Power ranking the top 10 coaches in WNBA history

Ultimately, the WNBA is a player’s league, and that has never been more evident. With that said, coaches make a big difference when it comes to keeping their team on track throughout the course of the season and do-or-die playoff games. We’ll count down the top 10 coaches in the WNBA’s history. All statistics are sourced from Basketball Reference.

It’s fitting that Donovan makes this list in some form or fashion. Her accomplishments as a player helped pave the way for the creation of the WNBA. The Basketball Hall of Fame’s website lists Donovan’s achievements, such as a two-time Olympic gold medal winner in the 1980s. The site also writes on her biography that she dominated women’s college basketball from 1979-1983.

It makes sense that Donovan would also break barriers in the WNBA as a coach. She won 205 games in the league, and was the first female head coach to win a title in the league. The landmark moment came in 2004, when she led the Seattle Storm all the way. Point guard Sue Bird said, “Anne was probably one of the first coaches that was really a players’ coach.”

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Hughes oversaw 286 victories during his lengthy career in the WNBA, and was named Coach of the Year twice with two different teams back in the 2000s. The Seattle Times wrote in 2021 after he retired that even though he’s no longer in the league, his mark on the WNBA will remain tangible.

We’ve seen other sports produce coaching trees, where assistants working under one accomplished leader go on to achieve great things themselves. There are two coaches coming up on this list who used to work under Hughes, which is a testament to his ability to bring the best out of everyone. He told The Seattle Times, “People who really know me know that I appreciate people that worked for me beyond just the moment that we’re together on the court.”

Agler has a well respected reputation in the WNBA and throughout the sport in general. He’s won 287 career games in the league, and The Dallas Morning News also pointed out that he was an accomplished leader with the Columbus Quest in the ABL as well. He’s won two WNBA titles, with the Storm in 2010, and with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2016.

What made Agler successful on the bench was his ability to deliver what the team needed when they needed it. The Dallas Morning News wrote that “his mood could instantly flip from cheerful to intense as Agler picked apart every detail of his players’ games that could be improved.” He also was thankful that he could pay his dues as an assistant before leading teams.

It looked like this coaching thing was going to be easy for Brondello. After all, in her first season with the Phoenix Mercury in 2014, she led the team to a WNBA title and a 29-5 regular season record. In her eight seasons as head coach in Phoenix, she finished above .500 six times, consistently keeping the team competitive.

Of course, Brondello has since moved on to coach the New York Liberty, and she’s off to a sensational start. In her first three seasons, she won 80 regular season games, and led the franchise to its first ever WNBA title in 2024. Brondello wondered to ESPN during the summer of 2024 whether this would be the best year ever, as she was an assistant for the U.S. women’s team that won the gold. It very well might have been.

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Basketball fans are familiar with Cooper from his playing days with the Los Angeles Lakers. He won five NBA titles during his time there, and is known as one of the greatest defensive players of all time. He’s also made a name for himself as a women’s basketball coach, having won 230 games in his career.

Cooper’s achievements in Los Angeles were boosted in the 2000s, when he led the Los Angeles Sparks to back to back WNBA titles in 2001 and 2002. They made it to the WNBA Finals in 2003 as well. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2024, and told Andscape that he modeled his coaching style after Pat Riley’s.

Speaking of popular NBA players from the 1980s, Laimbeer was also a notable name who eventually joined the WNBA coaching ranks. He was a two time NBA champion with the Detroit Pistons, and would face off against Cooper’s Lakers and Sparks as a player and coach. He would lead the Detroit Shock to three WNBA titles in 2003, 2006 and 2008.

Laimbeer would lead the Liberty to two straight WNBA Finals appearances in 2016 and 2017, and the Las Vegas Aces to the WNBA Finals in 2020. While he may get involved with the WNBA again in some capacity, Laimbeer told Bleacher Report in 2022 that he doesn’t think he has the level of commitment to get back into coaching.

There is no coach who has won more games during his WNBA career than Thibault, who has 379 victories to his name. He’s had a massive impact on two franchises: the Connecticut Sun and the Washington Mystics. Mystics owner Ted Leonsis told the team’s website, “When we first hired Mike, we assigned him a large task; to make the Washington Mystics relevant in the WNBA, and he more than delivered.”

Mike Thibault would slide upstairs to the general manager position after the 2022 campaign, and his son Eric took over as Washington’s head coach. Both were let go after the 2024 season, but Mike Thibault’s legacy in the WNBA is secure. He was on the bench when the Mystics won the title in 2019.

It’s hard to believe that Hammon has only been a head coach for three seasons in the WNBA. Her first two campaigns led to the Aces winning the WNBA title, and Las Vegas lost to the eventual champion New York Liberty in the semifinals in 2024. Her name has been synonymous with the WNBA for decades.

Hammon played 16 seasons, splitting her career evenly with the New York Liberty and San Antonio Silver Stars. With her coaching career off to a flying start, the sky would seem to be the limit for Hammon. She’s only in her late 40s, so she can conceivably add to her already impressive coaching record for another two decades if she wants to.

Chancellor introduced himself as arguably the greatest coach in league history as soon as the WNBA began. He led the Houston Comets to four straight titles from 1997-2001, establishing an immediate dynasty. While many would point to the supreme talent he had on the roster, Chancellor still had to make all the pieces fit together.

It’s probably long overdue, but Chancellor will be inducted into the Houston Sports Hall of Fame in 2025. If his WNBA achievements weren’t enough, he also led the 2004 United States women’s Olympic team to a gold medal.

Both Reeve and Chancellor have won four WNBA titles and a gold medal, so their surface resumes are pretty similar. With that said, Reeve has coached in the WNBA for longer than Chancellor, and she’s still going. She has the Minnesota Lynx back at the doorstep of contention, as they fell to the Liberty in an extremely competitive five-game WNBA Finals in 2024.

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Reeve is an institution in Minnesota, and her personality fits the climate in Minneapolis: cold. While that sounds like a criticism, USA Today points out that while she’s not warm, she’s a winner, and everyone around her respects her for it. “I’m not just gonna, like hug Cheryl,” said Lynx guard Kayla McBride. But McBride and her teammates love the gold standard she has set.