Dallas Wings’ nightmare season falls on more shoulders than Chris Koclanes

It's hard to say that this season hasn't been a disaster for the Dallas Wings. Not much has panned out the way the organization had hoped, except for the revelation that is Paige Bueckers. As the season has finally wrapped up, now is the perfect time to look at this year's campaign to grade Chris Koclanes after his first year as a head coach and what was dropped in his lap.

Chris Koclanes and the front office share blame

The Wings were coming off a nine-win season, which earned them the number one pick in the draft. This was already a struggling team, and they made a bunch of changes to the roster during the offseason. They only brought back three players from the previous year's roster and expected the team to gel under the guidance of a first-year head coach. That's not really fair.

GM Curt Miller is on the record stating that he believed that with DiJonai Carrington as their "defender," Arike Ogunbowale as the "shot-maker," and Paige Bueckers coming in as their "efficient rookie," things would have worked smoothly. That sounds good in theory, but none of these players have worked together before, and the coach you gave them was a defensive specialist.

As a matter of fact, since the roster was completely flipped, none of these players had experience with each other, and chemistry is a huge part of team success. Nobody doubts that Koclanes is a good person, but was he ready for this jump? Maybe not.

His offense didn't have much structure at all. His philosophy dictated that players just flow together, let the ball have energy, and take smart shots. It's hard to find your place in an offense like that when you're used to having plays drawn up and roles assigned clearly. If everyone is the go-to player, nobody is.

As a result, the offense looked disjointed most of the time, most of the players didn't look comfortable, and you end up alienating veterans who know they could bring more to the table. If you need more proof, look no further than how well Carrington and NaLyssa Smith played after they were traded away from the Wings. Both players immediately brought value to their new surroundings.

The Wings roster had too many young players to thrive so soon

It was easy to get caught up in the success that the Indiana Fever had last year in Caitlin Clark's rookie season. However, it's not something that everyone should be looking to copy. That roster was constructed differently and had more veterans on it with experience together, and they complemented each other.

Dallas thought that when Paige came, they would just take off in a similar fashion, but the team was also playing JJ Quinerly, Aziaha James, and Li Yueru. These are all fun players to root for and have chances to be stellar players, but they are all very young and still learning. Young players are known for being inconsistent, so it's not really fair to ask them to provide the same level of winning as Indy had.

Those mistakes fall on the front office for trying to hit a turbo-boost when the team needed to coast for a bit. Koclanes isn't off the hook, though. He came in with a defensive background, and mostly, defense is about effort and attention to detail. Players have to buy in, and if they believe in what you're saying, most of the time, they will. But they finished the season dead last on defense by a wide margin.

When asked about the struggles facing the team, he often didn't have answers that made anyone feel better about his stewardship. He didn't come across as confident or knowledgeable too many times for anyone to be okay with, and it led to chants of "We want Nola" on more than a few occasions. Nola Henry is one of the assistant coaches on Koclanes' bench, so that's just awkward.

Now, to be fair, injuries absolutely decimated this team all season. When you look at the number of times a player was out, it's shocking. However, that doesn't excuse the lack of structure and effort we saw consistently.

Fortunately for Wings fans, it seems as though the front office figured out the error of its ways before the trade deadline. They shipped out some of those vets they brought in last offseason in favor of younger players and draft capital. Now they can build this thing organically and without rushing. That's the path to a successful and stable team here.

As for Coach Koclanes, it's hard to know what they'll do with him after one season, but he's Curt Miller's handpicked guy, so I don't see them moving on quite yet. They'll likely give him at least one more year to see if he can turn things around, and honestly, he deserves that.

I'm a proponent of giving coaches time to fix issues. Only poverty franchises fire coaches every year. Someone has to have a chance to build.