We don\u2019t know who the Sky will land with the No. 5 pick in the 2026 draft \u2014 there are too many moving pieces between now and April. But we do know one young prospect who\u2019s on the way: Slovenian wing Aj\u0161a Sivka.<\/p>\n
The Sky drafted Sivka No. 10 in 2025 knowing she\u2019d spend another season in Europe. Sivka wanted to play for her national team and finish high school, and the Sky wanted her to sharpen her ballhandling and add more athleticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to try to continue to develop and see if we can have her game grow to be much more than just a shooter,\u201d general manager Jeff Pagliocca said on draft night.<\/p>\n
So: What should fans expect when Sivka joins in 2026?<\/p>\n
Sivka has a silky release<\/p>\n
The best thing about Sivka may be her release. At 6-3, she needs very little space or time to get her shot off, and she isn\u2019t shy about firing from deep. Most of her shots in the Spanish league this season have been threes \u2014 and she\u2019s made almost 40%. That\u2019s against competition that\u2019s typically tougher than what U.S. college prospects are facing right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that size \u2026 her mobility and her ability to shoot the ball and shoot as quickly as she does, there\u2019s just not a lot of them,\u201d Pagliocca said.<\/p>\n
Sivka is comfortable with pretty much every type of 3-point shot. And if she\u2019s even halfway open, she\u2019s letting it fly. That will help the Sky, who still need to add shooters around their star bigs.<\/p>\n
She can pass and defend wings<\/p>\n
Though Sivka isn\u2019t much of a rebounder for her size, she uses her height well as a passer. She finds angles for post-entry feeds, runs a good pick-and-roll, and hits the open player when she draws a crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows that I\u2019m not a selfish player,\u201d she said of her passing on draft night. \u201cI like to have the flow of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also already has reps defending pro-level wings. She helped slow down Mercury shooter Kitija Laksa in a recent FIBA competition, and having a 6-3 wing who can help off drives is always a plus.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s a role player internationally<\/p>\n
Sivka has WNBA potential, but Sky fans should keep in mind she\u2019s not the second coming of fellow Slovenian Luka Don\u010di\u0107. She\u2019s not a star on either her Spanish club or her Slovenian national team. She\u2019s a role player who will sink a couple of threes and slip in for a nice back cut.<\/p>\n
Watching Spanish league competition, you can\u2019t help but notice more razzle dazzle from her opponents.<\/p>\n
French guard Carla Leite, a Valkyries expansion pick, slices her way through defenses. Lithuanian guard Juste Jocyte, the Valkyries\u2019 No. 5 pick in the 2025 draft, might reasonably take over a game as a rookie. Don\u2019t expect that from Sivka. And hats off to the Valkyries: they clearly did their EuroLeague homework.<\/p>\n
Bottom line<\/p>\n
Sivka will hit threes in the WNBA, and her size and pro experience are pluses. If she transitions smoothly, she could have the kind of 3-and-D impact the Sky hoped to get from Rebecca Allen last season.<\/p>\n
Not getting the juices flowing? How about this: Sivka \u2014 coming to the W at 20 years old \u2014 gives the Sky a chance to prove that their player development really is among the best in the business. Maybe her dazzle is just waiting for coach Tyler Marsh to coax out of her.<\/p>\n
Still nothing? Then you\u2019re like every other Sky fan: waiting for a miracle in free agency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We don\u2019t know who the Sky will land with the No. 5 pick in the 2026 draft \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-319208","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\/319208","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=319208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}