Coaching Carousel

[MrDollarBills]

This is kind of insane. I never expected to see so much turnover

I guess White is headed to Indiana?

[hermes]

has connecticut's window closed?

[jumpman28]

This is kind of insane. I never expected to see so much turnover

I guess White is headed to Indiana?

According to the reporter from the Chicago Sun Times, it's between Indiana and Chicago. It sounds like it's not entirely basketball related why she left the Sun and is trying to get a job closer to her home in Illinois/Near Indianapolis. She mentioned in the exit interview and it's been speculated that she has someone close to her has a severe long term health issue as she mentioned 'family emergency' and this is confirmed by the answer the Sun GM gave when asked about it after the 'firing'.

[Ice Man]

You couldn't ask for more from Sides. Took over a 5 win team, got one very good new player and won 13, got another very good new player and hit .500. Aside from those 2 stars, it's the same 5-win squad that she inherited. Plus, in both seasons the team improved along the way and finished strongly.
o
This is a purely a new GM wanting to get her own coach in there. I hope that SIdes gets another HC job. She has earned it.

[TheWitcher]

Rumors swirling that the Fever may try to bring CC's Iowa coach out of retirement.

[DOT]

has connecticut's window closed?

Not really

With the addition of Mabrey and the emergence of DJ, they could easily stretch it out for another couple of years, even with DB clearly on the decline

I love them, but I think it's clear when they get to the postseason just how much it hurts not having a true star. They're tough, gritty, and nobody is gonna want to face them, but it's not enough to get over the hump

I think all the core players re-sign for one more year to get to the next CBA, then the team breaks up after that and we're in for a rebuild.

[Doctor MJ]

has connecticut's window closed?

So I'll say:

I'm not sure if something that was open actually closed, other than the moment they lost Jonquel. I'm impressed they are as good as they are, but I don't think the post-Jonquel lineup ever had a case for the best talent in the league. Doesn't mean they couldn't win the title, but the odds were always low.

I think the thing we'll look back on and wonder what the problem was, was the fact that when they had a healthy Jonquel & AT. And of course, the short answer is "poor fit".

[Sealab2024]

7 coaches and 4 GMs. There's speculation that with the new TV deal teams are able to offer more money to their coaches opening up an entirely new tier of potential replacements. This makes all the sense in the world.

[Doctor MJ]

7 coaches and 4 GMs. There's speculation that with the new TV deal teams are able to offer more money to their coaches opening up an entirely new tier of potential replacements. This makes all the sense in the world.

I think it makes sense broadly, but it may or may not actually be wise.

One thing: Coaching in the W is dominated by female coaches, and it's not like there are tons of female coaches elsewhere making way more money. So if you're looking to hiring coaches that are used to making more money, it would seem that you'd be looking to hire more men...and yet I'm not sure if that's really the plan as there's obvious resistance to it.

Will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

[Green Chile]

7 coaches and 4 GMs. There's speculation that with the new TV deal teams are able to offer more money to their coaches opening up an entirely new tier of potential replacements. This makes all the sense in the world.

I think it makes sense broadly, but it may or may not actually be wise.

One thing: Coaching in the W is dominated by female coaches, and it's not like there are tons of female coaches elsewhere making way more money. So if you're looking to hiring coaches that are used to making more money, it would seem that you'd be looking to hire more men...and yet I'm not sure if that's really the plan as there's obvious resistance to it.

Will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Not to mention, if they are trying to go that route (coaches already making more money), the timing is atrocious.

It seems awfully hard to poach a great coach that just started or is about to start a season.

I can't imagine how this doesn't amount to a game of musical chairs with some W assistants mixed in.

[TheWitcher]

It’s not even that the timing is atrocious, the message it sends is atrocious as well. Why would any well established college coach risk going somewhere where the coaches have been up for the slaughter?

You would argue and say guaranteed money, sure. But why put yourself in situations that could potentially damage your brand/reputation?

I don’t think they will be able to bring in established, well regarded college coaches. They will bring in some assistants or very young promising coaches more than likely. Or maybe even a retired coach that knows that if they get fired in the first year it doesn’t really matter.

[Green Chile]

It’s not even that the timing is atrocious, the message it sends is atrocious as well. Why would any well established college coach risk going somewhere where the coaches have been up for the slaughter?

You would argue and say guaranteed money, sure. But why put yourself in situations that could potentially damage your brand/reputation?

I don’t think they will be able to bring in established, well regarded college coaches. They will bring in some assistants or very young promising coaches more than likely. Or maybe even a retired coach that knows that if they get fired in the first year it doesn’t really matter.

I agree it's a bad look.

But while I don't know why so many coaches have been fired this off-season, T-Spoon is the only firing I would call egregious. And as much as I love T-Spoon and wish they'd kept her, the only reason I'd call it egregious is because when they hired her with no coaching experience, they had to expect there'd be some bumps in the road.

For the others, I'd say firing Curt Miller is silly, but it sounds like it might have been mutual and maybe he didn't want to be part of a rebuild (which seems wild to me, as I'd think the Sparks could be one of the better jobs in the league).

The Tanisha Wright firing wasn't a surprise. The Dream had injuries, but they still seemed to under-perform their talent.

Same with Trammell. The season was over before Satou got healthy, but there was too much talent on that team most of the year to be that bad.

Thibault was a surprise, but a coach staring 0-12 getting fired can't be much of a surprise.

Sides absolutely didn't deserve to be fired, but if you can get Stephanie White, that's kind of a no-brainer. She was technically fired, but I don't see it like that. When you can get get such an upgrade, you pretty much have to do it.

It's weird so many happened this year, but individually, I get them all. I would have thought most would have gotten more time, but most were fairly understandable.

[MrDollarBills]

Sandy Brondello is now the Teflon don of WNBA coaches.

[Green Chile]

Tyler Marsh to the Sky.

The Syd Colson-Angel Reese exchange over it on Twitter was pretty funny.

[Green Chile]

I figured most of the coaching hires would happen between the lottery and the expansion draft, but we're running out of time (December 6th) with 3 openings left.

Unless I missed it, the Mystics still don't even have a GM do they? They probably have the most difficult decisions on who to protect in the expansion draft. You'd think they'd want a GM and coach for that.

Sparks and Dream seemed to do about as high level college poaching as you could expect, given the money and calendar constraints.

Sparks pulled Lynne Roberts from Utah, a year removed from being PAC-12 COY and a Sweet 16 appearance.
Karl Smesko seems like a solid hire for the Dream. Literally built Florida Gulf Coast from nothing. 4 Tourney wins in the last 10 years. We know the Dream are about to start jacking up some 3's.

Pulling another college coach would have to happen really quick if it's going to happen.

I would assume one of the open jobs will be filled by Sides.

And maybe Curt Miller is planning to hire himself now that Dallas won the Paige sweepstakes.

[Green Chile]

We finally have all the coaching vacancies filled.

Wings hire Chris Koclanes, currrent USC assistant (well, former as of today).

Mystics hire Sydney Johnson. From the DMV. Most notably was the Head Coach at Princeton, and then Fairfield from 2011 to 2019. Was an assistant with the Chicago Sky last year.

I was worried about where the W would be sourcing the hires for all of these vacancies. I have no clue how well any of these will work out, but the sourcing seems solid.

The Sparks and Dream poached a couple of well respected, successful college coaches in Lynne Roberts and Karl Smesko.

Sun got a well respected international coach in Rachid Meziane.

Sky got the hot shot assistant hire in Tyler Marsh (I guess the Valkyries did too).

Of course, the Fever poached someone already established as one of the best coaches in the league.

However it works out, the W was able to go out and poach new coaches instead of just recycling coaches (still shocked Sides didn't land one of these jobs).

[LewisnotMiller]

*gets out old drum and starts banging it again*

No vacancies now, but Shannon Seebohm just won coach of the year in the Australian WNBL for the FIFTH time, including the last three years in a row. The guy is just 37 years old.

I'd be beating down his door if I was a WNBA team. Not like he's making bank over here.
(He also has international experience as head coach of Australia in Sandy's absence, and assistant under Sandy)