The vision is opaque for Chicago Sky

Basketball Wednesday

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Let’s be clear: There are absolutely reasons for optimism in Chicago these days. The Sky selected Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso in the 2024 WNBA Draft, and both have played beyond what anyone could have reasonably hoped from them as rookies.

Reese immediately brought her rebounding skill at the same level she posted in her final season at LSU. Truly, the same level, despite the massive differences in size and quickness in the WNBA: 21.3% rebounding rate at LSU her senior year, a WNBA-best 21.2% in Chicago so far. That’s absurd, and it reflects a player who can and should play in this league for a long time. Rookie seasons are typically floors, and seeing where she goes from here will be fascinating.

Her least effective performances have come against the New York Liberty, and understandably so, with star bigs Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones around to make life difficult for her. Even so, let’s be clear about the low end of Reese’s rookie season: She’s averaging 11.0 points and 11.3 rebounds per game against the Liberty.

She seemed to relish the challenge when I spoke to her about it following Chicago’s trip to New York this month.

“Being able to play against stretch fours, stretch fives, just being able to watch film and take it in, learn from it,” Reese said. And also, a challenge: Reese wants to become a three-level scorer the way Stewart and Jones are. It would be foolish to bet against her.

Similarly, Cardoso is, right away, the presence at the five the Sky envisioned. The floor, again, is high.

And perhaps there’s been no greater revelation in the 2024 season than the return of guard Chennedy Carter. Her difficulty fitting into locker rooms meant that the Sky are her third WNBA team by age 25, and she did not play in the league last season. But the consistency alongside the flash — as WNBA analyst Rebecca Lobo said, no one can stay in front of her — reflects a partnership that has been working with Sky head coach Teresa Weatherspoon.

“She’s a coach that I probably never had in my life,” Carter said when asked what Weatherspoon is doing to bring this performance out of her. “We talk all the time. I can pick up the phone, even if it’s not about basketball. I feel our relationship is growing all the time. But what really connects us is how much she trusts me and how early she trusts me this year.”

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The thing is: Carter has played for players’ coaches before. Former Atlanta Dream head coach Nicki Collen is a great example. The problem comes not when coaches have tried to empower Carter, but when they have tried to change her. So I couldn’t help but notice that following the game, when I asked Weatherspoon what more she needed from Carter, the head coach pointed out she needs Carter to find her teammates more. In the two games that followed, Carter had zero and two assists, respectively.

The problem is that Carter has long believed she is a better option to score than anyone else on the floor. That’s something that is usually true, and it’s especially true in Chicago. Drive and kick only works when the defenses collapse and open up shooters who can bury shots, and the Sky had two players with at least 25 3-point attempts and at least 34% accuracy from deep this year: Marina Mabrey and Dana Evans.

Mabrey, who the Sky’s previous general manager paid a king’s ransom for, asked out of Chicago, and she looks like the precise player the Connecticut Sun needed to add following a blockbuster trade between the two teams. (As of this writing, Evans is expected to be moved, too.) The return included guards Rachel Banham and Moriah Jefferson, both of whom can shoot it very well from deep but aren’t fits to be on the court together with Carter. They may not make sense individually next to Carter, either.

Both are signed for 2025 as well, while Carter will be a restricted free agent. While we still don’t know what the expansion draft rules are — and multiple teams have told The IX they don’t, either — there is reason to expect there will be an expansion draft of some kind. Adding to the roster just so Golden State can pluck some of your extra players isn’t much of a medium-term or long-term play.

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It’s all enough to leave us confused about what the vision is in Chicago. Banham and Jefferson are valuable role players in a win-now sense but don’t fit now. Chicago can’t take advantage of it by missing the playoffs and getting the No. 1 pick because Dallas has the right to swap picks. (The bitter pill to swallow if that came to pass, that UConn guard Paige Bueckers might be the perfect fit next to Carter, would leave an aftertaste in Chicago for years.)

And despite all this uncertainty, the Sky sent out a season ticket renewal bill with steep hikes in pricing and no other messaging the same week they traded Mabrey.

So what is the vision? How does Chicago leverage a breakthrough from Carter and an inspiring draft haul when two stars in Mabrey and Kahleah Copper have asked to be traded recently? It is worth noting that Mabrey asked to be traded a few months after Copper did, and Copper asked out months after signing a long-term deal. What has gone so wrong there that it is driving veterans away?

Like I said: I find myself pondering the Chicago Sky as much as any team in the WNBA, and not necessarily for the right reasons.