The WNBA's major coaching problem

The WNBA coaching landscape will look a lot different in 2025.

The 2024 WNBA season could be the biggest moment in women's basketball, with millions of more eyes on the sport thanks to new superstars like Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark emerging. With more eyes, teams have seemingly felt an increased level of pressure, evidenced by a flurry of coach firings. Let's take a deeper look at who has been let go and why there's been so much change. All statistics are sourced from Basketball Reference.

Let’s look at the dismissals first. The Dallas Wings let go of Latricia Trammell, the Chicago Sky got rid of Teresa Weatherspoon, the Los Angeles Sparks fired Curt Miller, and the Washington Mystics parted ways with Eric Thibault. These moves are all somewhat understandable, as none of the aforementioned four teams made the WNBA playoffs in 2024.

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

However, three WNBA postseason teams joined them in making coaching changes after their seasons came to an end. The Atlanta Dream fired Tanisha Wright, the Indiana Fever dumped Christie Sides, and the Connecticut Sun cut ties with Stephanie White.

Trammell’s career record in Dallas was 31-49 after two seasons, mostly brought down by a putrid 9-31 campaign in 2024. Thibault’s tenure in Washington wasn’t much better, as he had a 33-48 mark in two seasons. Thibault didn’t finish above .500 in either campaign. Wright finished her three-year tenure in Atlanta 48-68. Their dismissal is relatively straightforward to follow.

The Sky let Weatherspoon walk after just one season, where they finished 13-27. Granted, the results weren’t what Chicago was hoping for, but the franchise wasted no time in moving on from her. Sky co-owner Natalie Rawlinson told ESPN that Chicago wanted was “looking to move with alacrity” to find a new coach.

The Sparks let Miller go after two rough seasons, but he has a decent track record in the WNBA. He has a career 165-141, with several winning seasons to draw upon from his time as head coach of the Connecticut Sun from 2016-2022. Yahoo Sports believes the Sky should take a long look at Miller to fill the vacancy left by Weatherspoon’s firing.

Perhaps the most surprising decision was made by Indiana, who parted ways with Sides after she helped lead the Fever to the postseason. The team started the year 1-8, but stuck together and improved as the season went along. Sports Illustrated wrote that they did not see the moving coming given what had transpired in 2024.

The Fever were eliminated from the postseason by the Sun, who also made the call to part ways with Stephanie White. Soon after Sides was let go in Indiana, rumors started to emerge connecting White and the Fever.

Since then, a deal has been made, with ESPN reporting White has been hired as the Fever's next head coach. She is one of the most well-respected coaches in the WNBA with a career record of 92-56 as well as previously coaching the Fever to a finals appearance in 2015.

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

The Guardian’s website believes that WNBA franchise management has changed their approach in the wake of the league’s boom in popularity. They wrote that “owners are finally taking their teams more seriously, and the hunt for better talent is reflective of a surge in income, publicity and fans.”

The Guardian also pointed out that four teams let their general managers go, including the Mystics, Fever and Dream, who are searching for new head coaches. It makes sense that these teams would want their new general managers to work with coaches they are comfortable with, rather than potentially forcing a fit with an incumbent option.

Front Office Sports thinks that the dramatic increase in attention and influx in money into the league is affecting hiring and firing decisions in another way. They believe that WNBA teams won’t be hesitant to break the bank for higher-profile coaches, some of which they might try to poach from women’s college basketball.

Granted, the dismissal of coaches after a short time is nothing new in professional sports, but this registers as more than a blip on the radar when over half the league is making sweeping changes in this regard. It’ll be fascinating to see if all seven vacancies are filled with coaches who were not in the WNBA in 2024, or if some of the fired names resurface elsewhere.

Of course, not every team who made a coaching move this offseason will take a massive leap in the standings in 2025. While a new voice and a new direction can help put the failures of the past in the rearview mirror, different does not always mean better.

One intangible that WNBA franchises risk not developing or maintaining is a familiarity or stability on the bench. It can be frustrating and challenging for players to learn a new system and a new way of doing things in short order, and it can make building a franchise identity tough if the head coach position turns into a revolving door.

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

The league will add teams to the fray in 2025 and 2026, and ESPN is reporting that the WNBA is meeting with officials and luminaries to talk about the possibility of bringing a franchise to Kansas City. This will only continue to drive up the price of the sought-after coaches in the near future.