With a markedly different roster, a new practice facility (still under construction), and even new living quarters for the players, the Chicago Sky are clear on one thing: this season is going to be different.
“The first thing that [Sky coach] Tyler [Marsh] and I did was put a plan together after last season, and we knew that we needed to improve dramatically, and we wanted a new identity,” said Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca at the team’s press conference introducing new players on Wednesday.
The new identity happened quickly thanks to the short free agency period brought about by the late CBA signing. The Sky traded away Angel Reese, a two-time All-Star who ended the 2025 season acrimoniously with the team.
Once free agency was officially open, the Sky signed Skylar Diggins, Azurá Stevens and DiJonai Carrington. They traded for Rickea Jackson and Jacy Sheldon, and re-signed Elizabeth Williams, Courtney Vandersloot and Rachel Banham.
Then on Monday, the Sky used the fifth overall pick to draft UCLA’s Gabriela Jaquez, adding her to a young core that includes Kamilla Cardoso and Hailey Van Lith. The new look is complete, but the Sky will still need to forge a new identity.
Marsh is confident he has the players to do just that.
“These are players who approach the game in a way that you know what you’re going to get out of them from a nightly basis in terms of effort,” Marsh said on Monday after the draft. “And so at the foundation of whatever system is put in place, that’s got to be the core of it is how hard you play on a nightly basis, and how you can impact the game in other ways outside of just scoring.”
For Diggins, joining the Sky brought her closer to home. She was raised in South Bend, Indiana, which is about an hour and a half from Chicago. But she also saw the move as an opportunity to contribute.
“Just looking into the direction of the Chicago Sky, talking to Tyler, talking to Jeff. I thought this was gonna be a great fit for me knowing the vision before a lot of people knew it,” Diggins said on Wednesday. “It’s a great opportunity for me to bring leadership and be alongside of the upcoming stars, like Rickea, and I’m also able to learn from players I always look up to, like Courtney Vandersloot, so it’s a great position for me to be in.
In coming to Chicago, Jackson is playing with Stevens, her best friend from their Sparks days. But it also means playing with a former nemesis. Cardoso has hit two three-pointers in her career, one in college and one in the pros. Both were over Jackson.
“I’m definitely excited to be on the other side of the corner. Kamilla, as we all know, she hit both her three pointers on me, so maybe she’ll want to sink a lot of threes for this team now,” Jackson said with a laugh. I’m definitely excited to play with Camilla. I love playing with bigs, mobile bigs.”
Jaquez was the other big piece the Sky added. Pagliocca and Marsh were ecstatic on draft night that they were able to pick her, and she said on Wednesday that growth is one of her main motivators in Chicago.
“I think for me, going into college, I understood that I had so much to get better at, but I saw that as a great thing,” Jaquez said Wednesday. “And it excited me, because it’s fun to get better, it’s fun to work and, you know, see all the growth that you have. And so for me, just going into the W just excited to continue to get better, and work on my game, and grow every year.”
Previously, the Sky had struggled in free agency. Before the 2023 season, just one year removed from a title, the Sky failed to re-sign key championship players Candace Parker and Vandersloot. Before that, even players who were under contract wanted to leave Chicago. Sylvia Fowles and Elena Delle Donne both requested trades before winning titles with other teams.
Having success this time around said to Pagliocca and Marsh that they were headed in the right direction.
“I think you don’t land what we were able to land, but accomplished last week during free agency, if people didn’t see the sincerity of who we were and what we were trying to do here, and we leaned into a lot of good that’s, here’s a lot of really good people here, and everyone’s gonna have opinions this,” Pagliocca said. This has a lot of eyes on it. Now the attention has changed dramatically. So, you know, narratives can be fair or unfair, but we’re very self aware, and we also know that we were able to land players that mattered a lot to us and that we wanted to grow with here.”
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