The 2025 WNBA regular season ends Thursday, and individual award candidates have only a few games left to make their cases for the league's top accolades. The Coach of the Year race is no different, as a former winner of the award jostles with two debutants to be recognized as the WNBA's most outstanding head coach amid the league's longest season on record.
With mere days to go in the regular season, let's rank the candidates in what has become a fascinating three-way battle to be named top coach.
Becky Hammon has done it again, folks.
After an indifferent 14-14 start -- capped by a humiliating 111-58 home loss to the Minnesota Lynx on Aug. 2 -- the Aces have ripped off 14 consecutive wins and own the #2 seed entering the final week of the season.
Hammon's decision to move former scoring champion Jewell Loyd to the bench has brought balance back to the Vegas offense, while A'ja Wilson is enjoying another MVP-caliber season, leading the league with 23.8 points per game.
MORE: Becky Hammon insists A'ja Wilson is this year's MVP: 'She is the conversation'
Hammon, who enjoyed a stellar career as a point guard before transitioning to coaching, is the only candidate in this list who has won Coach of the Year before -- not to mention two WNBA titles, in 2022 and 2023. Her previous victory in 2022 may harm her chances this time around, but Hammon's standing as one of the WNBA's greatest minds will only be enhanced amid Vegas' unexpected turnaround.
In a "normal" season, Smesko would be the shoo-in to win this award. After more than two decades roaming the sideline at Florida Gulf Coast University, Smesko this year made the jump to the WNBA, bringing his highly-successful offensive system with him. His arrival has transformed the Dream from a talented but inconsistent team into a legitimate championship contender, far sooner than anyone anticipated.
The Dream (28-14) has nearly doubled its win total from 2024, and Atlanta has been on a tear particularly lately, with a 13-3 record since July 30 keying the Dream's rise to the #3 seed. All-Star guards Allisha Gray (18.6 points per game) and Rhyne Howard (17.5) make up one of the WNBA's most dangerous duos -- two big reasons why Atlanta ranks second in the league with a 110.3 offensive rating.
The Dream boasts an elite defense, too. After recruiting Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones in free agency, Atlanta ranks second in defensive rating and is the WNBA's top rebounding team, while forcing the second-most turnovers per game. No one will want to play this team in the postseason.
Golden State is the first expansion team to reach the playoffs in its first year of existence -- and Nakase's appointment as head coach, arguably, is the biggest reason why the Valkyries have shattered their modest expectations.
Hired away from Hammon's championship-winning staff in Las Vegas, Nakase has overseen Golden State's emergence as the #1 scoring defense in the WNBA. The Valkyries (23-19) have six players who have averaged 9.5 points per game or better -- and if the season ended today, Golden State would be the #6 seed in the playoffs.
But Nakase has pushed back on the idea that she should win The W's top coaching honor. Her goal in Golden State has been simply to reach the playoffs, and she has given much of the credit to her staff for helping the Valkyries overcome a season-ending injury to All-Star Kayla Thornton to reach the playoffs.
"I'm not doing the scouting on my own," Nakase said last month. "I'm not doing the player development on my own. I'm not doing the film work on my own. It shouldn't be 'Coach of the Year,' it should be 'Coaching Staff of the Year.'"