“We’ve been dreaming about this for so long,” Veteran point guard Courtney Vandersloot exclaimed after rejoining the franchise where she won her first WNBA title. Being the exceptional passer that she is, the point guard was supposed to be the key that unlocks Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso. 

That hasn’t happened for them, having slumped to a 2-6 record while being one of the worst attacking teams in the league. Their defense hasn’t been better as well leading to being dismantled by almost every opponent. Following their dismal season so far, this national analyst has given another distressing update for the rest of the season.

Seerat Sohi said on the WNBA Ringer Show, “They are a team that when you look at them, you just kind of constantly find yourself asking the question, well, why are they this bad? Because they shouldn’t be this bad. It will certainly not be in there, you know, it was not their plan to be a rebuilding team. They owe their pick to the Minnesota Lynx. And right now they have a 16% probability of making the playoffs, according to ESPN.”

The mood going into this season for the Sky was that of determination to at least make the playoffs. After coming off their first playoff-less season in the previous four seasons, they were expected to build on their young talent. For most rebuilding teams, there is a tendency to want to emphasize patience. But that was not the case with the Chicago Sky.

The Sky made some considerable draft picks, most notably Hailey Van Lith, and scored big in bringing on worthy veterans, namely Vandersloot and Ariel Atkins. For the veteran injection, they traded their No.3 overall pick, which turned out to be the early rookie of the year candidate Sonia Citron. By this move, they signaled everyone in the league that they want immediate results. On paper, it seemed to be a worthy squad mixed with the right amount of youth and experience, along with the squad depth of Michaela Onyenwere, Rebecca Allen, Moriah Jefferson, Kia Nurse, Rachel Banham, and Maddy Westbeld.

As the world of Basketball has proven time and again, it has given a lesson to first-time head coach Tyler Marsh that not everything on the spreadsheets and whiteboards quite works out the way you expect it to. The trick is in how you react when something unexpected happens, and the Sky have just given in to their fate so far. It has caused their goal of the playoffs to move further away. Sohi further mentioned that the Chicago Sky should adapt to their situation and change their plans for this season. 

She said, “So things are not going according to plan for them. And it gets, I guess it kind of makes me wonder how much they should be pivoting, you know, to just trying to go into a more of a developmental plan for this season as opposed to trying to win.”

Sky lost one of their top scorers recently as Vandersloot tore her ACL and will miss the entire season. Sloot was averaging 12 points and a team-high 6.2 assists per game until her unfortunate injury. Without their premier point guard, they would have to rely on the young Hailey Van Lith to take over her duties. As talented as she is, she can’t compensate for the 14 years of experience of Vandersloot. Marsh is also new to his job, so they will probably have a different approach for the rest of the season and then target important players in the 2026 free agent flurry.

Ariel Atkins Shines Through the Storm as the Sky Struggle to Find Balance

The Sky management will probably look back on the moment they decided to sacrifice their No.3 pick in this year’s draft, a 2027 first-round pick swap, and a 2027 second-round pick to the Washington Mystics in exchange for veteran combo guard Ariel Atkins. In hindsight, that could prove to be a mistake, as Sonia Citron would have been a beautiful addition who would have added another dimension to their attack this season. 

It’s easy to think in hindsight, and Atkins is not a slouch either. She is a WNBA champion, Olympic gold medalist, two-time All-Star, and five-time All-Defense selection. Atkins has been one of the better performers in this Sky squad, but hasn’t performed to her absolute best. She has been overburdened by duties, according to Seerat Sohi. 

She said, “And now I feel like even Ariel Atkins feels a little over tasked in that role as well, where she should probably be able to get a lot more of her points, like assisted as opposed to unassisted. Like it just feels like now it’s going to it’s going to get worse and worse. But everybody just feels like they’re being burdened to do a little bit more than they should.”

Ariel Atkins currently ranks on the lower end in terms of assisted scoring, with just 44.17 percent of her points coming off assists. This highlights how much she has been forced to create her own offense, often relying on scoring off the dribble rather than benefiting from structured playmaking. With Courtney Vandersloot sidelined, that burden is expected to increase. Hailey Van Lith, though talented, is still adjusting to the responsibilities of being a lead guard in the WNBA and does not yet offer the same level of creation and control that Vandersloot provided.

As a result, the offensive workload will become increasingly imbalanced. Vandersloot’s absence creates a domino effect throughout the team, where each player, including Atkins, will be expected to take on more responsibility than their role naturally calls for. This shift is likely to lead to a drop in efficiency, greater fatigue, and a further decline in team performance.

Atkins herself has mentioned that the sacrifice that Sky made to bring her in has been on her mind this season. “Yeah, I think I did [feel pressure to live up to the expectations set by the trade] a little bit in the beginning,” Atkins told CBS Sports before the loss to the Indiana Fever. “But you also got to understand that at the end of the day, if somebody wants you and somebody believes in you, you just got to go out and do your thing. They traded for you for a reason.”

There is light at the end of the tunnel for Atkins as she is looking much more comfortable now than she was in the first three games of the season. Atkins was third on the team in scoring and sixth in shot attempts through her first three games. In her last four outings, she’s first in both categories, a fact she attributes to being more comfortable. She is the best scorer on the squad this season with 13.4 points per game. Her trajectory suggests she will do even better as the season goes on. 

Atkins is the ray of hope that Sky will hold on to amid their cloudy form. There are only two other players who have averaged 10 points per game: Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso. They can do much better, and Van Lith’s acquisition will have to turn out to be the right one for the Sky to have a faintest chance of making the playoffs.