Just a month after the New York Liberty let their championship-winning coach Brondello go, she’s already landed with the Toronto Tempo. The expansion team moved fast to fill their coaching spot right after Portland Fire announced they’d hired Cavaliers assistant Alex Sarama. With both teams now led by experienced coaches, an analyst feels that the Tempo might have the edge.

‘WNBA Today on CLNS’ reporter Noa Dalzell recently discussed the Toronto Tempo’s head coach hire. During the same time, she stated that, “I do think that the value of a coach being intimately familiar with this league is a little bit underrated at this point because NBA, WNBA basketball, very different leagues, very different play styles. And there is an advantage to not having that learning curve of like not only are you a brand-new coach for this franchise, but you’re also brand new to this league.”

Sandy Brondello would be the last person to undertake a learning curve. After all, she boasts 3 years of experience as a former WNBA player and a whopping 20 years as a coach in the league. On top of that, she boasts not 1, but 2 WNBA championship titles, with the first one being won with the Phoenix Mercury in 2014, before leading the New York Liberty to their first-ever, and only, title in 2024.

With 13 years as head coach, Brondello’s teams have finished with a sub-.500 records only four times. She is one of the winningest coaches in WNBA history, with her 269-181 regular-season wins ranking 6th all-time. “She’s someone who’s going to help the Tempo shape their foundation and build on the standard that the Golden State Valkyries have set for an expansion franchise this past season” said The IX Sports reporter Jackie Powell about Sandy Brondello. Meanwhile, Alex Sarama’s experience isn’t restricted to one league.

Before serving as the assistant coach and head of player development for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA, Sarama worked for NBA Europe based in Madrid. He even worked with Paris Basketball in the EuroCup and the Rip City Remix (the Portland Trail Blazers’ G League Affiliate). During the 3 years working at College Basket Borgomanero in Italy, he first started sharing ideas on how to apply an ecological approach in multiple departments.

Those ideas helped to reportedly form the basis of the Transforming approach, which helped College Basket turn into one of the top development programs in Italy. Therefore, there is no denying that the Portland Fire have certainly gotten themselves a good head coach, too. However, being in charge of players’ skill work differs from leading a whole team in a league he has zero major experience with.

“I think you’re going to see with the Portland Fire, I’m sure they’re going to have a little bit of a learning curve as their coaching staff kind of gets their sense around the WNBA and how kind of best game plan there,” Dalzell added. While there is no denying Sandy Brondello is in a better position than the Portland Fire’s head coach, there are some things she still needs to be careful about when going into the next WNBA season. After all, there are reasons why she was fired, right?

WNBA analysts question whether Sandy Brondello’s sacking was linked to being outcoached against top rivals

Back in late September, ‘WNBA on NBC’ hosts Natalie Esquire and Owen Pence recently discussed the New York Liberty’s decision to part ways with Sandy Brondello. Owen Pence had been covering the head coach ever since she joined the Liberty squad. While the reporter called her “a phenomenal human being” and felt lucky to interact with her daily, he still stated that: “I think there was a consensus amongst people in the know that if the Liberty had not won the title last year, Sandy was probably out.”

The Liberty’s 2025 performance gave the front office the perfect excuse to cut ties with the HC since, according to Pence, Brondello was simply outcoached this year. “I think that maybe the sentiment is that when Sandy Brondello would run up against a Cheryl Reeve, or a Becky Hammond, or even Nate Tibbetts in the first round this year, she might have been at a little bit of a disadvantage,” said Pence.

“Perhaps she was getting out coached. And I think if you’re the front office and you see this Liberty roster, which still has a title window very very open, you simply have to choose a coach who is going to give you the best chance to win moving forward”. When looking back, one does find gaps that provide some validity to Owen Pence’s viewpoint. After all, even after reaching the 2023 Finals, the New York Liberty was outplayed by a Las Vegas Aces squad that was missing key players.

In 2025, it was reportedly noted that the Liberty often relied on their star players, Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, and Jonquel Jones, to create offense on their own. For the playoffs, Brondello reportedly refused to trust the bench the front office had built in the offseason. There were repeated breakdowns in after-timeout plays and ineffective halftime adjustments. All of this suggested that Brondello was frequently outmaneuvered by opposing coaches.

You can’t hold the title of being one of the winningest coaches and then get fired a season after winning the WNBA championship. Therefore, if there are gaps, then Sandy Brondello had better work on them before the 2026 WNBA season commences.