also wanting to follow in this path of being a coach and having the opportunity of giving back to younger kids and being in that leadership role and just continuing to pour into student-athletes and give them the best experience, it's a no-brainer to take it."
Grand Canyon boasted a national-best 30-game win streak last season under then-head coach Molly Miller and made its first NCAA Division I tournament appearance in program history. Miller then left to take over at Arizona State, and Gandy was hired from South Carolina.
"This is his first time as a head coach and it's at a program like GCU that's definitely up-and-coming and growing and a beautiful university, but I'm definitely grateful for him giving me the opportunity," Taylor said. "He wants to put the best people around him, so for him to look to me and believe in me, to be able to help him is a blessing."
Before ending the season with Phoenix last year, Taylor bounced around the league and made headlines by playing for two different franchises -- Phoenix and Connecticut -- on back-to-back days in August while on consecutive seven-day contracts.
Pivoting to coaching is just another example of that adaptability.
"The journey that I've been on, it's never linear," Taylor said. "There's a lot of up-and-down, so just being ready for everything, but at the same time, I feel like it has grown me into the person that I am today. I'm honestly just grateful for everything that I've been through."
