Quick! What do Kelsey Plum and Shohei Ohtani have in common?
They’ve both embraced the Constraints-Led Approach, or CLA, training philosophy. San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama is another acolyte. CLA eschews repetitive drills and instead encourages creative problem solving and decision making by manipulating constraints, including things like rules and time limits.
And one of the pied pipers of CLA is now the coach of the Portland Fire — the expansion team hired Alex Sarama as its first head coach on Friday.
The Fire, who will begin play next season, accidentally leaked the hire a few days earlier on LinkedIn. While it was seemingly another misstep by the Fire, the stumbling was actually saved by the fact that Sarama is a solid choice to be the team’s first coach.
“Alex represents the next generation of coaching,” Fire General Manager Vanja Černivec said in a statement. “He’s not just teaching the game, he’s transforming it. His approach to player development, grounded in evidence-based science, research and creativity, aligns with our vision to make Portland a global hub for innovation in women’s sports.”
Sarama joins Portland after serving as an assistant and director of player development for the Clevealnd Cavaliers. He has worked in the past with Černivec at the NBA Europe office in Madrid and also with the London Lions women in the British Basketball League.
“The opportunity to build something from the ground up is unique,” Sarama said. “At the Fire, we’re not just creating a team — we’re redefining how the game is taught and played, through an approach centered around adaptability and supported by evidence-informed methodologies. We want to create a new standard for the game.”
Sarama is also no stranger to Portland. He was the director of player development for the Rip City Remix, the Portland Trail Blazers’ NBA G League team, for its inaugural season in 2023-24 before joining the Cavaliers.
Earlier this week, the Fire also named Ashley Battle as the team’s vice president of basketball operations, strategy and innovation. Battle, a former star at UConn, comes to the Fire from the Maine Celtics, the Boston Celtics’ G League affiliate, where she was assistant general manager.
Battle also served as a scout for the Boston Celtics and spent the last three seasons as part of the broadcast team for the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun.
The new hires are certainly a big step for the Fire, but the immediate future is uncertain given the looming expiration of the WNBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement on Oct. 31. The two sides appear far apart, especially when it comes to revenue sharing, with the schism laid bare in the recent public dispute between Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier and Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.
What that means for the Fire, and fellow expansion team the Toronto Tempo, is unclear. The biggest problem could be a lockout, which would likely mean no draft lottery and expansion draft in December. If there’s no CBA there can’t be free agency, which is problematic as nearly every WNBA player who is not on a rookie contract is a free agent. But there could be an extension.
So for the Fire, and for the Tempo, too, the pillars seem to be in place; the waiting, however, is going to be the hardest part.