Storm HC Noelle Quinn Will Not Have Contract Renewed After WNBA Playoff Loss to Aces

The Seattle Storm announced Sunday they won't be retaining head coach Noelle Quinn for the 2026 WNBA season.

"On behalf of our organization, I would like to thank Noelle for her time with the Storm," general manager Talisa Rhea said. "Her commitment to the ongoing success of our organization and to furthering the development of our players was second to none. She put us in a position to win at the highest levels of the game and for that, we are grateful."

The decision comes after a disappointing year that saw Seattle finish seventh (23-21) and lose to the Las Vegas Aces in the first round of the playoffs.

Back-to-back opening-round exits isn't the outcome general manager Talisa Rhea envisioned when she scored a coup by signing Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins during the 2024 offseason.

Nobody was considering the Storm to be the championship favorites in 2024 or 2025, but one postseason win between those two years is poor any way you cut it. The team's inconsistency this season also meant having a tough matchup against the Aces instead of playing the short-handed Indiana Fever or the New York Liberty, whose lack of depth got exposed by the Phoenix Mercury.

The onus is now squarely on general manager Talisa Rhea to get the franchise back to the heights it enjoyed with the trio of Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird and Jewell Loyd.

Once Stewart left to sign with the New York Liberty in 2023 — Bird retired during the same offseason — Seattle was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Stars weren't signing long-term contracts in preparation for the upcoming negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement. Pushing all in for a championship in 2021 and 2022 meant the Storm weren't developing young talent that would've been helpful when the rebuild started.

Now, Rhea is pretty much starting with a blank slate.

Seattle has four players under contract for 2026: Dominique Malonga, Nika Mühl, Jordan Horston and Lexie Brown. The organization will have a ton of salary cap space and almost every veteran is hitting free agency.

The presence of Malonga should help the Storm's pitch as well. In 16 appearances from August on, the No. 2 overall pick averaged 12.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 21.1 minutes per contest.

Malonga's rookie-scale contract is a huge luxury from a team-building perspective, and her peers will have seen her massive potential.

Because so much of the roster is unknown, it's tough to project what kind of coach Rhea will target.

The Storm may prefer an experienced hand given how much that approach worked with Dan Hughes in 2018. The success of first-year WNBA head coaches Natalie Nakase and Karl Smesko may push them to think outside of the box.

Either way, Rhea needs to nail the coach hire because that will set the tone for the rest of the offseason.