2023-24 WNBA Offseason Guides: Chicago Sky
Our offseason WNBA guides continue with the latest team to be eliminated, the Chicago Sky
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Previously published 2023-24 Offseason Guides:
Seattle Storm
Phoenix Mercury
Indiana Fever
Los Angeles Sparks
2023 record: 18-22, eliminated 2-0 in first round by Las Vegas
2024 draft picks: The only pick they hold in the 2024 draft is the Phoenix Mercury's second-rounder. Their own first, second and third-round picks are going to Dallas, New York and Phoenix respectively, all from the trade that brought Marina Mabrey to Chicago in the offseason.
Free agents: Courtney Williams (UFA), Alanna Smith (UFA), Ruthy Hebard (RFA), Rebekah Gardner (Reserved). Robyn Parks (Reserved), Morgan Bertsch (Reserved)
Under contract: Kahleah Copper, Marina Mabrey, Isabelle Harrison, Elizabeth Williams, Dana Evans, Li Yueru, Sika Koné
2023 performance: 2023 was a disappointing but ultimately not hugely surprising season for the Chicago Sky. For all James Wade's protestations of "I'm not f------ planning on losing", the Sky downgraded at almost every spot from their 2022 team that went 26-10. When you remake the roster with mid-range free agents and a wildly excessive swing in the trade market, you're probably going to take a significant step backwards. When you throw injury issues and your head coach/general manager jumping ship midseason into the mix, it's perhaps a surprise that they even managed to sneak into the playoffs in the final few days (only to be blown out twice by the Aces and swiftly sent packing).
A lot of the season was overshadowed by events off the floor. First, there was the Mabrey trade, which mortgaged the future by giving up their 2023 and 2024 first-round picks and swap rights to their 2025 first-rounder, plus four other minor assets, for the right to give Mabrey three years of virtual-max money. Outside of proving she was the second coming of Cynthia Cooper once removed from an Ogunbowale-sized shadow, Mabrey was never going to live up to that outlay. It's also the sort of trade you might consider when you know you're going to be good. If you're Las Vegas and you're 95% certain you're going to finish top-two barring some kind of disaster, then go ahead and throw your first-round picks around. When there's a good chance you're going to be mediocre, and an injury or two away from definite lottery attendance, you just can't do it. Then - maybe taking an unexpected opportunity, maybe seeing the writing on the wall of the mistakes he'd made - James Wade left the team to take an assistant coaching position with the NBA's Toronto Raptors. They were 7-9 under Wade and ultimately went 11-13 under Emre Vatansever, so maybe it didn't make all that much difference, but it was another level of confusion and disruption for a remade team.
There were still some positives. Dwyane Wade joined the franchise on the ownership side. Alanna Smith turned out to be a steal of a signing, playing better than she ever had in the WNBA before. Courtney Williams became a distributor like never before and went back to shooting some threes. Elizabeth Williams excelled as a defensive center. Kahleah Copper had another good year, then gave Sky fans a late-season boost by signing a two-year contract extension on the final day of the regular season. The problem was that the little positive elements added up to a very mediocre whole.
Offseason finances: The Sky have seven players under contract for next season, two of whom - Isabelle Harrison and Li Yueru - never set foot on the floor for the Sky in 2023. Hopefully Harrison will be back next season, but Li's WNBA participation may be more of a long-shot in an Olympic year. If all seven were to be on the roster, they would have $511,448 in cap space left for the remaining four or five spots. That seems like plenty. Theoretically, if they added two players at the base minimum ($64,154), there would be enough left for one free agent at the max ($208,219) and another at around $175,000. However, that's before we consider their own unrestricted free agents - Courtney Williams and Alanna Smith - who both played well enough that they may well draw interest elsewhere. So they could chase after a bigger fish or two in free agency, but they may struggle to attract anyone better than those they already had this year. And if they do spend big on outside options, it may cost them those key pieces from the 2023 team.
Reserved players don't have to be offered anything more than their applicable minimum salary, so they could stick at take-it-or-leave-it with that level to Rebekah Gardner, Morgan Bertsch and Robyn Parks. But Gardner got a bump to $100,000 this year, so she might not be happy with that even after missing much of this season injured. So they could need a little extra cap space for her, too.
Offseason priorities: Working out what to do with the Sky is difficult, because they weren't really that bad this year. It's just that outside of Copper they weren't really great anywhere, either. Wade's desperate attempts to avoid going full-rebuild left them firmly in the meh category. So maybe you make some calls on the big free agents - Jonquel Jones? Skylar Diggins-Smith? A return for Elena Delle Donne? - while hoping your own UFAs are still available if you strike out. Unfortunately the prize many people thought they might have a headstart on - luring Jewell Loyd back home to Illinois - is now off the table after Loyd signed an extension in Seattle. Maybe you make some calls to see if there's any interest in the last two years of that Mabrey deal, to try to recoup some draft capital. There's very little point in tanking considering those 2025 first-round swap rights that Dallas hold on their pick.
Before all that, you have to decide who's going to be making these decisions. Vatansever was only ever officially the interim head coach and general manager, so both jobs are still up for grabs. According to Kahleah Copper in her exit interviews they will be going to different people, so even if he is retained for one of them Vatansever should be getting some help. Obviously these are always important hires, but due to the purgatorial state they were left in by Wade it's become absolutely vital they get the choices right. It's probably going to be a difficult recovery, and it might get worse again before it gets better.
Future assets: As mentioned several times above, Dallas own swap rights to the Sky's 2025 first-round pick, so the Sky will receive the lower pick between their own and the Wings. Their 2025 second-rounder is also going to Phoenix from that same Mabrey deal, so their only other current pick in 2025 is their own third-rounder.
They do still have draft rights to Kseniya Malashka from last year's third round, and suspended rights to veterans Julie Allemand and Astou Ndour. Whether we see either of them in the WNBA in an Olympic year (and with tougher Prioritization rules affecting Ndour) remains to be seen.
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This is, at best, a mediocre team that seems destined to remain that way for the next few years. James Wade deserves blame, if not outright condemnation, for the Mabrey deal and subsequent flight from responsibility.
James Wade was horrible at the GM Position. He passed on drafting players like Arike Ogunbowale, and Naphessa Collier in 2019 in the first round, only to draft Katie Lou Samuelson. Then passed on Marina Mabrey in the second round of that draft, and drafted Chloe Jackson, only to give up a haul in a trade with Dallas for the same Marina Mabrey years later. James Wade busted out future draft picks of the Sky like a dumb beginner learning to play Blackjack. The future of the Sky looks bleak with the many dumb moves James Wade made. P.s. Rebekah Gardner was in the Sky training camp when Amber Stocks was Coach/GM, and Stocks cut her. So to say Wade found Gardner overseas is a bald face lie. Good luck to the Sky in reversing some of the damage James Wade left the Organization in, before he bailed, so he couldn't face the blame.