Quick Three: Chicago Sky Fire Teresa Weatherspoon
The Sky decide to course correct before letting their new era get off the runway--but does it make any sense?
In shocking news, multiple sources—primarily the Chicago Sun-Times’ Annie Costabile—reported late on Thursday night that the Sky decided to fire rookie head coach Teresa Weatherspoon after less than 12 months in charge and a 13-27 record in 2024. The move seemed to shock many across the WNBA world because of the swiftness with which it followed a supposed foundational year for a franchise that, for one reason or another, hasn’t been able to get out of its way in the past. The hiring of Weatherspoon, announcement of a new practice facility in 2026, and drafting of two college superstars meant the Sky were supposed to be on a new track—with a clear direction and a plan for sustainable improvement and player retention long term. Instead, they’re now halfway back to square one with the firing of a coach who was largely popular with her team despite some obvious concerns with her job performance as she learned on the job a season ago. Let’s try to unpack the decision and where the franchise goes from here.
1. Sky Franchise Still Lacks Clear Leadership & Vision
Let’s address the elephant in the room — Teresa Weatherspoon had obvious flaws in her first year as a WNBA head coach. Her rotations (as I highlighted all year) were not great, her offensive play calling was too rudimentary at times (as players highlighted in their exit interviews), and the Sky couldn’t close a game to save their lives (8-16 record, 35.7% FG in clutch games). That said, some of those problems were expected given the roster the team had. Injuries all throughout the season impacted the rotations, the lack of shooters to space the floor limited some of the offensive options, and the roster’s tendency to lean towards scoring in the pain meant opposing defenses could tighten up easily in crunch time. The decisions Weatherspoon made, of course, compounded these problems at times, but a better roster would’ve covered some of these issues and allowed the first-time head coach to learn more quickly. Instead, Weatherspoon was given a new team (only 3 returning players) with a lot of youth (5 key rotational players were 25 or younger on opening day) that most expected to finish near the bottom of the standings in the preseason. The Sky outperformed expectations for a while, but their issues eventually caught up with them—especially when the team dealt Marina Mabrey (arguably the team’s best player) at the deadline.
Which leads me back to the franchise’s overall mismanagement. If this season wasn’t good enough, what would have been? Would making the playoffs with the skeleton crew left after a number of injuries late in the season have saved Weatherspoon’s job? By my understanding, the idea behind hiring Weatherspoon was that she fit the identity the franchise wanted to cultivate amongst their roster—gritty, determined and optimistic. If you want to hire a coach with those characteristics, there’s bound to be an expectation that they have flaws in other areas of their coaching tool kit. If they don’t have those flaws, they’re probably not available to be hired in the first place. When the coach you’re hiring to fit that profile is also a first-time head coach (or WNBA coach of any kind) in the league she’ll be coaching in, it should only further your expectation that she’ll probably need time to figure out some of the technical aspects of the job.
So, if you’re not prepared to give that person the time to figure those things out, why make the hire in the first place? Were the mistakes in offensive planning and execution that she contributed to so bad that the Sky couldn’t stand another season? Would another year with both coach and players improving (plus, presumably, some free agent or college shooters arriving) not have helped things be better in 2025? Isn’t a developmental culture built around patience?
There’s so many questions, and the biggest issue is that the Sky’s history as a franchise suggests they do not have the answers to these questions. Perhaps, there’s some incredible new coach the Sky will hire that will lead them to glory in the near future—making all this seem a foolish discussion. Regardless, that wouldn’t change the fact that the Sky have just wasted a year with a coach that they clearly weren’t prepared to give a chance to learn. That fact alone means the decision to both hire and fire Weatherspoon doesn’t make sense in context. Because if we rewind all the way back to the hiring process, the Sky dismissed a coach who was good at the technical aspects of coaching to hire Weatherspoon.
Emre Vatansever, while not the charismatic force of nature that Weatherspoon was, excelled at many of the things she’s now being fired for failing at. His offensive system was defined, that pick-and-roll heavy set-up worked in the final portion of the season, his team closed games, his rotations were relatively stable (albeit health helped quite a bit) and his systems played to the strengths of his players. So, if the goal all along was to have an ace coach, the Sky already had a coach that could do that. I’m not saying Emre was Phil Jackson, but he was sharp in his short stint—especially when it mattered most. By hiring a new coach with a different profile, the Sky chose a different direction. And that’s totally okay. It’s the decision to abandon that direction so soon after that shows this franchise’s leadership—from top to bottom—is still a bit lacking. So long as that’s the case, the questions others have about the franchise—particularly free agents considering whether to come to Chicago—will continue.
2. Why Not Pagliocca?
If Weatherspoon was dismissed for her shortcomings, why should GM Jeff Pagliocca be any different? The obvious answer is he drafted Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso, but most of the other transactions the first-time executive made throughout the season showed his inexperience. The trade that sent Kahleah Copper to Phoenix—despite bringing back that pick that landed Cardoso—didn’t represent superb value. Of course, the flashes Cardoso showed as rookie means this one may eventually end up looking like a solid trade (especially if Michaela Onyenwere continues to grow into a bigger role in 2025), but we’re still talking about a deal that sent a genuine MVP candidate (who was only 29) in the opposite direction—meaning the bar will be pretty high long-term. And even if you like this deal, the trades that followed later in 2024 were even more slanted against the Sky.
To get back in the first round of the draft, Pagliocca gave away a pair of useful rotational players (Yueru and Allemand) to acquire the eighth pick from LA. That pick was never likely to get the Sky a plug-and-play rotational option because of the draft’s composition—which saw seven impact players slotted to go 1-7. As a result, the Sky were forced into another trade to jump from 8 up to 7. The Minnesota Lynx, operating from a position of power after stacking their roster full of talented players in free agency, knew Chicago was in a predicament and took full advantage. To move down just a single slot, the Lynx got Sika Koné (who they eventually used as part of their package to acquire a key veteran piece for their 2024 title hunt) and rights to swap 2026 first-round picks with the Sky. That 2026 pick will be decided based on next year’s finishing position, and it’s highly unlikely that Minnesota will fall off in 2025 as all of their key players except Natisha Hiedeman are already under contract through next season.
The Sky’s fanbase repeatedly raked James Wade over the coals for the pick swaps he gave up to acquire Marina Mabrey but allowing this swap to go to Minnesota has to register as an equally (if not considerably more) dangerous decision. Yes, it led to the Sky acquiring Angel Reese with the 7th pick, and she’s likely to be a building block moving forward. However, the Sky also considerably over paid for a one position movement in the draft. Both can be true, and it’s in no way a criticism of Reese or the decision to draft her (which obviously looks to be a home run based on her rookie season).
Even then, that may not be the worst of the trades as the Marina Mabrey deal was also heavily unbalanced. Like Copper before her, Mabrey asked to be dealt, and I give the front office credit for acquiescing to players’ requests (unhappy players are not good for a locker room’s chemistry), but there’s no reason to give them away for pennies on the dollar. The players that came back are, at best, rotational options, and the picks are highly unlikely to materialize into anything of significant value long term. If the next few drafts yield incredible pick after incredible pick, Pagliocca may eventually wind up scoring okay for many of these deals, but it’s hard for me to understand why he’d have any additional job security as compared to Weatherspoon (especially considering he had even less qualifications for this position than the coach had for hers at time of hire).
3. Who Next?
This is the real pickle — who are you going to hire that won’t give you some of the same problems Weatherspoon had? Aside from former Suns and Sparks coach Curt Miller, the list of names who are both available and have more than a season’s worth of experience as a WNBA head coach is bleak. Vanessa Nygaard and Derek Fisher are the two most recently dismissed head coaches without a job of any kind, and I think it’s pretty obvious that neither will be candidates for this or any other WNBA head coach position in the near future. Thus, the only likely options are to (1) return to hiring an assistant of some kind or (2) trying to pry someone from the college ranks. While far from impossible, I would rule #2 out right away—at least when it comes to truly improving upon Weatherspoon. Dawn Staley and Geno Auriemma aren’t leaving their cushy gigs, and there’s few other NCAA coaches who carry the prestige needed to completely overrule their lack of WNBA experience.
As for assistants, most will carry the same baggage as Weatherspoon did upon her arrival in Chicago. A coach like Phoenix’s Nate Tibbetts (who was a lead NBA assistant) or Latricia Trammell (who was a lead W assistant) could be an improvement in the sense that they come from closer to the head chair than Weatherspoon was in New Orleans, but even then there’s still a huge delta between lead assistant and head coach material. The coaches that have some experience as leading figures and are now back as assistants (like, for instance, Minnesota’s Katie Smith) have taken a step back for a reason (a 17-51 record for example). That’s not to say they can’t be successful the second time around or that the Sky can’t put faith in an assistant of any kind making the leap to the head coaching job; it’s just to call out the obvious—all problems are not fixed with a coach whose CV is slightly more distinguished. The shortcomings with the Sky’s roster are unlikely to be completely overhauled this offseason, and 2025 will likely be another year where the Sky push for a playoff berth but struggle to climb much higher.
At the same time, the Sky will also have to compete with other teams—including the new expansion team in Golden State—for the top assistants that are up for grabs. Las Vegas’ Natalie Nakase, for instance, figures to be one of the most oft-mentioned names for head coaching roles after narrowly missing out on such a position last winter, and all signs would point towards the Bay area being a more suitable landing spot at this point—even with all the warts that expansion teams inevitably carry. That the Sky—even after a 20-year head start—are still behind the curve compared to a brand new team speaks volumes about the issues the franchise has from top to bottom, and the quick dismissal of a head coach that was supposed to represent a change in the organization’s thinking underlines how much work still needs to be done to get Chicago’s franchise up to speed with the rest of its WNBA counterparts.