Two more pieces of the WNBA coaching puzzle fell into place this week as the Dallas Wings and Seattle Storm both filled their coaching vacancies. With four of the five open positions filled thus far, each team has gone in a different direction, while nonetheless furthering the hiring trends we have seen in recent years. As we did last week for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire hires, let’s take a look at what these new coaches will bring to their teams and the WNBA at large.

After the Dallas Wings struck out on Sandy Brondello, it was reported that they were looking for candidates with head coaching experience to replace Chris Koclanes, who went 10-34 with the Wings last season, his first as a head coach. While they were reportedly looking at former Kings and Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger, among others, they instead settled on longtime South Florida head coach Jose Fernandez.

Fernandez follows Karl Smesko and Lynne Roberts, who were hired last season by the Dream and Sparks despite no previous WNBA experience. Like Fernandez, both Smesko and Roberts have decades of college coaching experience, though not exactly at powerhouse schools. Roberts and Smesko had been head coaches since 2002, with Smesko spending that entire time at Florida Gulf Coast while Roberts coached at three different schools, including the last nine years at Utah.

Through one season, it's fair to say those hires were a mixed bag. Smesko finished second in the Coach of the Year voting, with 15 votes compared to 53 for Golden State’s Natalie Nakase. He brought his three-point-heavy offense from Florida Gulf Coast to Atlanta and was largely successful. Atlanta was second in both three-point attempts per game and percentage of shots that were threes. They finished second in the regular season in offensive rating and net rating before losing to the Indiana Fever in three games in the first round of the playoffs.

Like Smesko, Roberts was known for her teams taking a lot of threes, but that did not translate as smoothly to the WNBA. Both teams shot 33.7 percent on threes but the Sparks were sixth in three-point attempts per game. They finished sixth in offensive rating but 10th in defensive rating, ultimately finishing two games behind the Golden State Valkyries for the last playoff spot. Roberts certainly wasn’t the worst of the seven new head coaches in the league last season, but she wasn’t the best, either. Dallas will certainly be hoping Fernandez makes the transition to the WNBA game better than Roberts did.

Unlike Smesko, Roberts, and even new Fire head coach Alex Sarama, Fernandez doesn’t necessarily have a coaching style or philosophy he is known for. His teams have been good but not great, though he has had seven players selected in the WNBA draft. Wings general manager Curt Miller has spoken repeatedly about wanting the Wings to be a top organization that players want to be a part of, so it stands to reason that a big part of Fernandez’s job is going to be creating a winning culture in Dallas. In a league in which all but two veterans are free agents this offseason, the Wings have five players on rookie contracts, along with the rights to Awak Kuier and seven others. With so many cheap contracts on the books, they could be major players in free agency as they look to build around Paige Bueckers and a lottery pick in the upcoming draft. Fernandez will be tasked with blending whatever veterans the Wings add with their young core in a way that leads to more wins than last season.

Seattle’s hiring of Liberty assistant Sonia Raman continues yet another hiring trend in the WNBA, which is to hire coaches with a variety of experience in different leagues, including the WNBA. The Nakase, as mentioned above, and the Chicago Sky’s Tyler Marsh were both hired after two seasons on the Las Vegas Aces staff. Both also had previous NBA and G-League experience. Marsh joined the Aces from the Indiana Pacers after getting his start with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers while Nakase had been in the Clippers organization since 2017, with stints with the Los Angeles Clippers and the G-League Agua Caliente Clippers.

Sonia Raman spent one season on Sandy Brondello’s staff in New York following four seasons with the Memphis Grizzlies. Like Jose Fernandez, Raman was a candidate for previous WNBA head coaching opportunities before inking a deal this offseason.

I would guess that the Storm are going to try to resign at least some of their veteran free agents to make a run at the playoffs with second-year center Dominique Malonga. Raman helped coach a talent-laden Liberty squad that was third in the league in net rating despite dealing with injuries to key players all season. Seattle had three All-Stars of its own before trading for a fourth in Brittney Sykes, but even with all that talent and former All-Star Ezi Magbegor, they only finished seventh in the regular season before losing to Las Vegas in the first round. I think Nneka Ogwumike and Gabby Williams are the most likely veterans to return, and Seattle probably needs to add some outside shooting as well. Seattle might be the most interesting team this offseason, especially since I am eager to see what ingredients Sonia Raman will have to work with in her first WNBA head coaching job.