Five days after the 2024 WNBA regular season ended, the first domino fell as the Los Angeles Sparks fired then-coach Curt Miller.
Before the end of the year, seven of the 12 teams from 2024 had hired new head coaches. That means 58.3% of the teams in the league will start the 2025 season -- which tips off May 16 -- with a different head coach from the one they ended the 2024 season with. That is the highest percentage of teams making offseason head coaching changes in league history.
Additionally, the expansion Golden State Valkyries hired their first coach in franchise history.
We tracked the coaching carousel from start to finish.
Jump to: General manager changes
Dallas Wings
New coach: Chris Koclanes (Dec. 23)
Former coach: Latricia Trammell (Oct. 18)
Koclanes left his position as a USC assistant coach to return to the WNBA. He was a defensive coordinator for former WNBA coach (and now Wings GM) Curt Miller with both the Connecticut Sun and Los Angeles Sparks. Well-regarded for his work in player development.
Trammell was fired after two seasons with the team. In 2023, she led Dallas to the WNBA semifinals and to a 22-18 regular-season mark, the franchise's best record since 2008. In 2024, with star forward Satou Sabally out 25 of the 40 games due to injury or German Olympic team commitments, Dallas was 9-31.
Washington Mystics
New coach: Sydney Johnson (Dec. 23)
Former coach: Eric Thibault (Oct. 23)
An assistant coach with the Chicago Sky last season, Johnson has worked with USA Basketball over the past five years. He started his coaching career as an assistant coach at Georgetown University and went on to serve as head coach at his alma mater, Princeton University, where he earned consecutive Ivy League Coach of the Year Honors (2008-09, 2009-10).
The Mystics announced they had agreed to part ways with both Thibault and his father, Mike Thibault, who was in the GM role. The move marked a total organization reset, a source close to the situation told ESPN, as the Thibaults' vision for the franchise's future and that of upper management were not aligned. Washington went 14-26 in 2024.
Connecticut Sun
New coach: Rachid Mezaine (Dec. 4)
Former coach: Stephanie White (Oct. 28)
Meziane has long coached professionally in France and led the Belgian women's national team in the 2024 Paris Olympics. A native of Clermont-Ferrand, France, Meziane had led the French women's basketball club, Villeneuve d'Ascq, since 2019. That team won the Ligue Féminine de Basketball (LFB) championship and was EuroLeague runner-up for the 2023-24 season.
Meziane has coached the Belgium national team since November 2022 and led it to the FIBA European women's championship (EuroBasket) gold medal in 2023. Belgium lost the bronze medal game to Australia in the 2024 Olympics. Meziane previously was an assistant coach to the French women's national team, which won a bronze medal in the 2020 Olympics.
In her two seasons in Connecticut, White went 55-25 (including 28-12 this season) and led the Sun to two semifinal appearances. She won WNBA Coach of the Year in 2023.
"We parted on good terms because some of [White's] decision-making process was not just about basketball," Connecticut Sun president Jen Rizzotti told ESPN at the time. Four days later, Indiana named White head coach.
Los Angeles Sparks
New coach: Lynne Roberts (Nov. 19)
Former coach: Curt Miller (Sept. 24)
Roberts is the second coach this hiring period to leave the college ranks for the WNBA. The 2023 Pac-12 coach of the year, Roberts took over Utah in 2015, and guided the Utes to the NCAA tournament each of the past three seasons, including a Sweet 16 appearance in 2023.
Miller was 25-55 in two seasons with the Sparks, who were a league-worst 8-32 this summer, enduring a series of injures, including rookie Cameron Brink suffering torn ACL.
MORE: New Sparks coach Roberts brings player-development skills to WNBA
MORE: Utah coach Lynne Roberts saw 'golden opportunity' with Sparks
Atlanta Dream
New coach: Karl Smesko (Nov. 13)
Former coach: Tanisha Wright (Oct. 2)
Smesko heads to the WNBA after 23 seasons at Florida Gulf Coast, which he built into a perennial NCAA tournament team. Smesko is 672-139 at FGCU and boasts the third-highest winning percentage (.829) among active Division I women's basketball head coaches, trailing only UConn's Geno Auriemma and LSU's Kim Mulkey. The Eagles are traditionally one of the country's best 3-point shooting teams.
MORE: How will FGCU coach Smesko translate to the WNBA, Atlanta Dream?
Chicago Sky
New coach: Tyler Marsh (Nov. 2)
Former coach: Teresa Weatherspoon (Sept. 26)
Marsh joined the Aces in March 2022 and was an assistant on Becky Hammon's staff for Las Vegas' back-to-back WNBA championships in 2022 and 2023. The Aces went 77-29 over his three seasons and were 19-6 in the playoffs. Before joining the Aces, he won an NBA championship with the 2018-19 Toronto Raptors as assistant video coordinator and player development coach, and spent two seasons as a player development coach with the Indiana Pacers.
MORE: Are Marsh's skill development and the Sky's potential a perfect match?
Weatherspoon was 13-27 in one season with the Sky, who were in playoff contention for much of the second half of the season despite losing rookie Angel Reese to a wrist injury for the final six games of the regular season.
MORE: What's next for Sky, Reese after Weatherspoon fired?
Indiana Fever
New coach: Stephanie White (Nov. 1)
Former coach: Christie Sides (Oct. 27)
Four days after she parted ways with the Sun, White returns to Indiana, where she was head coach for two seasons in 2015 and 2016 and has a long tenure in the organization: four years as a player in the early 2000s and four more as an assistant (including the 2012 championship season) prior to her head-coaching stint.
MORE: Why White is a good fit for Fever, Clark
Sides was 33-47 in two seasons with the Fever, including a 20-20 record this season, when she led Indiana to its first playoff berth since 2016. The Fever were swept 2-0 in the first round.
MORE: What are Fever looking for in Sides' successor?
New Fever coach Stephanie White tells Malika Andrews she recently spoke with Caitlin Clark, discussing their excitement for the upcoming season.
Golden State Valkyries
New coach: Natalie Nakase (Oct. 10)
Nakase was named the franchise's inaugural coach, bringing over 16 years of coaching professional basketball, including 10 seasons in the NBA with the Los Angeles Clippers, to Golden State. She also spent three seasons as the first assistant coach with the Las Vegas Aces, who she helped win back-to-back championships.
MORE: What we know about new Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase
WNBA general manager changes
Washington Mystics
New GM: Jamila Wideman (Dec. 23)
Former GM: Mike Thibault (Oct. 23)
Wideman played for a very popular Stanford squad that went to the women's Final Four three years in a row from 1995-97. Then she was picked third in the WNBA's first college draft and took part in the league's first season in 1997. In all, she played four seasons in the WNBA, then went to law school and was a longtime criminal defense and civil rights lawyer. Wideman has spent the last six years in the NBA league office, most recently as senior vice president of player development. -- Voepel
Connecticut Sun
New GM: Morgan Tuck (Dec. 3)
Former GM: Darius Taylor (Dec. 3)
In a two-day span, the Sun remade their brain trust. But the goal remains the same for a franchise that has made eight consecutive playoff appearances and played in four total WNBA Finals, but is seeking its first title.
"Basketball in Connecticut? You've got to win," said former UConn player Morgan Tuck, who was elevated to the Sun's general manager position Tuesday. "How do we make those tweaks to get to the next step. To win a championship, to get over that hump, it takes a lot of pieces. It's not that one thing that's missing ... it's kind of a holistic approach."
The Sun also named Rachid Meziane head coach Wednesday. He has an extensive coaching history internationally, both in his native France and as coach of the Belgian women's national team. Tuck, who played five seasons in the WNBA before retiring with chronic knee issues, said she became familiar with Meziane through watching him in FIBA competitions.
"We were really open-minded about what our candidate pool would look like," Tuck said. "Through our conversations, getting to know him and who he is as a person, we felt like he was the best fit for our team."
Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti has stressed that the team hopes for a coach who will relocate to Connecticut year-round, and it remains to be seen if Meziane and his family will do that. But once Meziane joins Rizzotti, Tuck and Darius Taylor -- who moved from the GM role to become the team's chief basketball strategist and director of scouting -- the Sun have a lot to decide for the upcoming free agency period.
Only three players are under contract for Connecticut for 2025: guards Marina Mabrey and Tyasha Harris, and center Olivia Nelson-Ododa. DiJonai Carrington, the WNBA's most improved player in 2024, is a restricted free agent. Stars Alyssa Thomas, DeWanna Bonner and Brionna Jones are all unrestricted free agents.
Minnesota Lynx
Former GM: Clare Duwelius (Nov. 11)
Duwelius left the Lynx to become GM and executive vice president of Unrivaled, the new 3x3 women's pro league that will launch in January. The Lynx have not said if they will hire another GM. A spokeswoman told ESPN on Monday that the franchise was still figuring out its front-office details.
Could that mean that coach and team president Cheryl Reeve resumes GM duties, a role she held in the 2018-2022 seasons? Reeve was named the WNBA's executive of the year this season and in 2019. The award is voted on by the league's other executives and was started in 2017. Reeve's honor marked the first time the executive of the year didn't have the GM role as part of their title.
Minnesota also announced Lynx assistant coach Katie Smith is moving to her alma mater, Ohio State, to be an assistant coach. That takes her out of the pool to fill one of the WNBA head-coach openings. -- Michael Voepel
Dallas Wings
New GM: Curt Miller (Nov. 8)
Former GM: Greg Bibb (Oct. 18)
Miller has been a coach for more than two decades. He was sought by other WNBA franchises after he was let go by the Sparks, sources told ESPN. His decision to take the Dallas GM job wasn't easy, sources also said, considering the impact it could have on his continued role in coaching USA Basketball.
But ultimately, Miller opted for another challenge and took the GM role. Near the end of his time as coach/GM with the Connecticut Sun, Miller told ESPN that he thought it was becoming less feasible for one person to do that dual role. He thought the demands and focus needed for both positions were best split between two people, and that has become the norm now in the WNBA.
Miller being out of the mix for the five open coaching positions (plus the two for the 2026 expansion teams) means that pool got weaker in terms of high-quality candidates with a lot of WNBA experience. He was at the top of the list there. Now, we wait to see if other recently fired coaches such as Latricia Trammell, Teresa Weatherspoon, Tanisha Wright, Christie Sides and Eric Thibault will move to other franchises. And we're watching to see who emerges among candidates who haven't been head coaches in the WNBA. -- Voepel
Las Vegas Aces
Former GM: Natalie Williams (Oct. 26)
Williams' contract wasn't renewed as part of a restructuring of the Aces' front office (the team's announcement didn't elaborate on what other changes that entails). Williams -- who was hired in 2022 and played for the franchise when it was the Utah Starzz -- served as GM during Las Vegas' back-to-back championship seasons. -- Alexa Philippou
Indiana Fever
New GM: Amber Cox (Oct. 4)
Former GM: Lin Dunn (Oct. 4)
Cox comes to the Indiana as its new chief operating officer and GM after previously serving as COO of the Dallas Wings. Her other WNBA experience includes stints as an executive with the Connecticut Sun and Phoenix Mercury. Dunn, the longtime Fever fixture, moves on from GM to a senior advisor role. -- Philippou
Golden State Valkyries
New GM: Ohemaa Nyanin (May 6)
Nyanin, a former assistant general manager with the New York Liberty, was named the first general manager of the expansion Golden State Valkyries. Nyanin has extensive experience with FIBA and USA Basketball. The team also hired a vice president of basketball operations, Vanja Cernivec, who will report to Nyanin. -- Philippou