In 2016, when Curt Miller took over as the coach of the Sun, he inherited stewardship of a WNBA franchise that had missed three consecutive postseasons. On Friday, the Sparks announced Miller as their next coach, hoping for a similar turnaround, with the 54-year-old leaving Connecticut having made six consecutive playoff appearances and the Finals in two of its last four campaigns.
That feat, Miller said after a practice midway through his team’s 2022 Finals matchup with Las Vegas, was what he was most proud of throughout his Connecticut tenure: “of this franchise’s sustained success, and we’re doing it without No. 1 draft picks,” he said. “We’re doing it by developing players.”
Miller will now have another development project in front of him, moving from one coast—the Sun’s Mohegan Sun Arena is only around a 25-minute drive to the shores of New London—to another. And as he does so, Miller, who said during the Finals he was the longest-tenured member of the Sun organization across all departments, provides a Sparks franchise that had been shrouded by numerous questions with a much-needed stabilizing force.
