Following the 2025 season, the Dallas Wings, New York Liberty and Seattle Storm cut ties with their head coaches.
With the expansion Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire joining the WNBA next year, that left five openings for the 2026 season.
The dominoes quickly fell once the WNBA Finals wrapped: On Oct. 17, the Fire hired Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Alex Sarama as their head coach. The Tempo struck next, hiring Sandy Brondello -- who parted ways with the Liberty in September -- on Oct. 22.
A day later, the Wings filled their open position by hiring from the college ranks: South Florida coach Jose Fernandez. A day after that, the Storm filled their position with a former NBA and WNBA assistant Sonia Raman. Now, there's just one head coaching position open, at New York.
ESPN is tracking all of the hirings and firings, and providing analysis, as they happen.
Toronto Tempo
New coach: Sandy Brondello (Oct. 22)
Introduced Nov. 4 as Toronto's coach, Brondello laid out a clear vision for the Tempo: "To build a world-class franchise that competes at the highest level, to create a strong and dynamic culture and to root everything we do in clear and consistent values."
Brondello said the vision is deeply aligned with what Tempo GM Monica Wright Rogers and the organization picture. Multiple times, Brondello said there was a "partnership" between her and the franchise -- a word she has previously used to describe what was lacking with the New York Liberty, who let her go shortly after the season.
Wright Rogers said she was looking for two attributes in Toronto's first coach in franchise history: someone who would attract free agents and someone with WNBA coaching experience.
"Something happened in New York and we were able to have a crack at one of the best coaches in WNBA history," Wright Rodgers said. "... You would be unwise not to try to land her."
Brondello had a few other coaching offers but reiterated that the partnership Toronto was offering, as well as the opportunity to build something from scratch, made the Tempo the correct choice.
Brondello said the team's identity and culture will develop once Toronto builds out its roster, which it will do via the expansion draft, free agency and the collegiate draft. The coach, who won WNBA titles with Phoenix and New York, anticipates a fun and entertaining style of play.
"The goal is to bring a championship to Toronto," Brondello said. "My narrative hasn't changed. I like winning, it's fun. But I also know it's hard. We'll go to work starting from the ground up, building the right culture, adding the right players, and making sure we continue to work together so we can put the best product on the floor." -- Kendra Andrews
With two championships and a 452-271 regular-season record, Brondello gives instant competitive credibility to the expansion Tempo, who begin play in 2026. She has been a WNBA head coach for 13 seasons and an assistant for eight. Brondello, 57, also has represented Australia in international play as either a player or coach since the 1980s. She also played in the WNBA for five seasons.
Brondello spent eight years as head coach of the Phoenix Mercury, winning a title in 2014. The Mercury didn't retain her after the 2021 season, when they lost in the WNBA Finals to Chicago, but she was hired quickly by the New York Liberty.
In four seasons with New York, Brondello led the Liberty to the 2023 WNBA Finals, followed by the franchise's first league championship in 2024. After a first-round exit this year, the Liberty parted ways with Brondello. GM Jonathan Kolb explained the decision was based not on this past season's results but on his belief that "evolution and innovation is what is needed" for the Liberty's long-term future.
Brondello's extensive knowledge of the WNBA and the international game will aid the Tempo's roster-building decisions. And Brondello's friendly, humble personality also makes her a strong front-facing asset for the Tempo as the franchise looks to establish itself not just as Toronto's team, but Canada's team.
The Tempo will host games at the Coca Cola Coliseum in Toronto, while also playing two regular-season games in Montreal and two in Vancouver. -- Michael Voepel
Seattle Storm
Former coach: Noelle Quinn (Sept. 21)
New coach: Sonia Raman (Oct. 24)
The Storm quickly moved to hire a head coach, tapping New York Liberty assistant Sonia Raman for the role. She replaces Noelle Quinn, who was let go after Seattle's first-round elimination in the WNBA playoffs.
About Raman: Having won Coach of the Year for leading the expansion Golden State Valkyries to the playoffs in their debut season, Natalie Nakase was arguably the strongest hire of the last WNBA coaching cycle. Raman's background bears similarity to Nakase's, with a four-year stint as an NBA assistant coach for the Memphis Grizzlies followed by spending last season on Sandy Brondello's staff.
Between her time in Memphis and joining the Liberty, Raman was a frequent visitor at Storm practices during 2024 training camp. Now, she's charged with getting more out of a Seattle group that slumped in the second half of last season despite adding a league-high fourth All-Star with a deadline trade for guard Brittney Sykes.
Raman's task will be twofold: improving the team's offense to contend in the short term while also developing a future core led by No. 2 pick Dominique Malonga, an All-Rookie team member and the league's youngest player at age 19. The Storm will also add a 2026 lottery pick via the Los Angeles Sparks.
Like Nakase, Raman is a trailblazer on the sidelines. She'll follow Nakase as the second Asian-American WNBA head coach and be the first of Indian descent.
Why Quinn was let go: Quinn, 40, joined the Storm coaching staff as an assistant in 2019, then succeeded Dan Hughes after he stepped down six games into the 2021 season due to health reasons. She finished with a 97-89 record in the regular season and a 4-8 mark in the playoffs.
Quinn also played in the WNBA from 2007 to 2018, including two stints with the Storm.
Only the Minnesota Lynx's Cheryl Reeve had longer tenure in a WNBA head coaching job than Quinn. Although Quinn led the Storm to the inaugural Commissioner's Cup title and four playoff appearances in five seasons, Seattle fell short of expectations after adding Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike ahead of the 2024 campaign.
Per league sources and first reported by The Seattle Times, Jewell Loyd asked the Storm to fire Quinn after the team's 2024 first-round sweep against Las Vegas. Diggins and Ogwumike supported Quinn keeping her job. After an investigation in response to Loyd's allegations of bullying and harassment found no violations by the coaching staff, Loyd was traded to the Las Vegas Aces, who eliminated Seattle in a hard-fought three-game series in this year's first round of the playoffs.
Assuming the core of Diggins, Ogwumike and Gabby Williams returns in free agency, the biggest challenge for Quinn's replacement will be improving the team's half-court offense. The Storm ranked 10th in points per possession outside of transition, per GeniusIQ tracking. In addition to a strong organization and facilities, Seattle was able to sell candidates on the promise of coaching No. 2 pick Malonga, who was fourth on ESPN's ranking of under-25 talent as a 19-year-old rookie. -- Kevin Pelton
Dallas Wings
Former coach: Chris Koclanes (Sept. 30)
New coach: Jose Fernandez (Oct. 23)
About Fernandez: The Wings are set to bring on their sixth coach since 2018 (not including one short-term interim). This time, the Wings are going with a longtime college coach: South Florida's Jose Fernandez. He takes over a team that has 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers and a lottery pick in 2026, but has gone 19-65 over the past two seasons.
Fernandez spent 25 seasons at USF, going 485-317. He has no WNBA experience -- as was the case with two hires from the college game last season in the Atlanta Dream's Karl Smesko and the Los Angeles Sparks' Lynne Roberts.
If you're looking for a consistent philosophical thread connecting the Wings' coaching hires in the past seven years, you won't find one. Longtime pro and college coach Fred Williams made the move with the franchise from Tulsa to Dallas in 2016 and then stepped down late in the 2018 season. Since then, the Wings have had a two-time WNBA championship coach (Brian Agler), a former WNBA player (Vickie Johnson), someone who had coached at the high school, college and pro levels (Latricia Trammell) and Koclanes, who had been an assistant at the college and pro levels. None remained on the job more than two years, so that will be part of the challenge for Fernandez.
The Wings will hope he can find success with the Wings like Smesko did with the Dream, leading them to a 30-14 mark this past season. Like Fernandez, Smesko also previously had a lot of success at the mid-major level in Florida.
Why Koclanes was let go: Koclanes was let go after a single season with Dallas, which went 10-34 -- tied for the worst record in the league. He was hired to succeed Trammel last December after the Wings went 9-31 and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2020.
He previously spent two seasons as an assistant under Lindsay Gottlieb for the USC women's basketball team and eight seasons in the WNBA working under current Wings GM Curt Miller, who previously coached the Los Angeles Sparks and Connecticut Sun.
It's hard to judge any coach on one season. Considering Dallas' struggles in 2024, it's not as if everyone was expecting the Wings to make a huge jump in 2025. Injuries to players such as Arike Ogunbowale and Maddy Siegrist hurt, and offseason moves to bring NaLyssa Smith and DiJonai Carrington to Dallas didn't work out as both then were traded during the season.
Koclanes might have grown into the job if he were given more time, but that has not been how the Wings operate.
The Wings started in Detroit in 1998 and won three WNBA championships in 12 years in that city. Since moving to Tulsa in 2010 and then Dallas in 2016, they have had winning records only twice in 16 years, making the playoffs six times. -- Michael Voepel
Portland Fire
New coach: Alex Sarama (Oct. 17)
Sarama is an assistant with the Cleveland Cavaliers whose previous coaching stints include the London Lions, Paris Basketball and the RipCity Remix. Sarama is one of the leading authorities on CLA (Constraints-Led Approach), a training system that has become popular in European basketball, soccer and increasingly in the NBA, specifically with the San Antonio Spurs' Victor Wembanyama.
CLA is a training methodology that emphasizes adaptability, improvisation and decision-making rather than predetermined movement patterns and drills. For example, Sarama will rarely run the same drill twice, instead using small-sided games with different constraints -- like rule tweaks, scoring changes or time limits -- to force players to make decisions under pressure. Sarama told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne that having the chance to implement CLA with an expansion team is an ideal scenario, because he and general manager Vanja Černivec can hire people to fit within the new system.
New York Liberty
Former coach: Sandy Brondello (Sept. 23)
The Liberty announced they will not renew Brondello's contract. She's out after four seasons, and exits a year after leading New York to the 2024 WNBA title. The Liberty went 27-17 this season and were the No. 5 seed in the playoffs.
In a statement, Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb said, "Sandy finishes her tenure in New York as the winningest coach in franchise history, and she took us to never-before-seen heights as the first head coach to lead the Liberty to a championship. We wish Sandy the very best in her next chapter."
Brondello, 57, was hired to coach the Liberty in December 2021 and went 107-53 in four seasons. Prior to New York, Brondello coached the Phoenix Mercury from 2014-2021, winning her first WNBA championship in 20214. She had a 150-108 record in eight seasons with Phoenix, making the playoffs every year.
Brondello also has coached the Australian Olympic team and played in the WNBA from 1998-2003.
MORE: Liberty GM: Moving on from Brondello was proactive move
MORE: Liberty's top coaching candidates, and where does Brondello land?