Every WNBA general manager ranked by their 2026 transaction grades.
How it works: Each GM grade is built from the quality of their roster moves over their tenure on record. Grades update automatically as new moves are graded. Teams without a graded GM on record show a neutral badge until enough roster moves land.
Background, career path, and verified fun facts on the executive running each WNBA front office. Every detail is sourced from official team sites, league reporting, and reference records.
Amber Cox is the Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of the Indiana Fever, a veteran sports executive whose career spans the WNBA, college athletics and professional soccer.
Cox began in college athletics before joining the Phoenix Mercury in 2004 as director of marketing and promotions, eventually rising to become the team's chief operating officer and president and serving as interim general manager in 2013. She later spent time in Major League Soccer and the NWSL as a top business executive, including chief marketing officer roles in Houston and COO of the Kansas City NWSL club. She returned to the WNBA as a vice president with the Connecticut Sun (2016-2021), then served as COO of the Dallas Wings, before the Indiana Fever named her COO and General Manager on October 4, 2024, putting her in charge of both basketball and business operations during one of the most high-profile periods in franchise history.
Fun facts
Her career spans three sports — she has held senior executive roles in the WNBA, Major League Soccer and the NWSL.
She served as interim general manager of the Phoenix Mercury back in 2013, decades before taking the Fever GM job.
She holds the dual title of Chief Operating Officer and General Manager in Indiana, overseeing both business and basketball operations.
Cheryl Reeve is the President of Basketball Operations, General Manager and head coach of the Minnesota Lynx — one of the most successful figures in WNBA history and a 2026 Women's Basketball Hall of Fame inductee.
Reeve played at La Salle, where she still holds the school record for games started, before a coaching career that ran through La Salle, George Washington and a head-coaching stint at Indiana State. She broke into the WNBA as an assistant with the Charlotte Sting in 2001 and won two titles as an assistant with the Detroit Shock (2006, 2008). Named Lynx head coach in December 2009, she led Minnesota to WNBA championships in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017, was promoted to general manager in December 2017, and was elevated to president of basketball operations in 2022. She owns the most regular-season and postseason wins of any coach in WNBA history and has been named WNBA Coach of the Year four times (2011, 2016, 2020, 2024).
Fun facts
She has won four WNBA championships as Lynx head coach (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) and is a four-time WNBA Coach of the Year.
She coached Team USA to gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics — the U.S. women's eighth straight Olympic title — after winning multiple golds as an assistant.
She will be inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame with the Class of 2026.
Curt Miller is the Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Dallas Wings, a veteran basketball executive and coach with a long track record of success in both the college and pro ranks.
Miller built a powerhouse at Bowling Green from 2001 to 2012, going 258-92 overall and 135-41 in the Mid-American Conference, winning eight straight regular-season titles and being named MAC Coach of the Year six times, before a stint at Indiana. He then spent seven seasons as head coach and general manager of the Connecticut Sun, leading the team to six straight playoff appearances and two WNBA Finals (2019, 2022). He was named WNBA Coach of the Year in 2017 and again in 2021, and was the inaugural WNBA Basketball Executive of the Year in 2017. After two seasons coaching the Los Angeles Sparks (2023-2024), the Dallas Wings hired him as EVP and GM on November 8, 2024 to lead their basketball operations.
Fun facts
He was the very first winner of the WNBA Basketball Executive of the Year award, in 2017.
He is one of only three people to win 250+ college games and 150+ WNBA games, joining Van Chancellor and Lin Dunn.
At Bowling Green he won eight consecutive conference regular-season titles and was named MAC Coach of the Year six times.
Dan Padover is the General Manager and Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations for the Atlanta Dream, and one of the most decorated front-office executives in the modern WNBA.
Padover built his reputation in the league office and with the New York Liberty before moving to the Las Vegas Aces as general manager, where the franchise posted the WNBA's best regular-season record in 2020 and the second-best in 2021. He was named WNBA Basketball Executive of the Year in both of those seasons. In October 2021 he left Las Vegas to take over basketball operations in Atlanta, inheriting a roster in need of a full rebuild. In his first season he overhauled the roster — adding eight new players, including 2022 No. 1 overall pick and Rookie of the Year Rhyne Howard — and nearly doubled the team's previous win total. His patient, talent-acquisition-driven approach has steadily returned the Dream to playoff contention.
Fun facts
A three-time WNBA Basketball Executive of the Year — he won the award in 2020 and 2021 with Las Vegas, then again with Atlanta, making him the only person to claim it three times.
He drafted Rhyne Howard No. 1 overall in 2022; she went on to win WNBA Rookie of the Year that season.
Before becoming a GM he worked his way up through the New York Liberty front office in a variety of roles.
Jeff Pagliocca is the General Manager of the Chicago Sky — the first standalone GM in franchise history, promoted from within after years on the team's player-development staff.
Pagliocca spent more than two decades in elite player development and basketball training before and during his time with the Sky, founding his own training company, Evolution Athletics, in suburban Deerfield, Illinois. He joined Chicago's staff and spent four seasons working directly in player development and advising the head coach, most recently as director of skill development, working closely with players such as Courtney Vandersloot, Emma Meesseman and Kahleah Copper. When the Sky split the dual head-coach/GM role previously held by James Wade, the organization named Pagliocca its first dedicated general manager on October 31, 2023, pairing him with head coach Teresa Weatherspoon as it began building around a younger core.
Fun facts
He is the first-ever standalone general manager in Chicago Sky history; before him the role had been combined with the head-coaching job.
He founded his own skills-training company, Evolution Athletics, and has over 20 years of player-development experience.
He was promoted from inside the organization, having spent four seasons on the Sky's player-development and coaching support staff.
Jonathan Kolb is the General Manager of the New York Liberty, the architect of the franchise's first WNBA championship and a former league-office analytics executive.
Before joining the Liberty, Kolb spent five years in the WNBA league office, finishing as Director of Basketball Strategy and Analytics, where he managed roster and salary-cap matters, assisted with collective-bargaining compliance and helped modernize the league's statistical systems. He was hired by the Liberty in March 2019, shortly after the Tsai ownership transition, and helped move the team into the Brooklyn era at Barclays Center. Kolb was named WNBA Basketball Executive of the Year in 2023 after building a 32-8 team that won the Commissioner's Cup and reached the Finals, then led the Liberty to the first championship in franchise history in 2024.
Fun facts
He built the team that won the New York Liberty's first-ever WNBA title in 2024 — also New York City's first pro basketball championship since 1973.
He was named WNBA Basketball Executive of the Year in 2023.
Before becoming a GM he ran basketball strategy and analytics in the WNBA league office, overseeing roster and salary-cap administration.
Monica Wright Rogers is the first General Manager of the Toronto Tempo, a WNBA expansion franchise, and a two-time WNBA champion as a player.
Wright Rogers starred at Virginia before the Minnesota Lynx took her second overall in the 2010 WNBA Draft, where she made the All-Rookie team. She won WNBA championships with the Lynx in 2011 and 2013, playing a key bench role, before a knee injury and a 2015 trade to Seattle. After a seven-year playing career, she moved into coaching and front-office work — including assistant-coaching roles at Virginia and Liberty University, a stint as the NBA's Elite Basketball Women's Operations Lead in the league office, and most recently assistant general manager of the Phoenix Mercury. In February 2025 she was hired as the first GM of the Toronto Tempo, charged with hiring a head coach and building the inaugural roster.
Fun facts
She is the first general manager in Toronto Tempo history.
As a player she won two WNBA championships with the Minnesota Lynx (2011 and 2013) and was a 2010 WNBA All-Rookie selection.
She was drafted second overall out of Virginia in the 2010 WNBA Draft.
Morgan Tuck is the General Manager of the Connecticut Sun — a former Sun player who returned to run the franchise that drafted her, and the youngest GM in WNBA history.
Tuck was a four-time NCAA national champion at UConn, where her teams went 151-5 alongside teammates such as Breanna Stewart and Moriah Jefferson, and she earned WBCA and AP All-American honors in 2016. Connecticut selected her third overall in the 2016 WNBA Draft, and she spent her first four pro seasons with the Sun before winning a WNBA championship with the Seattle Storm in 2020. She rejoined Connecticut's front office in May 2021 as Director of Franchise Development, added Assistant General Manager to her title in November 2022, and was promoted to General Manager on December 3, 2024 — the second solo GM in franchise history.
Fun facts
She was named the youngest general manager in WNBA history when she got the job at age 30.
As a UConn player she was a four-time NCAA national champion, part of a team that went 151-5 over her career.
She won a WNBA title as a player (2020, Seattle Storm) and now runs the front office of the team that originally drafted her third overall in 2016.
Nick U’Ren is the General Manager of the Phoenix Mercury, a four-time NBA champion executive who returned to his hometown after a decade with the Golden State Warriors.
A Phoenix native and McClintock High School alum, U’Ren got his start in the NBA and WNBA with the Suns and Mercury between 2009 and 2014 in video roles. He then spent nine seasons with the Golden State Warriors, rising from a special-assistant role to director of basketball operations and ultimately executive director of basketball operations, and was part of four championship teams. The Mercury hired him as general manager in July 2023, succeeding longtime executive Jim Pitman, bringing his championship-organization experience back home to Phoenix.
Fun facts
He is a four-time NBA champion from his time with the Golden State Warriors.
As a young Warriors staffer he proposed the lineup change — starting Andre Iguodala in place of Andrew Bogut — that turned around the 2015 NBA Finals and birthed the famed "Death Lineup."
A Phoenix native, he began his career with the Suns and Mercury before returning home to run the Mercury's front office.
Nikki Fargas is the President and General Manager of the Las Vegas Aces, a former Power Five head coach who now oversees both basketball and business operations for one of the WNBA's flagship franchises.
Fargas played at Tennessee, earning a public-relations degree as her playing career ended in 1994, then built a long career as a college head coach at UCLA and LSU. She joined the Aces as team president in May 2021 and later assumed the general manager title as well, overseeing all basketball operations and business functions. Under her front-office leadership the Aces sustained one of the most dominant multi-year runs in modern WNBA history, emphasizing roster continuity and athlete care while retaining a championship core built around A'ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jackie Young. A founding member of the Advancement of Blacks in Sports (ABIS), she has made diversity and athlete-centered leadership hallmarks of her tenure.
Fun facts
She is a former Power Five head women's basketball coach, having led programs at both UCLA and LSU.
She holds the dual role of team President and General Manager for the Aces.
She is a founding member of the Advancement of Blacks in Sports (ABIS).
Ohemaa Nyanin is the first-ever General Manager of the Golden State Valkyries, the WNBA's first expansion franchise since 2008, where she oversees all of basketball operations.
Born in Maryland to parents from Ghana, Nyanin grew up living in five different countries before earning her bachelor's in international relations and a master's in justice and public policy from American University. She spent five years as assistant director of the women's program at USA Basketball — including the 2016 Olympics and the 2018 FIBA World Cup — then five years with the New York Liberty as Director of Basketball Operations and later Assistant General Manager, a stretch in which she was widely credited as instrumental in recruiting Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot and Jonquel Jones to New York. Hired to launch the Valkyries, she built the roster, hired the coaching staff and set the franchise's culture from scratch.
Fun facts
She is the first general manager in Golden State Valkyries history, hired to build the franchise from nothing.
Before the WNBA she spent five years at USA Basketball, working at the 2016 Olympic Games and the 2018 FIBA Women's World Cup.
She grew up spending time in five countries — the Philippines, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Chile and the United States — and is of Ghanaian heritage.
Raegan Pebley is the General Manager of the Los Angeles Sparks, a former WNBA player and longtime Division I head coach who moved into a front-office leadership role in 2024.
Pebley starred at the University of Colorado, helping the Buffaloes to a 106-24 record and four conference championships between 1993 and 1997. She was drafted 21st overall by the Utah Starzz in 1997 and played two WNBA seasons (Utah, then the Cleveland Rockers in 1998). She then built a 21-year career as an NCAA Division I head coach, with head-coaching stops that included Colorado State, Fresno State, Utah State and TCU. The Sparks named her general manager in January 2024, bringing her decades of player-evaluation and program-building experience to the franchise's basketball operations.
Fun facts
She had a 21-year career as a Division I head women's basketball coach before becoming a GM.
She played two WNBA seasons in the late 1990s after being drafted 21st overall in 1997.
As a player at Colorado she helped the Buffs win four conference titles and post a 106-24 record over four years.
The Washington Mystics do not currently have a general manager on record. The franchise fired GM Jamila Wideman in April 2026, and head coach Sydney Johnson has taken control of basketball operations during the search for a permanent front-office leader.
The Mystics parted ways with general manager Jamila Wideman on the first day of WNBA free agency in April 2026, citing strategic differences. The decision was made by Monumental Sports president of basketball operations Michael Winger, who oversees both the Mystics and the NBA's Washington Wizards. Wideman — a former WNBA player who had spent six years as the NBA's vice president of player development — had been hired in December 2024 and ran the team for a single season in which Washington went 16-28. With the GM seat vacant, head coach Sydney Johnson assumed control of basketball operations while the organization conducts its search.
Fun facts
The Mystics' front office is run by Monumental Sports, the same ownership group behind the NBA's Washington Wizards.
After GM Jamila Wideman's departure in April 2026, head coach Sydney Johnson took over basketball operations on an interim basis.
Talisa Rhea is the General Manager of the Seattle Storm, an Alaska-raised former college player who climbed the franchise ladder from intern to the top of basketball operations.
A standout at Juneau-Douglas High School in Alaska, Rhea played at Oregon State (2007-2010), where she was a two-time All-Pac-10 honorable mention, before transferring to Seattle University for her senior season and finishing her playing career professionally in Poland. She joined the Storm in 2015 as a video coordinator, became director of basketball operations in 2016 and assistant general manager in 2019, and was promoted to general manager just ahead of the 2021 WNBA Draft. Her steady rise through every level of the basketball-operations department has made her one of the longest-tenured GMs in the league.
Fun facts
She rose from intern/video coordinator all the way to general manager within the same Seattle Storm organization.
She grew up in Juneau, Alaska, and was a star at Juneau-Douglas High School.
She played college ball at Oregon State and Seattle University, then professionally in Poland, before her front-office career.
Vanja Černivec is the inaugural General Manager of the Portland Fire, the WNBA expansion franchise, and oversees all of the new team's basketball operations.
A former professional player, Černivec moved into the NBA after her playing career, spending six years in talent-focused roles — including a stint with the Chicago Bulls from 2020 to 2022, during which she became the first woman to scout internationally for the team. She then took on leadership roles with the London Lions of Super League Basketball, serving as general manager of the women's team and global director of the academy, where she helped the Lions win their first FIBA EuroCup Women's title and back-to-back domestic championships in 2023 and 2024. She joined the WNBA as vice president of basketball operations for the Golden State Valkyries — helping build the winningest expansion team in league history — before being named the Portland Fire's first GM.
Fun facts
She is the first-ever general manager of the Portland Fire.
During her time with the Chicago Bulls she became the first woman to scout internationally for the franchise.
As a GM with the London Lions she helped the club win its first FIBA EuroCup Women's title and consecutive domestic championships in 2023 and 2024.
