The Chicago Sky do not appear to know what they are doing.
Let’s work backwards: The Sky reportedly want to overhaul their roster.
So, general manager Jeff Pagliocca traded Angel Reese, the team’s brightest star, for the Atlanta Dream’s 2027 and 2028 first-round draft picks. He did not pluck Atlanta’s young talent—Te-Hina Paopao or Isobel Borlase—in the process.
He likes his own young talent, so much so that he moved back in the second round of next week’s draft and traded another pick to protect his players in last week’s expansion draft. Two of those players (Hailey Van Lith and Maddy Westbeld) combined to start in one game in 2025. Aicha Coulibaly hasn’t played in one. Pagliocca drafted all three.
In February 2025, Pagliocca traded the pick that became Sonia Citron for Ariel Atkins, a move meant to raise a team’s floor when it hadn’t shown any evidence of a ceiling. He fired Teresa Weatherspoon, a fierce, dedicated, player-first coach after one season. He had shipped Marina Mabrey to Connecticut in July 2024 when it seemed clear the Sky had no immediate hopes of contending. Pagliocca also sent away what is now the No. 2 pick in the 2026 WNBA draft to move up one spot to select Reese in 2024.
None of it makes sense. Neither does asking professional women’s basketball players to practice in a public recreation center in suburban Deerfield, Ill., for well over a decade. Or, as Rebecca Allen described it: “I had a random lady getting changed right next to me. I was like, ‘Hey, hey, Wendy.” ”
The team will have a new practice facility that is set to be “operational” by late spring. If Chicago opens that facility without a clear franchise cornerstone, it will expose the Sky’s central flaw: they mismanage their most valuable assets—their players.
Remember, Sylvia Fowles, one of the greatest players in WNBA history who is the literal namesake of an altruism award, held out and forced her way to Minnesota in 2015. Elena Delle Donne threatened to sit out before she was traded in 2017. The Sky shipped out Diamond DeShields after winning the 2021 WNBA championship. Three more players—Emma Meesseman, Candace Parker and Azura Stevens—walked away from Chicago after the 2022 season. Kahleah Copper stayed; the Sky failed to build around her. Copper then asked for a trade, and found greener pastures in Phoenix.
That is the context Reese walked into. Her tenure was likely doomed before it began: With the No. 3 pick, one spot ahead of three-level scoring threat Rickea Jackson, Pagliocca selected Kamilla Cardoso, an athletic center who can rebound and is not a polished finisher. Then he doubled down and took Reese, another athletic big who can rebound and is not a polished finisher.
The pairing never quite worked out on the court. Cardoso and Reese had the second-worst defensive rating of any true two-big tandem in 2024. There was only one spot to go down, and they did, finishing with the worst defensive rating among that same group of players in 2025. Reese and Cardoso also had the two worst shooting percentages at the rim among the forwards who played at least 1,500 minutes over the last few years. To make matters worse, the Sky shot an anemic 28% from three when both players were on the court last year. That was two percentage points lower than the Connecticut Sun, who ranked dead last in three-point shooting percentage.
Off the court, there were signs of an acrimonious arrangement. Reese derided her own team last summer, telling the Chicago Tribune, “I’m not settling for the same s— we did this year. We have to get good players.” She dragged Courtney Vandersloot down with her. “We can’t rely on Courtney to come back at the age that she’s at,” Reese said, referring to 37-year-old Vandersloot’s recovery from a torn right ACL. “I know she’ll be a great asset for us, but we can’t rely on that.” She was suspended for half of one game for her comments. Reese thought her comments were taken out of context, but she apologized to her teammates.
She was right to apologize, but the source of her frustration came from the right place. The day before she gave that quote, Sky ownership met with the players to go over the team’s new practice facility, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. The players had simple requests, like aerated lockers and a bathroom near the court. Reese reportedly wanted more expansive locker rooms, training areas and office space for coaches.
In other words, she wanted an organization that treated her like the valuable asset that she was. Atlanta may offer that. (The franchise does not yet have a team-owned practice facility.) The Dream will play five games at an NBA arena in 2026; the Sky played two at the United Center in 2025. She will be a star among stars and will undoubtedly benefit from playing next to Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray and under Karl Smesko.
That’s all well and good for Reese, who according to ESPN, didn’t ask to be traded. Chicago will turn the page with the No. 5 pick in next week’s draft. For everyone’s benefit—the Sky’s, Pagliocca’s, the players’ and the fans’—whoever walks through that facility’s new doors deserves an organization that knows what it has.
More WNBA from Sports Illustrated
- Diana Taurasi Discusses the WNBA’s New CBA, UConn’s Superstars and Women’s Health
- Angel Reese Traded to Atlanta Dream in Exchange for Two First-Round Picks
- Full Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Class for 2026
- It’s Over Already?! The WNBA’s Expansion Draft Was a Baffling Flop
This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Angel Reese Trade Is the Sky’s Latest Blunder.
