There's no other way to really put it: it's not easy coming into the WNBA as an expansion team. Apart from the Golden State Valkyries, who blasted through pretty much every low expectation that people placed on them last season, there aren't a lot of examples of new teams coming into the league and having immediately success.
Perhaps no one is thinking about that more than the coaches who will head the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo. The two teams are set to join the WNBA this season once a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is signed and the teams can hold their own expansion drafts.
But drafting players to a roster is only one part of the what the two teams have to do as they prepare to enter the league and began playing games. As Linda Hargrove, the coach of the original Portland Fire, told Oregon Live this week, it's just "tough being an expansion team."
The original Fire faced expansion team woes
The original Portland Fire team also entered the WNBA as an expansion team. The team ultimately ended things with a 37-59 record over three seasons, and it wasn't immediately clear that the record was on track to substantially improve when then-owner Paul Allen shut the team down.
Hargrove pointed out that while an expansion draft allows a new team to put together a roster, they likely won't be able to draft the top players in the league. Instead, she said, the Tempo and Fire will be "getting their 8, 9 or 10 player off of another team." Hargrove added, "You can get good players, but not premier players."
Instead, she continued, Hargrove believes that both teams should focus on acquiring as many players as they can during free agency, which will take place after the expansion drafts. This year offers the Tempo and Fire a lot of options, as the majority of the league will be available as free agents.
The Portland Fire should focus on their community
Hargrove also had more advice for the incoming team: focus on the people around you. That's what the original Portland Fire team did to great success in the early 2000s. As she pointed out, the team poured into its fanbase, who were only too happy to do the same in reverse.
Hargrove moved on from the Fire to the Mystics, where she worked as a scout and an assistant coach before she became the GM for the team. She retired in 2008.