The Chicago Sky had made it clear that it wasn’t going to run a rookie day care in 2025. After a record-worst season in 2024, they wanted to compete. Their offseason moves signaled the same. Building on Angel Reese, they brought back their assist leader, Courtney Vandersloot, for a second act in the Sky uniform. “A lot has changed since my first day here as a rookie,” Vandersloot told reporters on the opening day. However, they had to bid the veteran goodbye as she tore her ACL pretty early in the season. 

Another move that signaled the “win now” mindset was bringing in Ariel Atkins for the No.3 pick in the 2025 Draft. “You don’t pass up on an Olympian, a WNBA champion, a two-way player that is about to go into her prime,” Pagliocca beamed.  Even their rookie sensation Angel Reese had a bold prediction for the 2025 season: “We will make the playoffs next year!!” while posting a photo of the New York-Atlanta’s first game in the first round of the playoffs. In hindsight, that was not the best path or the prediction to make as the Sky are virtually out of playoff contention. However, even with their goal now out of their reach, Coach Marsh has a stern message for the locker room.

Marsh told the media, “The goal is still to win games. So, you know, I think that we’re in a position where we want to still be able to play our best basketball moving forward and end this season um the last part of the season, on a you know, on a good stretch.”

Even with the impending exit of the team, they still have something to prove in the final few games of the season. Their “best young core” of Reese, Kamilla Cardoso, and Hailey Van Lith has not lived up to the sky-high expectations they themselves have set. The team will likely move on from their strategy to achieve quick success and revert to a complete rebuild. For that, their youngsters are the most important piece. 

While Reese remains injured, she has improved as a ball handler and creator this season. Marsh could continue to explore that aspect of the game further. Cardoso is yet to unleash her true self in this team, which she could in this final stretch. Marsh has a lot to work on, but he further drilled that there is still some life left for this Chicago Sky team. 

He said, “There is always something to play for. I think that’s the other message is that there’s there’s a professionalism aspect. There’s an aspect of pride and respect. And you know, it’s our job to go out and compete every single day as hard as we can.”

The team can’t just blow over because there are no chances to win the entire thing. There is a lot more to basketball than just the results. The management has invested heavily in this current crop of players, and they need to keep hopes of future success alive. While they had set a high bar of playoff qualification, realistically, they never had the chance. While they levelled up, their competitors did too. And they were already ahead in development. The instant magic approach they went for has fallen flat, bringing them to this situation. To start with, they need to give this promising player more time on the court to blossom. 

How Chicago’s Guard Rotation Is Holding Back Angel Reese’s Key Teammate

When the Chicago Sky drafted Hailey Van Lith with the eleventh pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, it seemed they saw some potential in the TCU graduate, and they want a young point guard to go with their twin towers. Van Lith was initially supposed to provide guard depth and learn at the feet of Vandersloot. And after her injury, she was expected to take more responsibility, but what transpired was something extremely weird. 

Van Lith has averaged 13 minutes a game this season, and the Sloot injury did absolutely nothing to increase her involvement. She has only played 25 games so far, averaging 4.0 points, 1.1 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game. While those numbers seem tame, she hasn’t received a proper run to improve them yet. Rachel Banham, who is usually more of a shooting guard, slid into the starting point guard spot, and the Sky signed Sevgi Uzun, who has played 16.4 minutes per game in her 5 games. This adjustment, just to avoid giving Van Lith more responsibility, could show their lack of trust in her. 

“I felt like just with the two quick conversations that I had, I felt a ton of alignment, and I felt like they saw who I was as a player. And I felt valued.” She had said after being drafted by Sky. If the Sky believed in her potential, then her lack of involvement sends just the opposite message. While she has had some injury issues, her minutes have been limited even when she was fully fit. If the team wants to lean into their young core, then Van Lith could be given more minutes. And it’s not like they are doing too well either, with playoff contention behind them, they are also the worst team in the league when it comes to assists per game.

“We wanted to give Hailey a look, and I thought that Hailey did a decent job in the time that she had,” Marsh said after the Indiana Fever game, where she played 15 minutes while scoring 6 points and dishing out 3 assists. There is no guarantee Van Lith could be their long-term point guard, but they must give her the chance in this final stretch to find that out.