{"id":277673,"date":"2025-11-07T17:47:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T17:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/277673\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T17:47:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T17:47:15","slug":"entering-year-3-of-the-reese-era-the-sky-should-decide-who-theyre-trying-to-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/277673\/","title":{"rendered":"Entering Year 3 of the Reese era, the Sky should decide who they’re trying to be"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even more troubling than the Sky\u2019s<\/a> 10-34 season was that it stopped being clear who they aspire to be. In 2024, it looked like the Sky were trying to be the Connecticut Sun \u2014 defensive bruisers with a signature sneer. Feasting on a perceived lack of respect and recognition.<\/p>\n

Do you even know how many triple-doubles Alyssa Thomas has? That\u2019s what the Sun seemed to be saying as they ripped the ball out from under you.<\/p>\n

The Sun were tough guys \u2014 bad guys, even \u2014 who proved that in the league\u2019s modern era, you could still win by stuffing opponents\u2019 flashy offenses back in a box.<\/p>\n

The 2024 Sky \u2014 with a brand new coach and two star rookies \u2014 had a similar vibe.<\/p>\n

No, they didn\u2019t have any Thomas-caliber players. But their coach was old-school and defense-first, and two of the team\u2019s young stars, Angel Reese and Chennedy Carter, were also motivated by perceived disrespect. The chip-on-the-shoulder mentality got the Sky farther than most expected. <\/a>They stayed in the playoff race and punched above their weight defensively.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t to romanticize the 2024 Sky, whose season ultimately unraveled. This is just to say: one could squint past the bumbling and see what they were aiming for \u2014 the Sun 2.0.<\/p>\n

It seemed like a logical aspiration. The Sun showed teams can win without modern infrastructure, still practicing in a place that hosts children\u2019s birthday parties. And their stars, Reese and Thomas, saw aspects of themselves in each other.<\/a><\/p>\n

The parallels were there, and it seemed like a mold worth trying.<\/p>\n

But the Sky switched it up in 2025 \u2014 from trying to be the bad guys to the good guys.<\/p>\n

The team still talked about toughness and grit, but the bigger topic of conversation was veteran leadership. They brought in \u201chigh-character\u201d players to guide its young stars: Courtney Vandersloot, Ariel Atkins, Rachel Banham, Kia Nurse and Rebecca Allen.<\/p>\n

The 2025 Sky would win with championship habits, a top point guard, and a more modern, space-and-pace style of play.<\/p>\n

The losses that followed \u2014 34 of them to be exact \u2014 were often difficult to watch. The team couldn\u2019t stay healthy or take care of the ball. But it all could have been forgiven if they were building an identity.<\/p>\n

The problem was: one could squint past the 40-point blowouts and still not know what you were looking at.<\/p>\n

Sure, the team had some recognizable elements \u2014 Reese and Cardoso\u2019s rebounding, Banham\u2019s 3-point shooting \u2014 but they didn\u2019t have a signature personality or play style when they stepped on the court.<\/p>\n

In fact, they were often outplayed by less talented teams.<\/p>\n

Something that the face of the franchise noticed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching Golden State \u2014 no offense, but I don\u2019t think they\u2019re more talented than us on paper,\u201d Reese said in an interview with the Tribune that ultimately got her suspended. \u201cBut they play hard as hell. So starting at the top, we\u2019ve got to find an identity of what we\u2019re going to be next year and then roll with the punches of what we can get.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, in Year 3 of the Reese-Cardoso era, the Sky do need to find themselves \u2014 and a little more urgently now. They\u2019ve experimented, tried on a version that didn\u2019t stick, and learned what they\u2019re not. It\u2019s OK if they don\u2019t want to be the Sun 2.0.<\/p>\n

But who, then, are they aiming for? Do they want to be like the expansion Valkyries, whose international scouting helped bring them to the playoffs? Or the rising Fever, whose adaptability through high-profile injuries surprised everyone?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a question worth clarifying \u2014 before the moment passes them by.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even more troubling than the Sky\u2019s 10-34 season was that it stopped being clear who they aspire to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-277673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}