Coaching Carousel

[Green Chile]

We're officially in one.

Dallas fires Trammel. A year after making the Semi's.

1/3rd of the league is looking for a coach, and I don't know who the big candidates are.

Seems for certain that Curt Miller will land another job if he wants one (rumors to Chicago).

Then there's Stephanie White, who might be one of the 4 best coaches in the league, and rumors are strong that she might leave Connecticut. She has strong ties to Indiana.

But that job's not open after a lot of criticism her way (I think Sides did great and would be strong consideration for any of these openings if she were let go).

This is getting wild. So many openings and potential openings. And with college coaches making so much more than W coaches, it seems so hard to predict how all these vacancies will be filled.

[Green Chile]

And there's a strong case that the worst coaching in the league was in Phoenix.

[MrDollarBills]

We're officially in one.

Dallas fires Trammel. A year after making the Semi's.

1/3rd of the league is looking for a coach, and I don't know who the big candidates are.

Seems for certain that Curt Miller will land another job if he wants one (rumors to Chicago).

Then there's Stephanie White, who might be one of the 4 best coaches in the league, and rumors are strong that she might leave Connecticut. She has strong ties to Indiana.

But that job's not open after a lot of criticism her way (I think Sides did great and would be strong consideration for any of these openings if she were let go).

This is getting wild. So many openings and potential openings. And with college coaches making so much more than W coaches, it seems so hard to predict how all these vacancies will be filled.

Sides getting fired would be horrible. I was critical of her early on but she figured out how to use CC/KM/AB very effectively with a very limited roster talent wise

[cdubbz]

I'm happy the Valkyries were able to snatch up the coach they wanted before the coach swapping begins!

Will teams be recycling the coaches that got fired? Or looking at top assistants and fresh new talent?

[Green Chile]

Sounds like the Aces might lose another assistant.

Reports that Tyler Marsh has met with the Dream and has an upcoming meeting with the Sparks.

[TheWitcher]

We're officially in one.

Dallas fires Trammel. A year after making the Semi's.

1/3rd of the league is looking for a coach, and I don't know who the big candidates are.

Seems for certain that Curt Miller will land another job if he wants one (rumors to Chicago).

Then there's Stephanie White, who might be one of the 4 best coaches in the league, and rumors are strong that she might leave Connecticut. She has strong ties to Indiana.

But that job's not open after a lot of criticism her way (I think Sides did great and would be strong consideration for any of these openings if she were let go).

This is getting wild. So many openings and potential openings. And with college coaches making so much more than W coaches, it seems so hard to predict how all these vacancies will be filled.

I honestly didn't realize the disparity in salary between WNBA coaches and womens college basketball coaches (at least the top 10).

The #10 highest paid coach (Adia Barnes) in college makes more than twice as much as Christy Sides.

[Green Chile]

Make it 5 vacancies.

Eric Thibault out in Washington (along with the GM, his Dad Mike).
I'm no expert, but I thought Thibault was doing a decent job. They started 0-12 with tons of injuries, and damn near made the Playoffs.

More reports on Twitter that Steph White might actually leave Connecticut. Would be huge if true.

[TheWitcher]

Make it 5 vacancies.

Eric Thibault out in Washington (along with the GM, his Dad Mike).
I'm no expert, but I thought Thibault was doing a decent job. They started 0-12 with tons of injuries, and damn near made the Playoffs.

More reports on Twitter that Steph White might actually leave Connecticut. Would be huge if true.

I actually read an article out of the Chicago Sun Times that said Steph White was considering between the Fever and Sky. Idk if that is good for optics if they fire Christie Sides just to hire Steph White.

[Green Chile]

Make it 5 vacancies.

Eric Thibault out in Washington (along with the GM, his Dad Mike).
I'm no expert, but I thought Thibault was doing a decent job. They started 0-12 with tons of injuries, and damn near made the Playoffs.

More reports on Twitter that Steph White might actually leave Connecticut. Would be huge if true.

I actually read an article out of the Chicago Sun Times that said Steph White was considering between the Fever and Sky. Idk if that is good for optics if they fire Christie Sides just to hire Steph White.

I think Sides did a great job, all things considered, and certainly shouldn't be a consideration for being fired.

But I think all but 2 or 3 franchises are listening if Steph is interested. She's a hell of a coach with a resume.

[hermes]

5 of 12? that's got to be some kind of record for percentage of open coaching jobs at once in a league

wondering if the owners are taking advantage of the upcoming potential player movement turbulence and getting desirable coaches in place. previous ones may have been fine but if you weren't in love with them or didn't think they were the one - might as well move on

[Green Chile]

Who knows if it's the right move, but thinking about, it's a horrible look for the Mystics to whack the coach and GM this late.

The expansion draft is in 6 weeks.
4 other teams already looking for a coach, and there doesn't seem to be an overflowing well of great potential candidates.
And now you gotta get a new coach and GM real quick.

The regular season ended over a month ago.
The team started 0-12 and missed the Playoffs. Surely, the "do we have the right coach?" thoughts/conversations were happening a long time ago.

Maybe the team really wants Trammell, who only just became available, but it doesn't give off the feel of a functional organization.

[TheWitcher]

Make it 5 vacancies.

Eric Thibault out in Washington (along with the GM, his Dad Mike).
I'm no expert, but I thought Thibault was doing a decent job. They started 0-12 with tons of injuries, and damn near made the Playoffs.

More reports on Twitter that Steph White might actually leave Connecticut. Would be huge if true.

I actually read an article out of the Chicago Sun Times that said Steph White was considering between the Fever and Sky. Idk if that is good for optics if they fire Christie Sides just to hire Steph White.

I think Sides did a great job, all things considered, and certainly shouldn't be a consideration for being fired.

But I think all but 2 or 3 franchises are listening if Steph is interested. She's a hell of a coach with a resume.

Welp...... Sides just got let go.

[Green Chile]

Sides fired. Seems like they have to get getting Stephanie White.

[theforumblue]

Google says Stephanie white is under contract til end of 2025 season? How come she is out and about as potential candidate for other teams?

[Doctor MJ]

Fascinating that yet another coach is tossed to the side - and this one a coach who got positive reviews for her performance.

As with others, my surprise comes from an expectation that when you have a young team, you're still figuring out how to optimize the roster of your team, and so it makes sense to keep your "starter coach" until you can pinpoint more precisely exactly what your final form needs will be.

Doesn't mean the Fever are wrong to fire Sides, because they presumably know things I don't, but it's going to be interesting to see who gets all these 2025 WNBA coaching, and specifically where the franchises are looking to pull their coaches from.

[TheWitcher]

I just find it a bit crazy…. Like you said DMJ, the Fever know things that we don’t.

But wow….

First playoff berth in idk how many years, a media frenzy the likes no one in the league has seen before, and still gets fired.

Just not a good look

[hermes]

not so much a carousel as a buzzsaw
its a bloodbath out here

[Green Chile]

Looking at where the W has been sourcing the coaches is interesting. The scheduling seems to make it more difficult. Outside of the money, the scheduling makes poaching successful college HC's nearly impossible.

The most common method seems to be low-tier college assistant (Steph White, Sides, Trammell).

If they were a college HC, it means things were going poorly (Cheryl Reeve, Curt Miller)
Cheryl actually did leave Indiana State mid-season to be a Charlotte Sting assistant, but she was having a 2nd straight bad season.
Curt was at Indiana, but won 20% of his conference games.

Now, we seem to be getting more the WNBA player straight to WNBA assistant model (Brondello, Tanisha Wright). It sounds like a couple of these current vacancies could be filled by coaches in this category (Katie Smith, Rebecca Brunson, Briann January).

Hammon, Tibbetts, and Spoon all were NBA assistants with no/very little HC experience.

It seems like the retired NBA player with nothing better to do model has gone by the wayside.

It will be interesting to see they move forward sourcing the coaching talent.

[theforumblue]

Read on Twitter

[Green Chile]

The draft lottery is Nov. 17 and the expansion draft is Dec. 6.

Outside of White going to Indiana, which I assume will be announced any hour now, I'd guess most of the jobs will be filled between the lottery and the expansion draft.

Every lottery team has a coaching vacancy, and I'd imagine coaching candidates are waiting for those results.

It would be wild if Sides went to LA if they get the #1 pick. Not hard to imagine some Fever/Sparks Finals in a few years.

Dallas and Washington could also become highly attractive if the ping pong balls fall right.

The pick for Chicago probably doesn't matter much since they can't be #1. But still highly attractive (for a cheap team that just did Spoon dirty). Every veteran is about to be a free-agent in 12 months, so recently drafted players and the 2025 drafted players are the only players guaranteed to be on rosters for a few years. Would seem to be a big advantage for Indiana, LA, and Chicago.