Reflecting on a roller coaster 2025 Chicago Sky season and what's next for 2026

The 2025 Chicago Sky season was one filled with turnovers, injuries and end-of-season drama as they finished 10-34, the worst record since the inaugural 2006 season when they finished 5-29.

It started with a flurry of free agency moves in adding Kia Nurse, Rebecca Allen, Courtney Vandersloot and the blockbuster trade in sending the No. 3 overall pick to Washington in exchange for Ariel Atkins.

On paper, this team looked like a team that would finish in the middle of the pack, projected as high as No. 6 and as low as No. 9.

On June 7, Chicago held its season’s funeral when Vandersloot went down with a season-ending ACL injury, and the Sky never recovered. Since that loss to the Indiana Fever, the Sky went 8-29 to close out the rest of the 2025 campaign.

The Sky finished at No. 12 in the WNBA standings out of 13 teams.

A look at the numbers

Chicago struggled to find its identity all season after that with the only real identity being turnovers and poor offense. The Sky led the league with an average of 16.9 turnovers a game, giving up a league-high 19.8 points per game off turnovers while putting up a league-worst 75.8 points per game. 

Compared to 2024, the Sky regressed all three of those categories. 

What the Sky lacked in ‘24 was having shooters, especially from around the arc. They averaged just 4.7 attempts while shooting 29.6% from the 3-point line. In 2025, the attempts did increase to 20.2 a game but only converted on 33% of those.

“There's been a lot in this season, and we've stuck together,” Rebecca Allen said in her exit interview. “We've done everything together, and I just think that you could even see the care and the respect we had for each other in that moment at the end of the game is actually quite rare. 

“I haven't always had that in every team at the end of the season, when it's a game like that. A final game. You know that the season is done. It shows the collective togetherness of the group for sure.”

The Sky dealt with injuries all season long with their three key players dealing with them in Vandersloot, Atkins and Angel Reese. Atkins missed 10 games, and Reese missed 14; pair that with their point guard going down just seven games into the season. 

With the injury bug running rampant, you expect your other players to step up and perform. Instead, many players put up career-worst seasons. 

Allen put up her worst season offensively, shooting just 34.2% on the season. Kia Nurse had a couple of hot nights, but outside of that, she put up mediocre numbers. Michaela Onyenwere never had the opportunity to find consistency due to limited minutes and put up similar numbers to 2024.

Kamilla Cardoso was a shining light in the second half of the season, showing tremendous improvement since the All-Star break. Her development showed continuous growth and confidence as the season progressed. She bumped her average in 2024 from 9.8 points a game and 52% from the floor to 13.6 points per game and 52.8% from the field.

“We had hard conversations as teammates, coaching staff, about how they needed more from me, and I think that was one point of emphasis going to the All-Star break,” Cardoso said in her exit interview. “So I think I came back with a different mentality. It means a lot to me to be able to play how I was playing. I know there's much more space to grow, but I'm proud of myself for everything I did this year.”

Angel Reese’s efficiency did improve from 2024 to 2025: 39.1% from the floor to 45.8%. While her rebound average did see a dip, her facilitation became incredibly important to the Sky’s offense when Vandersloot went down. Her assist average jumped up from 1.9 in 2024 to 3.7 in 2025. It took her time to adjust to Tyler Marsh’s system, but once she got settled, she became that extra ballhandler to help run the Sky’s offense.

“We've been able to see [Angel’s] playmaking ability in so many different aspects this year,” Sky head coach Tyler Marsh said before the final game of the season. “Her defensive versatility is another area. We’ve assigned her to a bunch of different matchups throughout this year, and she's taken that head-on as well. So on both sides of the ball, there's been a ton of growth from there, and she's just not even scratching the surface on who she can be in this league for a long time to come.”

The rookies in Maddy Westbeld and Hailey Van Lith didn’t get as many opportunities as anticipated at the beginning of the season. Westbeld saw more minutes than Van Lith, mostly due to Van Lith’s lack of availability because of injury. Westbeld’s confidence did show slow and steady improvement as the season came to an end, getting more opportunities when Reese went down with a back injury in the middle of July.

“I just stuck to the process, and I'm just really, really grateful to do it with the girls next to me,” Maddy Westbeld said in her exit interview. “They made my first season memorable, and I seriously couldn't be more grateful for the people that I have around me. I'm just excited for what's next. I'm excited for the future of this program, and you know, this is exciting. Grateful.” 

What’s ahead in 2026

As the season came to a close, Reese voiced her frustrations around the Sky’s performance and front office. 

And that changed all the dialogue around the team instantly.

“Angel’s an ascending young talent in this league, who's had two very, very good seasons here in Chicago,” Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca said in his exit interview. “Obviously, we went through what we did. I feel like we closed the chapter on it. She spoke to her teammates, she spoke publicly. We moved on as a team.”

All this brings questions about whether or not fans can expect to see Reese in a Sky uniform beyond this season.

“She's a special player. I have good conversations with Angel and her team daily,” Pagliocca said. “They're constant, and they're productive. Until I hear differently, the direction we're going to move is that she's on the roster.”

Reese, Cardoso, Van Lith and Westbeld are the only four players under contract for the 2026 season. The other two 2025 draft picks in Aicha Coulibaly and Ajša Sivka did not play with the Sky this season but are anticipated to join the team in 2026.

Sevgi Uzun is the only reserved player, meaning that she can receive a qualifying offer from the Sky, is free to negotiate the terms of that qualifying offer but may not negotiate with other teams.

The rest of the 2025 Sky roster are unrestricted free agents, joining the other 100+ WNBA players that will be free agents for the 2026 season.

Vandersloot did say in an interview with Sky color commentator Shimmy Miller that she does plan to return to the WNBA. Whether or not she returns to the Chicago Sky remains to be seen, but the front office believes in bringing back the floor general for 2026.

“If she's healthy, she's going to be playing basketball here. No one's taking her recovery more seriously than her,” Pagliocca said. “I think she's more fired up than ever to prove the world wrong about who she is and what she's capable of. We have a lot of belief in her.”

From a draft standpoint, the Sky own Connecticut’s first round pick, two second round picks and a third round pick. That is subject to change during the offseason.

Regardless of who returns off the 2025 Sky team, the absolute focus for the Sky should be getting a young point guard. If Vandersloot does don a Sky uniform one more time, she should not be seeing the heavy minutes and more than likely will not be ready to start the season. With that possibility, getting a young point guard - whether that’s in free agency or the draft - should be the No. 1 priority.

“We know that [Vandersloot is] not going to be playing 38 minutes a game,” Pagliocca said. We're going to absolutely need somebody to be here and be capable of playing that position if she's not ready, if she's not healthy. This is a player we're not going to push.”

Outside of that, the focus should be letting Tyler Marsh have tons of control and say in the type of roster he wants to build. This is his system; he should have more say - frankly, the only say - in the type of players he wants to have in Chicago.

“Who we want this organization to be to me is selflessness, first and foremost. It's grit and toughness,” Marsh said before their game against the Sun on Sept. 3. “From a basketball standpoint, that's been an area that we've been searching for at times. 

“Over the course of this season, there's been bits and pieces there. Obviously, we're a team that plays heavily through our post. We've done a good job of being able to create space and pace around them to be able to put them in the best positions to be successful. Also, I think, from a schematic standpoint, that's where we've had to adapt over the course of the year, in terms of what that identity looks like. I think from a consistency standpoint, that's where we got to get to.”

When asked on whether or not he feels confident on his pitch working to lure free agents to Chicago with all the surrounding noise around the ownership of the team, Marsh answered, “I don’t know.”

And that’s the theme for a lot of conversations around the Chicago Sky and the WNBA.

No one knows what the future of the league will look like as CBA negotiations will become the only topic of discussion this offseason. The current CBA deadline is set for Oct. 31 with many people believing that the league and player’s association will not reach one by then.

That will most likely lead to an extension of 30-60 days, giving the league time to have the draft lottery and possibly the expansion draft so the two new teams in the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire can start their roster construction.

Once that extension expires, everything is up in the air. Will they reach an agreement before mid-January? What will the new rules be? What will the salary cap be? Will there be expanded rosters? Will there be a set of standards that organizations must meet?

Nobody knows.

Until that gets decided, Chicago Sky fans can chalk up the 2025 season as an oversold disappointment that may or may not lead to change for the future roster or ownership.