This week, the Seattle Storm and New York Liberty parted ways with head coaches Noelle Quinn and Sandy Brondello following first-round playoff exits. While I understand why both teams would feel like they underachieved, I'm not sure coaching was to blame in either case. Instead, these playoffs in general, and New York and Seattle in particular, have demonstrated the importance of building a team that fits together over assembling the best possible talent.

We’ll start with Seattle because I think that situation is more nuanced. Based on talent alone, they probably should have been competing for homecourt advantage in the first round, not the last team to secure a playoff berth. Seattle had three All-Stars this season, and they made a bold move at the trade deadline to add a fourth. And that doesn’t even include three-time All-Defensive Team player Ezi Magbegor and second overall draft pick Dominique Malonga. I will never understand how a team with those two bigs and former MVP Nneka Ogwumike finished last in the league in rebounding rate and second-to-last in defensive rebounding rate.

If Seattle wanted to make a coaching change based on that alone, I wouldn’t blame them, but Seattle’s issues went far beyond coaching. Seattle attempted a three-pointer on 27.7 percent of their possessions, ranking ninth in the league and worst among the eight playoff teams. We wondered all the way back in May if this team would shoot enough threes to be competitive, but they simply did not have the personnel to jack up a bunch of threes. Erica Wheeler, who led the team with 6.5 three-point attempts per 36 minutes, is a career 33.8 percent three-point shooter. Nneka Ogwumike shot 36.8 percent on threes in her career but this was her first season attempting more than 2.7 per 36 minutes. Skylar Diggins has shot 32.6 percent on threes in her career, while Brittney Sykes is at 30.2 percent. They look like snipers compared to Gabby Williams at 27.5 percent. I’m not sure it matters how many individual scorers and playmakers you have when your only floor spacer is the player who won the MVP for her post play.

Perhaps even more problematic than Seattle’s lack of outside shooting was the overlapping skillsets of their best players. Gabby Williams and Skylar Diggins are both great passers who use their size and vision to find open teammates. The problem is that only one of them can have the ball at any given time and neither is good off the ball. You can stagger them, but now you’re taking the ball out of Erica Wheeler’s hands or Brittney Sykes’s hands. Sykes was leading the league in free-throw attempts in Washington, but it’s a lot more difficult to draw fouls when you’re driving into a crowded lane.

There was even more overlap amongst the bigs. None of the three are great passers, and while Nneka can space the floor, that’s not her best use, either. Whichever two bigs are on the floor, both want to operate in the paint, and that just makes it harder for everyone. None of that was Noelle Quinn’s fault, but at the same time, its hard to argue that she did an amazing job or that this was a terrible decision.

The Liberty, on the other hand, seem to be making a Hall of Fame coach a scapegoat for an ill-conceived roster with bad injury luck. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton missing the entire season with a knee injury wasn’t Sandy Brondello’s fault. Breanna Stewart shooting 24.1 percent on threes was almost certainly not Brondello’s fault. Neither were the injuries to Stewart, Jonquel Jones and others. You could certainly argue that with better health or no Eurobasket, the Liberty would have earned a top-three seed, a better matchup in the first round, and would still be alive in the playoffs.

That being said, this is another case of the roster being less than the sum of its parts. The Liberty were never able to find a suitable replacement for Laney-Hamilton’s defense and ability to play off the ball. I think they likewise missed Kayla Thornton’s defense, rebounding and leadership. They replaced those players and Courtney Vandersloot with very good players who never fit quite as well, and I blame that, more than anything else, for their inability to return to the WNBA finals.

By contrast, the four remaining playoff rosters fit very well. Las Vegas struggled to integrate former All-Star Jewell Loyd, but they had a historic winning streak once they moved her to the bench in favor of Kierstan Bell. Bell is not nearly the player Loyd is, but she plays defense and doesn’t need the ball on offense. That has been more valuable in the starting lineup than Loyd’s scoring and playmaking.

The Mercury were questioned by many, including me, for not surrounding their big three with more proven talent. They benefited from DeWanna Bonner getting released by Indiana, but more importantly, players like Natasha Mack and Monique Akoa Makani fit perfectly next to Phoenix’s stars. They defend their butts off and don’t need the ball to be effective on offense.

The Fever have been great even with Bonner leaving and the rest of the roster getting injured, in part because all of the pieces fit. Lexie Hull has been the perfect three-and-D wing. Odyssey Sims gets the ball to the right players in the right spots. Kelsey Mitchell never stops moving and never misses a shot.

Minnesota technically has three All-Stars, but Kayla McBride is the best off-ball player in the league, and all of their rotation players can dribble, pass and shoot. They basically don’t have any weaknesses, which has gotten them much farther than additional star power could have.

The other thing we have to consider with regard to the coaching changes is the upcoming free agent bonanza in the offseason. While it will always be important to have a coach who gets the most out of players and puts them in a position to succeed, it is almost equally important to have a coach who players want to play for. So if the Liberty and Storm concluded they would do better in free agency with new coaches, it is difficult to fault them for making a change. I woul adjust keep in mind when we’re evaluating this offseason that the goal isn’t to compile the most talent or put together the best fantasy basketball team. Fit matters, maybe even more than talent. If we learn nothing else from the playoffs, we should know that.