Just 2.5 minutes into the Chicago Sky’s second game of the season against the New York Liberty, Angel Reese caught an offensive rebound. Though she was unable to make the basket, she picked her own offensive rebound and tried again. This went on thrice until she finally passed the ball outwards. Another miss. Reese was again there to catch the board and try again, another miss, another pass, another rebound. 12 seconds, no basket. Finally, the visiting team’s Natasha Cloud caught hold of the ball to end the loop. The No. 5 wrapped up the night with 2 points on 0-for-8 shooting. And the clip that went viral, also brought back the ghost of Reese’s rookie year– inability to make buckets, not even 5-feet away from the basket.

Although we saw the LSU alum practice with her former Sky HC Teresa Weatherspoon in the offseason in New York and then with Lisa Leslie during the forward’s stint in the Unrivaled, her slump in the sophomore year is making things worse for her. In her historic rookie season, she averaged 13.6 points and a league-leading 13.1 rebounds per game. However, she only shot 39.1% from the field. This year, through first 6 games, she shot only 31.1% from the field, averaging 10 points and a league-leading 12.3 points per game. 

It did shoot up to 35.8% after their last loss against the Liberty where she added a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds on 61.5% shooting from the field, highest of the season so far. So, here’s the big question– Why is the forward still on a downward trajectory? The question rose after the Sky’s second loss to the Caitlin Clark-less Indiana Fever where she only added 4 points to a losing effort. National reporter Ros Gold-Onwude has a thought.

In yesterday’s episode of The Good Follow podcast, co-host Logan Hackett asked Ros, “Are the expectations on Angel Reese too high too soon?” Without sugar-coating anything, the broadcaster responded, “I think it’s all of the attention that comes with Angel Reese that puts her on this pedestal. She gets the attention of a superstar. But at this very moment, Angel Reese is not a superstar basketball player. She’s not a franchise basketball player yet. That doesn’t mean she won’t be.

“She certainly has the motor, the work ethic, the upside to be that. But right now, what I see is a young player that still needs quite a bit more time and development. And same for Kamilla Cardoso. Both of them. And they were named as the cornerstones of this franchise. But I think it’s important to make that statement and kind of walk back maybe all of the pressure being put on those two and very specifically Angel Reese. And Tyler Marsh, the coach, actually said that himself.

“He said, ‘I don’t think Angel struggled tonight. I think we struggled as a team. It’s not about Angel being better for us, it’s about us being better for Angel.’ I think that’s important. You’ve got a young player who’s on a team. The entire team is struggling. I mean, the Sky can barely hold on to the ball long enough to be able to enter the ball into one of their post players in Angel Reese and Cardoso. They had 19 turnovers on 18 made field goals. So, they have more turnovers than they had shots made. That’s just an issue.”

While Reese has been reigning in the rebounding department, she had also only averaged 9 points, 4 turnovers, and 2.6 assists per game before the second Indiana clash. Moreover, she has been shooting just 31% from the field. And with all these high expectations from the Sky athlete, is the attention messing with her skills or does her gameplay require significant improvement? For one, her teammate is standing right beside her for shoulder.

“(Her) crown is heavy”: Ariel Atkins steps up for her teammate

Chicago Sky guard, Ariel Atkins opened up about the looming online harassment against her teammate, Angel Reese. In the wake of everything that went downhill after the Sky’s season opener against Fever, it looks like the comments against Reese have only turned uglier. But Atkins does not feel that Reese deserves such negativity.

While, Angel Reese discussed how she faces online hatred on a daily basis, Atkins had an important message for those trolls. “This is a 23-year-old kid. And the amount of crap that she gets on a day-to-day, she still shows up. So, whatever questions y’all got about our team, basketball-wise, we appreciate it. But all the other nonsense, like, it’s irrelevant. We’re here to play basketball and do what we do.

“No, she knows who she is and we ain’t gonna break her down for that. So whatever other questions y’all got, like, I’m hoping it’s just about basketball, maybe a box score question, but the kid’s crown is heavy. Like, respect that.”

Certainly, Reese has shown the potential to improve her game. Her adding some three-point shooting to her skillset over the offseason was an example of that. And so is her ability to make passes and give her teammates chances when she is not able to pull a shot is also another growth. But is that all enough to end the dry winning spell that the team is facing? Or will Reese need to put in more efforts to pull the team from the bottomless pit and climb the regular season ladder? I think we all know the answer.