After a season that saw the team finish with only 10 wins, the Dallas Wings fired first-year head coach Chris Koclanes and now have to hire their fifth head coach in eight years. The Wings are reportedly looking for someone with significant coaching experience in the WNBA, NBA, or the NCAA. Sandy Brondello, whose contract with the Liberty wasn’t renewed, seems like the obvious choice. However, Brondello will also have many other suitors.
Finding the right head coach for a new era of Dallas Wings basketball won’t be easy because the job comes with a unique challenge that defined Koclanes’s time with the team and that not everyone is equipped to deal with. When the Wings drafted Paige Bueckers, they landed one of the brightest young stars in the game and a player with a huge fan base. Coaching such a high-profile player immediately puts you in the public eye, and that always comes with a lot of outside noise and criticism.
Chris Koclanes’s time with the Wings wasn’t easy
Chris Koclanes was one of several rookie head coaches to take over a team ahead of the 2025 season. All of those rookie head coaches faced their own individual struggles, but Koclanes’s struggles were the most scrutinized for two reasons: unlike Natalie Nakase and Karl Smesko he didn’t lead his team to many wins, and Wings fans didn’t feel like he was putting Paige Bueckers in the best position to succeed.
All season long, Dallas fans called for his job and even showed signs demanding that assistant coach Nola Henry take over the team at a game.
Koclanes wasn’t single-handedly responsible for the Wings’ bad season. Injuries played a role, and he wasn’t handed a well-constructed roster. DiJonai Carrington and NaLyssa Smith—two of the Wings’ prized offseason additions—clearly didn’t work out and were traded halfway through the season, leaving Koclanes with a young, inexperienced team. However, he was the one in the public eye, and that made him a fitting scapegoat.
Bueckers will draw just as many eyes in her second season as she did this year, and that means whoever takes over as her new head coach will have to be prepared to deal with the outside noise that comes with coaching a high-profile player.
The Wings have to nail this coaching hire
With Paige Bueckers and another top pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, the Wings have the opportunity to build the foundations for a future title run. Continuing to cycle through head coaches isn’t how you build the culture and consistency the organization needs to form a contender around Bueckers.
Arike Ogunbowale played under four head coaches in the seven seasons she spent with the Wings. Despite playing with other All-Stars, Ogunbowale never made it past the semifinals and missed out on the postseason four times. Now, she might find herself on a new team next season.
That is a trend the Wings desperately cannot continue with Bueckers. They need to build consistency and a winning culture. Hiring the right coach is the first step to achieving that.