Chicago entered the draft lottery with just a 5.5% chance of landing the No. 1 pick. Sky co-owner and operating chairman Nadia Rawlinson represented the Sky at ESPN\u2019s studios for the lottery reveal. Rawlinson was the only member of a front office to represent a team this year \u2014 the Minnesota Lynx, Washington Mystics, Seattle Storm and Dallas Wings all had players present.<\/p>\n
How the Sky landed the No. 5 pick is a bit of a tale in itself \u2014 they traded their 2026 first round pick<\/a> to the Lynx for the No. 11 pick in the 2025 draft, which the Sky used to pick up former TCU guard Hailey Van Lith<\/a>. Then, the Sky acquired the rights to swap 2026<\/a> first round picks with Connecticut, as well as the team\u2019s 2025 first round pick, as part of a deal where the Sky received Rachel Banham<\/a> and Moriah Jefferson<\/a> and traded away Marina Mabrey<\/a>.<\/p>\n Want even more women\u2019s sports in your inbox?<\/p>\n Subscribe now to The IX Sports<\/a> and receive our daily women\u2019s sports newsletter covering soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, hockey and gymnastics from our incredible team of writers. That includes Basketball Wednesday from founder and editor Howard Megdal.<\/p>\n Readers of The IX Basketball now save 50% on their subscription to The IX.<\/p>\n But the No. 5 pick is not likely to be the cornerstone of the Sky\u2019s continued rebuilding effort. Seven members of the Sky\u2019s roster are unrestricted free agents, and it\u2019s not yet clear who the Sky will choose to protect when the expansion draft comes around this winter. General manager Jeff Pagliocca has also signaled<\/a> that the organization may consider overhauling the roster. That uncertainty makes it hard to predict which direction Chicago will go come April. The Sky declined to make any members of the front office available for an interview following the lottery.<\/p>\n The Sky desperately need sustained leadership at point guard. After veteran guard Courtney Vandersloot<\/a> tore her ACL in June, Chicago struggled to run their offense efficiently. Although Vandersloot is expected to return this season, at 36, the team can\u2019t rely on her to carry the offense long term, and the team needs to invest in acquiring and cultivating talent at the one.<\/p>\n The Sky\u2019s two-time All-Star Angel Reese<\/a> did not give exit interviews this year, and it\u2019s unclear whether she will stay in Chicago to finish out her rookie contract. Although Pagliocca and head coach Tyler Marsh have both expressed their support for Reese, her status with the team is one that could greatly impact the rest of the Sky\u2019s offseason moves.<\/p>\n Your business can reach over 3 million women\u2019s sports fans every single month!<\/p>\n Here at The IX Basketball<\/a> and The IX Sports<\/a>, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women\u2019s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, reach out to our team at BAlarie@theixsports.com<\/a> to discuss ways to work together.<\/p>\n Chicago has relied heavily on Kamilla Cardoso<\/a> and Reese to create offensive opportunities inside. If the \u201cSkyscrapers\u201d duo is broken up, that could change the team\u2019s focus from looking for a young ball handler to looking for someone who can create offense in the post.<\/p>\n If history is any indicator of where the Sky may go, last year the team picked up Van Lith, a point guard, in the first round. Using the first edition of The IX Basketball\u2019s 2026 Draft Board<\/a>, prospects that could be around for the Sky to select at No. 5 include UCLA point guard Kiki Rice<\/a>, LSU wing Flau\u2019jae Johnson<\/a> and UConn off-ball guard Azzi Fudd<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicago entered the draft lottery with just a 5.5% chance of landing the No. 1 pick. Sky co-owner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[37248,3691,438,72701,82258,99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-310131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-2026-wnba-draft","9":"tag-angel-reese","10":"tag-chicago-sky","11":"tag-courtney-vandersloot","12":"tag-jeff-pagliocca","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310131","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=310131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}