{"id":622107,"date":"2026-05-04T02:18:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T02:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/622107\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T02:18:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T02:18:20","slug":"sky-defense-needs-dijonai-carrington-back-and-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/622107\/","title":{"rendered":"Sky defense needs DiJonai Carrington back, and soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

DiJonai Carrington wants the preseason to hurry up already. The Sky<\/a> guard is ready to get back on the floor \u2014 which she hasn\u2019t been able to since last September, when she sprained her foot in the first round of the 2025 playoffs.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s also anxious to see what this retooled Sky roster actually looks like in action.<\/p>\n

Carrington said that in the team\u2019s first two preseason games, both losses, she\u2019s seen spurts of the vision that she and other marquee free agents signed on for.<\/a> But she acknowledged that with four players sidelined \u2014 Carrington, Azur\u00e1 Stevens, Elizabeth Williams and Courtney Vandersloot \u2014 the full picture remains a mystery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just excited for us to be on the court together and just see how we all match,\u201d Carrington said at media day April 30. \u201cEverybody knows on paper it looks really good, so I\u2019m excited to see it in real life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrington spent the offseason recovering from surgery and had a follow-up procedure to remove hardware from her foot just before training camp. She didn\u2019t want to provide a specific return timeline but said she\u2019s pleased with her recovery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m back in the boot for a bit, but don\u2019t let that fool you,\u201d Carrington said. \u201cI\u2019m not taking that many steps backward. It\u2019s just temporary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel great. I really do feel good and strong. If it was up to me, I\u2019d be out there. But it\u2019s a very comforting feeling knowing that I have a couple weeks to go still. I\u2019m excited. I just can\u2019t wait to get back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her return can\u2019t come soon enough. Carrington will be central to the Sky\u2019s defense as they look to play a more disruptive style than they did a year ago.<\/p>\n

One part will be owning matchups against bigger, dominant guards such as the Mercury\u2019s Kahleah Copper and the Dream\u2019s Rhyne Howard. Both had their way with the Sky in the preseason.<\/p>\n

Another part will be pulling her teammates along with her.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a dog in the fight,\u201d assistant coach Latricia Trammell told the Sun-Times. \u201cShe takes away the excuse of everyone else not getting up and defending the basketball and communicating and following the game plan, because she will get up and do those little things that we\u2019re asking the entire team to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many Sky players believe the team can surprise people defensively, and several of them \u2014 including up-and-coming forward Rickea Jackson \u2014 want to take a leap on that end. Being surrounded by defensive-minded players like Carrington, the thinking goes, should help force the issue.<\/p>\n

On Sunday Carrington attended her first full Sky practice. Though she still can\u2019t play, she was already demonstrating defensive technique to her younger teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I\u2019m getting to know her more, you understand how good of a basketball mind she has,\u201d head coach Tyler Marsh said. \u201cShe has a passion for that defensive side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrington developed into an elite defender on the Sun teams that contended for championships from 2021 through 2024. She was named to the All-Defensive first team in 2024 \u2014 the only guard to earn that distinction.<\/p>\n

She considered signing with the Sky in 2025 but waited another year to make the leap.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it was the right time, the right fit and the stars aligned this time,\u201d Carrington said.<\/p>\n

Notes:<\/p>\n

The Sky waived Latasha Lattimore (2026 second-round pick) and Tonie Morgan (2026 third-round pick). The roster stands at 14 players; 12 will make the final cut.Vandersloot and Stevens are rehabbing and have not yet returned to practice. Stevens has said she\u2019ll be back \u201cearly in the season.\u201d Vandersloot hasn\u2019t provided a timeline, saying only that she\u2019ll be \u201cplaying basketball this season.\u201dGeneral manager Jeff Pagliocca did not provide an update on Aj\u0161a Sivka, the Sky\u2019s No. 10 pick in the 2025 draft. She was expected to join the team this season but has not been signed. Her Spanish club team concluded its season April 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DiJonai Carrington wants the preseason to hurry up already. The Sky guard is ready to get back on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-622107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622107","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=622107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}