labeled as the worst-run franchise in the WNBA<\/a> by an anonymous poll of players.<\/p>\nFollowing the trade of Reese, the Sky racked up one major pick up after another in free agency and through additional transactions. They signed veteran point guard Skylar Diggins. The traded for young shooters who can space the floor in Rickea Jackson from the Los Angeles Sparks and Jacy Sheldon from the Washington Mystics. They secured frontcourt scoring and defense in free agent Azura Stevens. For two-way versatility, they signed Dijonai Carrington.<\/p>\n
They also fared well in the WNBA Draft with the selection of scorer and rebounder Gabriela Jaquez, picked No.5 overall from the national champion UCLA Bruins. Chicago later selected Latasha Lattimore from Ole Miss with the No. 21 pick and Tonie Morgan from Kentucky with the No. 32 pick. They also signed Aicha Coulibaly, who played collegiately at Auburn and Texas A&M, to a rookie contract and Sydney Taylor, last of Polish club MB Zaglebie Sosnowiec, to a training camp contract.<\/p>\n
All those newcomers round out a returning core roster that includes Kamilla Cardoso, Rachel Banham, Elizabeth Williams and Maddy Westbeld.<\/p>\n
Through all that activity, the Sky are looking to escape a revolving door of rebuilding and be on the path towards contending for a playoff spot. How can that happen? Here\u2019s at three things that must materialize for the Sky to achieve their ambitions.<\/p>\n
1. Health is an absolute for the Sky<\/p>\n
For starters, it begins with ensuring that everyone, especially the top players, is healthy.<\/p>\n
General manager Jeff Pagliocca said at media day that the organization made some serious changes to improve the medical team after a season in which injuries affected their top players, including Reese with a season-ending back injury, Courtney Vandersloot with a season-ending ACL tear and Ariel Atkins, who missed 10 games with a leg injury.<\/p>\n
We have overhauled and restructured our medical staff.<\/p>\n
Right now, these are daily conversations that we\u2019re having, and\u2026 it\u2019s really tough. It\u2019s a physical league, anything can happen at any time, but I mean, it\u2019s hard to play without your best players healthy, but it\u2019s part of the game, and so we have to be prepared, and a lot of that goes into roster construction, making sure that we have reinforcements ready, but yeah, we have people that we really depend on that are very valuable to us now in the medical department.<\/p>\n
Pagliocca also said that the new practice facility in Bedford Park will be ready in \u201clate spring, early summer\u201d. Currently, the Sky practice at the University of Illinois at Chicago.<\/p>\n
2. Kamilla is the key on the court for Chicago<\/p>\n
Then there is the matter of continuing to maximize Kamilla Cardoso\u2019s caliber in the paint.<\/p>\n
Last year, she averaged 13.6 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game while shooting 52.8 percent from the field. Going into her third season, head coach Tyler Marsh says Cardoso doesn\u2019t have to wait her turn and foresees her taking her game to the next level.<\/p>\n
With Kamilla, there\u2019s a lot of growth that has been had, and there\u2019s still a lot of growth to be had, and so for us, it\u2019s continuing to instill the mindset in her that she doesn\u2019t need to take a backseat to anybody.<\/p>\n
She can be one of the elite bigs in this league. She showed glimpses, you know, throughout the last couple of seasons. Of that, we continue to instill belief and faith and trust in her and who we know she is and can be, and it\u2019s a matter of reinforcing that in positions where she can believe that on a daily basis.<\/p>\n
And so, it\u2019s a combination of responsibility of Kamilla, it\u2019s a responsibility of us as a staff to do our part in that, and then it\u2019s a responsibility of her teammates to help elevate that level as well. And so, we all know who we have in that number 10 jersey, and, you know, the more that she feels comfortable, understanding who she is in this league.<\/p>\n
Pardoning the pun, Marsh added, \u201cI think the sky\u2019s the limit for her.\u201d<\/p>\n
3. The Sky believe chemistry can be the foundation for success<\/p>\n
Obviously, chemistry needs to be built. The Sky haven\u2019t had the luxury of building chemistry over time due to continuous roster changes over the last several years.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Rickea Jackson anticipates the team continuing to gel as they aim to win as many games as possible. She said:<\/p>\n
My mission for this season is just to have fun and just win.<\/p>\n
I feel like we have a really good group, the energy is really good, and I feel like we\u2019re just gonna continue to grow that chemistry and camaraderie, so I\u2019m just excited to see where this group gets to.<\/p>\n
Plus, the Sky brings together a roster full of versatility.<\/p>\n
Diggins brings a solid combination of scoring and playmaking to the backcourt. Jackson provides scoring on the perimeter, whereas Carrington locks it down with perimeter defense. Stevens and Williams complement Cardoso in terms of scoring, rebounding and shot blocking.<\/p>\n
Carrington, who made the 2024 WNBA All-Defensive Team, saw firsthand the benefits of versatility in the Sky\u2019s first two preseason games, saying:<\/p>\n
I\u2019m excited. We saw a lot of different people playing different positions in the first two preseason games, so I think that is, conducive to my type of play as well, and I think that it makes you very hard to guard when you\u2019re able to show a lot of different things, and you\u2019re not specifically stuck in the corner, or, nope, you only can be in the short corner, or whatever it might be.<\/p>\n
So, I think it\u2019s gonna be really great. It\u2019s gonna force us also to expand our bags and continue to skill develop, because if not, you\u2019re gonna get exposed. So, I\u2019m excited for it.<\/p>\n
Carrington was out due to recovery from an offseason surgery on her left foot. The Sky lost both their preseason games, 108-104 to the Phoenix Mercury last Saturday and 87-78 to the Atlanta Dream on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Vandersloot and Stevens are back together as the two remaining players from the 2021 championship team. Stevens is coming off a season with the Sparks in which she achieved a career high of 12.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game. Vandersloot is still recovering from her ACL injury and will back up Diggins when the time comes.<\/p>\n
For each of them, it is still hard to fathom that it has been five years since they won it all and are back together for another go around. Vandersloot and Stevens consider each other family. Vandersloot said of her relationship with Stevens:<\/p>\n
It does feel a little full circle.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, we talk about this, that we\u2019re back here to feel so right, because, you know, obviously we spent a lot of time being all together, and, you know, I consider Z, like, family, so to have her back in Chicago was really important to me, it was really special.<\/p>\n
Stevens credits Vandersloot and her wife, Allie Quigley, a former teammate, as major catalysts in her return to Chicago.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, her and Allie are family to me too,\u201d Stevens said. \u201cSo obviously we went together, she was a huge part of me coming back.<\/p>\n
In terms of talent and mentality, the Sky have it, especially in the long neglected area of shooting. But in terms of synergy, time will tell whether this grand experiment pays off.<\/p>\n
If they can come out of the gates storming with talent, maintain cohesion and remain healthy, then the Sky have a good shot at a playoff spot, even against worthy playoff teams.<\/p>\n
Do they have enough to get there? We\u2019ll soon find out. Sky fans, let us know how you\u2019re feeling about the team\u2019s changes, outlook and aspirations in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Sky are beginning 2026 with a fresh sense of optimism. After a 10-34 season and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630,237333],"class_list":["post-643063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-previews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}