Alex Sarama, Cavs Assistant, Will Coach New WNBA Team in Portland

Alex Sarama, new coach of the Portland Fire

The Portland Fire, a WNBA expansion team, has hired Alex Sarama as their inaugural head coach. Sarama, who served as an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers, arrives with the mission of leading the project from its beginnings. Sarama is recognized as an expert in an innovative training system that has gained popularity in European basketball, soccer, and, increasingly, in the NBA. Players like Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs and coaches like Kenny Atkinson of Cleveland are proponents of this approach. Sarama expressed that having the opportunity to implement the principles of CLA (Constraint-Led Approach) with an expansion team is ideal. This is because he and the general manager, Vanja Černivec, can hire personnel that fit the new system, avoiding the need to unlearn previous systems.

I’ve had this philosophy for a while. And I think the setup to be able to do it with an expansion team is unique. We will have the opportunity to impact every department and have a completely unified approach where everyone works in perfect harmony.

Alex Sarama

The challenge for the Fire will be to match the success the Golden State Valkyries had in their first year in the WNBA. However, the team is confident in its leaders and its unique approach to achieve this. Černivec, coming from the Valkyries, where she was vice president of basketball operations, has a deep knowledge of the European market. She met Sarama years ago at the NBA office in Madrid, and was impressed by his intellect and passion for coaching.

For me, he was a genius. He produced documents and work that took me two hours; he did it in five or ten minutes. I just thought: “How does this guy’s brain work?” And his obsession was always training.

Vanja Černivec

In addition to his academy, Sarama had successful experiences as a coach with the London Lions and Paris Basketball. His fame grew after the publication of his bestseller, “Transforming Basketball”, in 2024. Atkinson, who read the book, incorporated him as a player development coach for the Cavaliers. The CLA is a training methodology that emphasizes adaptability, improvisation, and decision-making, rather than predetermined movement patterns and exercises. Sarama rarely repeats the same exercise, using games with restrictions to force players to make decisions under pressure. Sarama explained that the players appreciate this approach, as it offers a significant change from what they are used to in their NBA careers, making it more attractive and creative. Hiring coaches from the NBA is increasingly common in the WNBA, reflecting the success of teams like the Phoenix Mercury, under the direction of Nate Tibbetts and Nick U’Ren, and Natalie Nakase, coach of the Valkyries.

The most beautiful part for us is being able to start from scratch. Once you have a team, it’s very difficult to unlearn what people know and open their minds to something different.

Vanja Černivec

Sarama and the Cavaliers are still discussing when she will leave Cleveland to start full-time in Portland. The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement expires on October 31, and it is still unknown how the negotiations will affect the expansion draft and free agency. For now, she will remain in Cleveland, but she hopes that her start in Portland, which will begin playing in May 2026, will not be delayed much.