A case for the finalists, from their players » Winsidr

We are in September and nearing the end of the WNBA regular season. Teams are jockeying for playoff positioning, and in addition to that, it’s also award season.

There’s been a ton of discussion around the MVP Award race, with Napheesa Collier and A’ja Wilson leading the way, along with Alyssa Thomas, Allisha Gray, and Kelsey Plum also in the conversation.

But one award race that may be tighter than any other race doesn’t involve the players directly, but instead the coach at the helm.

That’s right, the Coach of the Year Award is a wide-open race as the season winds down. And that has us begging the question: which coach will take home the prize?

Instead of having our staff make the argument, we went directly to the sources to make their case for why their coach should take home the award.

I spoke to players from the Dream, the Aces, and the Valkyries, and my Winsidr teammate Mitchell Hansen spoke to players from the Lynx who advocated for their respective coach.

Let’s get to it by breaking down the case for the award, what they had to say, and what role they fill in the award voting.

Minnesota Lynx

Head Coach: Cheryl ReeveThe Role: WNBA Title Frontrunner

An overview:

The Lynx came into the season with the third-highest win total via Bet MGM at 30.5 – a number that they have comfortably eclipsed as they’ve locked up the No. 1 overall seed for the playoffs.

“I feel like she should be Coach of the Year, we’re the number one team,” Courtney Williams said of Reeve. “Even what our team was able to do when Phee [Napheesa Collier] went down, that takes coaching, right? That takes putting that belief in your players and letting them know that we’re going to be all right.”

Williams isn’t wrong, as the Lynx went 5-2 without Collier as she missed seven games with an ankle injury.

The Lynx lead the league in points per game, offensive rating, defensive rating, and net rating, which comes back to the job that Reeve has done.

“It’s hard to put into words what Cheryl has meant to me, let alone this team, especially over the last two years,” Kayla McBride said. “Her ability to bring people together and get us to play at a very, very high level. The accountability, I think it’s kind of like a lost art the way she coaches. She’s created this environment for us to flourish in. When you have a coach like that who cares about you on and off the court, you want to be able to give everything that you have.”

After losing to the Liberty in last season’s WNBA finals, the Lynx have looked like  a team that has been locked in on making it back to the Finals this year to exercise the demons of losing in heartbreaking fashion.

And that’s been built on the roster construction of the team, including nine players who play at least double-digit minutes each night.

“I think she has a great case,” Collier said. “The way that Cheryl, year after year, is able to put players together, put them in places to be successful and honestly out perform our metrics every single year… I think that is a huge testament to her coaching style. The way she’s able to make adjustments in game, the way we’re able to pull out in a lot of close games, a lot of that comes down to coaching, so I think without a doubt Cheryl should be Coach of the Year.”

Historically, across sports, the Coach of the Year Award goes to a coach whose team has been a surprise, often making the frontrunner team an afterthought because they were supposed to be good.

Yeah, it doesn’t make sense, but is widely accepted as being the case.

Reeve has won the award four times, including in 2024 when her Minnesota team exceeded expectations, even after returning to the playoffs in 2023. 

If that’s the case, she should be considered as the best coach in the league and worthy of the award, right?

“I mean she’s been good for so long, it’s just become almost an expectation for her to do the best every year,” Alanna Smith said. “Even if she’s won Coach of the Year multiple times in a row, if she’s doing the same thing, she should get the same award. I’m just really grateful to be coached by someone like Cheryl.”

Golden State Valkyries

Head Coach: Natalie NakaseThe Role: The Underdog

An overview:

The expectation was low. It was 8.5, to be exact.

Well, at least when it came to the expectation for the Valkyries from the public in their inaugural season. But what happened instead was an expansion team – the first one in 17 years – exceeding all external expectations, eclipsing 20 wins and pushing for a playoff berth in their first season.

And that, to the players, comes down to Natalie Nakase.

“I think my pitch would be that we had very low expectations this year. We were the first expansion team in 17 years, and what she’s done with multiple different lineups and the different rosters on our team has been pretty tremendous,” second-year wing Kate Martin said. “We all love her, and we all want to work hard for her. Everything she’s gotten out of us is pretty impressive, so I definitely think that she deserves to get the award this year.”

Nakase was an assistant coach in Las Vegas before being named as the first head coach in Golden State history. She came from a winning environment coaching behind Becky Hammon, and those expectations were set right away in Golden State, too, around a team that featured a lot of good players who can fill in for each other by mixing and matching regardless of who else is on the floor or the situation that the game is in.

“We all come with a grit and energy and a mentality that we want to be here. None of us have really had an easy path here,” Veronica Burton said. “I think that translates onto the court. We want to play for each other and we trust each other. Many of us weren’t protected on our previous team, so we are just doing what we can to contribute. I think that goes a long way when it comes to team basketball.”

But even with a lot of players who are playing together for the first time, it doesn’t mean that Nakase gave them a pass, especially on the defensive side of the ball, as the team ranks No. 5 in overall defensive rating. 

“She’s very feisty, and she’s going to try to get the best out of you and expects the best out of you,” Martin said. “She’s going to be pretty hard on you and makes no excuses, but that’s what you want in a coach. You want coaches to give you tough love and tell you how it is because if they’re just soft on you and baby you, then you’re not really going to grow.”

The performance and the way that the Valkyries have played this year has been seen internally, but also externally around the league and from different pundits. But it’s also been seen by one of their biggest fans, who happens to play for a multi-time NBA Coach of the Year Award winner himself.

“People will call me biased because I play for the Warriors, but when you look at what she’s done in her first year, the most wins ever for an expansion franchise history, leading them into the playoffs (EDITOR’S NOTE: they haven’t clinched a playoff berth), based on that alone, she’s done a fantastic job,” said Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski in an interview with 95.7 The Game. “To see, essentially, a bunch of role players from previous years come together and beat top teams in the leagues, it’s impressive. I know it’s the players playing, but good coaching is a part of that.”

With good coaching comes trust. It’s something that Martin said was built throughout the season with Nakase.

“As the year goes on, you continue to build trust and continue to get to know people outside of basketball off the court,” Martin said. “On the court, you get to know their intentions in their heart, and I think that just over time, that you see that and we saw that with Natalie. I don’t think there’s one specific moment, but you build that trust in the locker room over time and that’s where it comes from.”

Nakase was asked about taking home the award from Kenzo Fukuda of Clutch Points during a media scrum session.

Nakase was very blunt about how she feels about the award, which is no surprise coming from the Becky Hammon coaching tree.

“Nobody cares about that. I’m just being deadass,” Nakase said. Our goal is to make the playoffs. It should be the coaching staff of the year.”

Las Vegas Aces

Head Coach: Becky HammonThe Role: Late-season Push

An overview:

A lot can change quickly in the WNBA. In fact, a month ago, if you had this conversation, people might not believe you.

The Aces lost to the Lynx by 31 points on July 25, sinking them to ninth place in the standings. That was after they traded away a 2027 first-round pick for NaLyssa Smith. The Jewell Loyd trade wasn’t working out. There was no depth behind A’ja Wilson up front. The team was a mess.

But since then, the Aces have won 14 of 15 games, including 12 in a row as of September 1.

“We’re just getting back to having fun and getting back to who we were,” Kierstan Bell said of the winning streak. “A little bit of it was chemistry, and we just had to continue to work on that and hang out outside of basketball. It came along, changes were made, and it’s been successful.”

It was no doubt chemistry, something the Aces were trying to find after losing Sydney Colson, Alysha Clark, Kelsey Plum, and Kate Martin this offseason. The fit with Loyd in the starting lineup wasn’t quite working, but then, Hammon made a change.

Bell entered the starting lineup, and Loyd moved to the bench, a role that she has since flourished in and has the Aces back on track for not just the playoffs, but home-court advantage through the first two rounds.

“Coming from ninth place, not even knowing if you’re going to make the playoffs, and then having the chance to be the No. 2 seed so quickly just speaks to the team and speaks to who she is as a coach,” Bell said. “She deserves it. She deserves to be a part of the conversation. That’s just who she is.”

Hammon won the award in 2022, a season in which the Aces finished 26-10 and defeated the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA Finals.

The Aces have built a foundation and culture that expects them to be where they are right now. With the best player in the world, four Olympians, and an ownership group that invests in the team, being a top seed is the expectation.

This year, the route to get there was just a little bit different. While Wilson gets a ton of credit while making a case to take home her fourth MVP title, a lot of the credit for the comeback for the Aces has to go to Hammon, too.

Atlanta Dream

Head Coach: Karl SmeskoThe Role: Exceeding Expectations

An overview:

When the Atlanta Dream hired head coach Karl Smesko from Florida Gulf Coast University–a program he spent 22 years at–there were a lot of questions for how his system would translate.

The answer, though, is pretty evident, with the Dream reaching as high as No. 2 in the standings this season.

“I don’t think that I’ve heard enough noise about him as the Coach of the Year, honestly,”Naz Hillmon said. “He definitely is deserving of being in those conversations, if not the top, in my opinion.”

Hillmon, who is in the conversation for Most Improved Player and Sixth Player of the Year, has seen a shift in her game after the hiring of Smesko. Prior to this season, Hillmon attempted a total of six three-pointers. This season? She’s eclipsed 140 attempts while shooting at a near 30 percent mark.

“Maybe I’m biased, but when you come into the season, we were ranked by some people as the seventh-best team. We got as high as No. 2. You see a lot of players having career highs and adding a lot of things to their game. I mean you can go down the list.”

The three-point attempts get a lot of the attention in Smesko’s system, but it’s actually about getting the best look no matter what. Whether it’s a three-pointer, a layup, a cut, he doesn’t care. He just wants the best look at the basket.

And when veterans Brionna Jones and Brittney Griner joined the Dream after Smesko was hired, a lot of the conversation was focused on the spacing with the two rim-running bigs in this type of offense.

It’s turned out to work just fine, as Jones made the All-Star Game this season, and the Dream, as a whole, have the second-best offensive rating and the second-best defensive rating in the league. 

“Our coach is going to say that he doesn’t care about it, but I don’t hear enough noise about it, and he should definitely be in that conversation,” Hillmon said.

Well, Smesko. Do you?

“I’m glad she said it. I want them to think that nobody has an advantage over us in being prepared for a game,” Smesko said. “There’s great coaches in this league, so that’s the challenge that our coaches have in having our team best prepared every day. That’s a goal of mine in having the best prepared team each time we go out.”

Yes, preparation is key. It’s a must. The Dream are doing it. But we are talking about Coach of the Year here, coach. It matters, right?

“To me, the most important coach of the year is the one that wins the championship,” Smesko said. “The other thing is nice. It’s a title, and it’s probably a contract bonus for most people. To me, the Coach of the Year is whoever gets their team to the WNBA Finals and gets to hold the championship trophy at the end.”

His response wasn’t quite on the “deadass” level of Nakase’s, but it wasn’t far off, either. But just because he is toning down the excitement doesn’t mean that his players don’t see what he’s doing.

“He just lets us hoop for real,” rookie Te-Hina Paopao said. “We’re able to play freely, and he has confidence in us, trust in us, and we go out there to play our hardest.”

And what he’s doing in Atlanta is being noticed around the league, too.

“I would be glad to see him win it. I think he deserves it,” said Bell, who played with Smesko at Florida Gulf Coast University. “What he’s done with Atlanta, with the solid roster he has, speaks for itself. He’s well deserving if he does get it.”

It’s not an award that is guaranteed to go to Smesko, as there are three other coaches who have a clear shot at winning it. But the choice is clear to Maya Caldwell, and it should be clear to everyone else, too, she said.

“Absolutely. I’m sure that he has everyone’s vote. Everyone with some sense, respectfully,” Caldwell said, with a laugh.