Liberty Signs Warriors Assistant: DeMarco New WNBA Coach 2026

WNBA Moves: New Coaches for the 2026 Season

After the 2025 season, several WNBA teams have made significant changes to their coaching staffs. The Dallas Wings, the New York Liberty, and the Seattle Storm have decided to part ways with their head coaches, opening a new chapter for these franchises. With the arrival of the expansion teams Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire next year, five vacancies open up for the 2026 season. The last vacant spot was filled on Friday, when the Liberty named Chris DeMarco, assistant coach of the Golden State Warriors, as their new head coach. DeMarco is the third coach with NBA ties to be hired as a WNBA head coach this offseason.

Chris DeMarco Joins the New York Liberty

DeMarco, who spent the last 13 years with the Warriors, where he was part of four NBA championships, takes the reins of the Liberty. Initially, he was part of Mark Jackson’s team, hired in 2012 as a video coordinator. DeMarco was the only coach that Steve Kerr kept when he took over in Golden State in 2015. During the last seasons, DeMarco has been mainly in charge of the Warriors’ defense, working individually with players like Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole. In addition, he is also the head coach of the Bahamas men’s national team. Liberty forward Jonquel Jones is a member of the Bahamas women’s national team.

DeMarco’s Adjustment with the Liberty

DeMarco will be able to use his experience with Golden State’s long-standing stars in New York. Sabrina Ionescu, who competed against Stephen Curry in a three-point contest, brings deep range and the ability to run the pick-and-roll or be dangerous without the ball. Ionescu will look to bounce back after recording 30% on three-point shots last season, her worst mark. Meanwhile, Breanna Stewart’s versatile playmaking and defense bring similarities to former Defensive Player of the Year Draymond Green. However, the Warriors have never had a post threat like Jones, giving DeMarco a more threatening option if he imports the split cuts that have been a hallmark of Kerr’s offense. The Liberty announced that they would not renew Sandy Brondello’s contract. Brondello is leaving after four seasons, one year after leading New York to the WNBA title in 2024. The Liberty had a 27-17 record this season and were the fifth seed in the playoffs. Sandy ends her time in New York as the winningest coach in franchise history, and she led us to heights never before seen as the first head coach to take the Liberty to a championship. We wish Sandy the best in her next chapter. Brondello, 57, was hired to coach the Liberty in December 2021 and had a 107-53 record in four seasons. Before New York, Brondello coached the Phoenix Mercury from 2014 to 2021, winning their first WNBA championship in 2014. She had a 150-108 record in eight seasons with Phoenix, reaching the playoffs every year. Brondello has also coached the Australian Olympic team and played in the WNBA from 1998 to 2003.

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Sandy Brondello to Lead Toronto Tempo

On November 4, Brondello was introduced as the coach of Toronto, where she outlined a clear vision for the Tempo: “To build a world-class franchise that competes at the highest level, create a strong and dynamic culture, and base everything we do on clear and consistent values.” Brondello said that the vision is deeply aligned with what Tempo general manager Monica Wright Rogers and the organization envision. Brondello said several times that there was a “partnership” between her and the franchise, a word she had previously used to describe what was missing at the New York Liberty, who let her go shortly after the season. Wright Rogers said he was looking for two attributes in Toronto’s first coach in franchise history: someone who would attract free agents and someone with coaching experience in the WNBA.

Something happened in New York and we were able to have the opportunity to get one of the best coaches in WNBA history… It would be imprudent not to try to sign her.

Monica Wright Rogers, Tempo General Manager

Brondello had some other coaching offers, but reiterated that the partnership Toronto was offering, as well as the opportunity to build something from scratch, made the Tempo the right choice. Brondello said the team’s identity and culture will develop once Toronto builds its roster, which it will do through the expansion draft, free agency, and the college draft. The coach, who won WNBA titles with Phoenix and New York, anticipates a fun and entertaining style of play.

The goal is to bring a championship to Toronto. My narrative hasn’t changed. I like to win, it’s fun. But I also know it’s difficult. We will work from scratch, building the right culture, adding the right players and making sure we keep working together so we can put the best product on the court.

Sandy Brondello, Coach of the Toronto Tempo

With two championships and a regular season record of 452-271, Brondello gives instant competitive credibility to the Tempo, which begins playing in 2026. She has been a WNBA head coach for 13 seasons and an assistant for eight. Brondello’s extensive knowledge of the WNBA and international play will aid the Tempo’s roster-building decisions. And Brondello’s friendly and humble personality also makes her a top-tier asset for the Tempo, as the franchise looks to establish itself not only as Toronto’s team, but as Canada’s team. The Tempo will host games at the Coca Cola Coliseum in Toronto, while also playing two regular season games in Montreal and two in Vancouver.

Sonia Raman Takes the Helm of the Seattle Storm

The Storm moved quickly to hire a head coach, choosing New York Liberty assistant Sonia Raman for the position. She replaces Noelle Quinn, who was fired after Seattle’s elimination in the first round of the WNBA playoffs. About Raman: Having won the Coach of the Year award for leading the Golden State Valkyries to the playoffs in their debut season, Natalie Nakase was arguably the strongest hire of the last WNBA coaching cycle. Raman’s track record is similar to Nakase’s, with a four-year stint as an NBA assistant coach for the Memphis Grizzlies, followed by a season on Sandy Brondello’s staff.

Between her time in Memphis and her joining the Liberty, Raman frequently visited the Storm’s practices during the 2024 training camp. Now, she is tasked with getting more out of a Seattle group that declined in the second half of last season, despite adding a fourth All-Star, the most in the league, with a trade for guard Brittney Sykes.

Raman’s task will be twofold: to improve the team’s offense to compete in the short term and, at the same time, to develop a future core led by the number 2 pick, Dominique Malonga, a member of the All-Rookie team and the youngest player in the league at 19 years old. The Storm will also add a 2026 lottery pick via the Los Angeles Sparks. Like Nakase, Raman is a pioneer on the court. She will follow Nakase as the second Asian-American head coach in the WNBA and will be the first of Indian descent. Why Quinn was fired: Quinn, 40, joined the Storm’s coaching staff as an assistant in 2019, then succeeded Dan Hughes after he resigned six games into the 2021 season due to health issues. She finished with a 97-89 regular season record and a 4-8 playoff mark. Quinn also played in the WNBA from 2007 to 2018, including two seasons with the Storm. Only Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx had a longer tenure in a WNBA head coaching position than Quinn. Although Quinn led the Storm to the inaugural Commissioner’s Cup title and four playoff appearances in five seasons, Seattle did not meet expectations after adding Skylar Diggins and Nneka Ogwumike before the 2024 campaign. According to league sources, and as first reported in The Seattle Times, Jewell Loyd asked the Storm to fire Quinn after the team’s sweep in the first round of 2024 against Las Vegas. Diggins and Ogwumike supported Quinn to keep her job. After an investigation in response to Loyd’s accusations of harassment and bullying that found no violations by the coaching staff, Loyd was traded to the Las Vegas Aces, who eliminated Seattle in a hard-fought three-game series in the first round of this year’s playoffs. Assuming the core of Diggins, Ogwumike, and Gabby Williams returns in free agency, the biggest challenge for Quinn’s replacement will be to improve the team’s half-court offense. The Storm ranked tenth in points per possession outside of transition, according to GeniusIQ tracking. In addition to a solid organization and facilities, Seattle was able to sell candidates on the promise of coaching the No. 2 pick, Malonga, who was fourth in ESPN’s ranking of talents under 25 as a 19-year-old rookie.

Jose Fernandez, new leader of the Dallas Wings

The Wings are about to hire their sixth coach since 2018 (not including a short-term interim). This time, the Wings are going with a long-time college coach: Jose Fernandez from South Florida. He takes over a team that has the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year, Paige Bueckers, and a lottery pick in 2026, but has had a 19-65 record in the last two seasons. Fernandez spent 25 seasons at USF, with a record of 485-317. He has no WNBA experience, as was the case with two hires from the college game last season in Karl Smesko of the Atlanta Dream and Lynne Roberts of the Los Angeles Sparks. If you’re looking for a consistent philosophical thread connecting the Wings’ coaching hires over the last seven years, you won’t find it. Longtime professional and college coach Fred Williams made the move with the Tulsa franchise to Dallas in 2016 and then resigned at the end of the 2018 season. Since then, the Wings have had a two-time WNBA champion coach (Brian Agler), a former WNBA player (Vickie Johnson), someone who had coached at the high school, college, and professional levels (Latricia Trammell), and Koclanes, who had been an assistant at the college and professional levels. None stayed in the job longer than two years, so that will be part of the challenge for Fernandez. The Wings hope he can succeed with the Wings as Smesko did with the Dream, leading them to a 30-14 record last season. Like Fernandez, Smesko also had a lot of success at the high school level in Florida. Why Koclanes was fired: Koclanes was fired after a single season with Dallas, which had a 10-34 record, tied for the worst record in the league. He was hired to succeed Trammell last December after the Wings had a 9-31 record and failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2020. Previously, he spent two seasons as an assistant to Lindsay Gottlieb for the USC women’s basketball team and eight seasons in the WNBA working under current Wings general manager Curt Miller, who previously coached the Los Angeles Sparks and Connecticut Sun. It’s difficult to judge any coach in a season. Considering Dallas’ struggles in 2024, it’s not as if everyone expected the Wings to make a huge leap in 2025. Injuries to players like Arike Ogunbowale and Maddy Siegrist hurt, and the preseason moves to bring NaLyssa Smith and DiJonai Carrington to Dallas didn’t work out, as both were traded during the season. Koclanes could have grown into the job if he had been given more time, but that hasn’t been the way the Wings operate. The Wings began in Detroit in 1998 and won three WNBA championships in 12 years in that city. Since moving to Tulsa in 2010 and then to Dallas in 2016, they have only had winning records twice in 16 years, reaching the playoffs six times.

Alex Sarama Joins the Portland Fire

Sarama is an assistant for the Cleveland Cavaliers, whose previous coaching stints include the London Lions, Paris Basketball, and RipCity Remix. Sarama is a leading authority on CLA (Constraints-Led Approach), a training system that has become popular in European basketball, soccer, and increasingly in the NBA, specifically with Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs. CLA is a training methodology that emphasizes adaptability, improvisation, and decision-making instead of predetermined movement patterns and exercises. For example, Sarama will rarely perform the same exercise twice, but will use small-sided games with different constraints, such as rule adjustments, scoring changes, or time limits, to force players to make decisions under pressure. Sarama told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne that having the opportunity to implement CLA with an expansion team is an ideal scenario, because he and general manager Vanja Černivec can hire people to fit within the new system.