{"id":653245,"date":"2026-05-07T07:19:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/653245\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T07:19:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T07:19:09","slug":"hailey-van-lith-has-seven-words-after-joining-new-wnba-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/653245\/","title":{"rendered":"Hailey Van Lith Has Seven Words After Joining New WNBA Team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hailey Van Lith<\/a> had already taken part in the Chicago Sky<\/a>\u2019s media day photoshoot and played in some preseason games, yet she was still waived.<\/p>\n

The Sky parted ways with their 11th overall pick in the 2025 WNBA<\/a> Draft. This means they have now lost both of their first-round picks from the last two years following the highly discussed separation from All-Star Angel Reese<\/a> in April.<\/p>\n

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Tyler Marsh will remain the Sky\u2019s head coach, but it appears he plans to implement a new system, as reports said Van Lith\u2019s release was caused by a clash in playing style.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a separate move, Chicago waived Hailey Van Lith, with sources telling ESPN that the decision was based on the coaching staff\u2019s \u2018style-of-play preference,\u2019” ESPN wrote.<\/p>\n

The Sky signed point guard Natasha Cloud<\/a> as a replacement for Van Lith. Cloud last played for the New York Liberty<\/a>, where she averaged 10.1 points and 5.1 assists as a starter.<\/p>\n

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\"Hailey<\/p>\n

Hailey van Lith orchestrates the offense during pre-season game for Chicago SkyKamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Van Lith could benefit from a fresh start, as her WNBA career has yet to blossom despite a standout college career. She played 29 games in her rookie season and averaged 3.5 points per game.<\/p>\n

That fresh start came in swiftly as the Connecticut Sun<\/a> picked her up on a waiver claim.<\/p>\n

The Sun made a cross-post on Instagram and Van Lith is just as excited about her fresh start.<\/p>\n

“Oh we love the Sun over here,” she wrote on her IG story.<\/p>\n

Van Lith will join the Sun, which will eventually move to Texas after being bought out by the Houston Comets. Champion and 10-time All-Star Brittney Griner<\/a>, one of the new faces in the Sun, welcomed Van Lith<\/a> through Threads.<\/p>\n

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“HVL \ud83d\udcaa\ud83c\udffe\ud83d\udd25. CT young and turnt for real \ud83e\udd23 I love it \ud83d\udd25,” ” Griner wrote.<\/p>\n

The Sun will open their 2026 WNBA season through a visit at the Barclays Center to play the New York Liberty on Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on May 7, 2026, where it first appeared in the WNBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hailey Van Lith had already taken part in the Chicago Sky\u2019s media day photoshoot and played in some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653246,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[23311,49,48,726,3458,63516,4651,3457,82,630],"class_list":["post-653245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-brittney-griner","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-chicago-sky","tag-connecticut-sun","tag-hailey-van-lith","tag-natasha-cloud","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653245","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=653245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}