4 candidates the Indiana Fever should strongly consider to replace Christie Sides

After a 20-20 regular season record and a first round playoff exit, the Indiana Fever elected to dismiss head coach Christie Sides. Their head coaching vacancy is going to be the most attractive in the WNBA thanks to Caitlin Clark, and the Fever need to make the right hire. We’ll take a look at the four best candidates for the job. All statistics are sourced from Basketball Reference.

It can be a little dicey for an Indiana team that wants to win now to take a chance on a candidate without any previous head coach experience. With that said, Brunson’s resume is sparkling as a player, and she’s been working towards this opportunity in the coaching ranks for a few years.

Brunson is a five-time WNBA champion, with four of those title coming with the Minnesota Lynx. She was renowned for her defensive play, being named to the All-Defensive Team seven times in her career. Bleacher Report notes that she has spent five seasons as an assistant coach with the Lynx after retiring as a player.

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Minnesota made the WNBA Finals in 2024, and nearly took home the championship in a five game classic series with the New York Liberty. Even though the Lynx didn’t win it all, Brunson has had the unique opportunity to play under and coach under Cheryl Reeve, who is widely viewed as one of if not the best coaches in WNBA history.

Agler has won 287 career games in the WNBA, having been the head coach of four different franchises throughout his tenure in the league. Perhaps most importantly, Agler has won two WNBA titles; in 2010 with the Seattle Storm, and in 2016 with the Los Angeles Sparks. His victories in two different situations make him a strong candidate for the Fever’s vacancy.

ESPN covered the next step in Agler’s basketball journey, which involved taking an administrative role in January 2021 at his alma mater, Wittenberg University. At the time, he said, “I’ve spent the last 25 years in the professional ranks of women’s basketball. My approach to things has always been, the ‘big-time’ is what I’m doing at the moment.”

While Agler’s passion and dedication for his alma mater is admirable and apparent, he will not have another chance to coach a player like Caitlin Clark or a team like the Fever with such a prominent role in modern-day women’s basketball. If Indiana makes the call, Agler should listen and strongly think about jumping back into the WNBA.

While Brunson would represent a candidate who can grow with the Fever, Agler would represent a win-now option on the bench. Agler is 66 years old, and it’s unclear whether he would want to re-enter the pressure cooker that is the WNBA. Even if he did decide to return, it might only be as a placeholder for the next head coaching candidate.

Of course, the storybook candidate that basketball fans seem to want to get the job is former University of Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder. Bluder and Clark formed a great duo with the Hawkeyes, and the thinking is that the two could recapture the magic at the professional level.

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Shortly after Clark was drafted into the WNBA in April 2014, Bluder stepped down from her head coaching post at Iowa. While this timing is certainly interesting, Sports Illustrated noted that Bluder spent 24 years coaching at Iowa.

As captured by Sports Illustrated, one fan on social media wrote, “Caitlin was actually back in Iowa City to recruit Lisa Bluder to be the next head coach of the Fever.” It’s unclear whether this is accurate, but it’s not hard or farfetched to read the tea leaves here.

If Bluder were to accept the job with Indiana, it would be fascinating to see how she approached the opportunity. Would she deploy the same strategy she did at Iowa with Clark, or would she try to tweak her philosophy to make it better fit the WNBA game? As fun as the storyline would be, major questions would also need to be asked.

Perhaps the candidate getting the most attention right now is White, who was dismissed as head coach of the Connecticut Sun in October 2024. Some might wonder why she would be considered the leader in the coaching search if another successful team just let her go, but White to the Fever makes a lot of sense.

Not that it would help with wins and losses, but White’s background has a lot of Indiana overlap. She actually played for the Fever for four seasons in the early 2000s, ironically wearing the same number 22 that Caitlin Clark does today. White also coached the Fever in 2015 and 2016, and finished with a record above .500. White played her college basketball at Purdue.

In one of those two seasons as Indiana’s head coach, White led the franchise to the WNBA Finals. It would be interested to have the franchise welcome her back after her initial two-year stint, but it seems like something that both parties are interested in, according to Sports Illustrated.

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White would bring a unique perspective to Indiana should she get the job. She was the coach of the Sun against the Fever in the first round of the playoffs, and would have insight into how Connecticut went about slowing Clark down. She could bring those lessons to Indiana, and better prepare Clark for these schemes in her second WNBA season.