CHICAGO – The two words that keep coming up about the 2026 Chicago Sky are “new look.” After all, the team’s roster is dramatically different from the 2025 team that finished 10-34. Angel Reese is now in Atlanta and Ariel Atkins is in Los Angeles, while Rebecca Allen and Kia Nurse signed elsewhere, as well.
In their place, the Sky added All-Star Skylar Diggins, Dijonai Carrington, Jacy Sheldon, Azurá Stevens and Rickea Jackson. Natasha Cloud was signed on Monday. Throw in returners like Courtney Vandersloot and Rachel Banham, and the 2026 team is in need of a new identity.
Head coach Tyler Marsh thinks he has the identity figured out.
“One of my favorite things about how we’ve constructed this roster is comprised of players and staff of people that felt counted out or been counted out,” Marsh said at the team’s media day. “And we want to use that as motivation moving forward, to know that we all got stuff left in the tank. We’re ready to prove that.”
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Skylar Diggins’ new home
After stops with the Tulsa Shock/Dallas Wings, Phoenix Mercury and Seattle Storm, seven-time All-Star Skylar Diggins is back in the Midwest. Diggins grew up in South Bend, about an hour and a half east of Chicago, and at 35 with two young children, she felt the urge to play for the team she first watched as a kid.
“I’ve always been submerged in the culture of Chicago Sky. I know what it is. I know how this city embraces sports and loves basketball, and so I didn’t need to really be sold on that,” Diggins said. “Growing up in the Midwest, this is where you come when you want to get some good bump. There’s so much culture in the city, great food, and I spent a lot of time here, so a lot of it didn’t need to be sold because I was so close to family.”
So many point guards, so little time
On Monday, the Sky released Hailey Van Lith, the second-year guard who had been impressive during the preseason, and signed veteran guard Natasha Cloud. The move added another high-level point guard to the Sky’s roster.
Now, the Sky’s roster has three of the top-five active players in all-time assists: Vandersloot leads with 2,886, Diggins is fourth with 1,768 and Cloud is fifth with 1,732. Each player has shown herself to be an able playmaker, but with only five spots on the floor and 40 minutes per game, how will this work?
Vandersloot is currently still rehabilitating from the ACL tear she suffered early last season, but she spoke about how she imagines working with Diggins.
“[Skylar and I] have talked previous years about playing together. There’s a mutual respect there. We approach the game the same way. Skylar’s ability to score the basketball makes it so that we can really play together,” Vandersloot said in an interview that happened prior to Cloud getting signed. “It will be kind of a two-headed snake just being able to attack from two different looks. I think that’s really dynamic and will be difficult to guard.”
Having so many players with similar skillsets will challenge the Sky staff to show creativity in building an offense. It will also challenge Diggins, Vandersloot and Cloud to accept different types of jobs and playing time.
Injuries will shade the start to the season
During last week’s preseason game, the Sky’s bench was crowded with players in street clothes. Vandersloot, Azura Stevens and Dijonai Carrington won’t be available for the team’s season tipoff on Saturday in Portland. Sky GM Jeff Pagliocca didn’t want to give an exact timeline for each player’s return, but each player is making progress.
Vandersloot is coming back from an ACL tear that happened in early June of 2025. She is back to running full sprints, but hasn’t played with contact.
Carrington is back in a walking boot because she had hardware removed from her foot after suffering an injury while playing for the Lynx in 2025. Stevens is resuming basketball activities, and is hoped to be weeks away from returning.
Part of the Chicago Sky’s pitch to free agents like Diggins and Carrington is that the team is in the process of building a new training facility near Midway Airport in the Chicago suburbs.
Though the facility was originally supposed to be ready for the start of the season, the team has added what they wanted to the facility and that’s pushed the opening back. Now the team is targeting late spring or early summer for the opening.
Pressure is on for Kamilla Cardoso
With Reese’s departure, all eyes are on Cardoso and how she will need to take over post duties (Jackson and Stevens, upon her return, will also help). Standing at 6-7, Cardoso has uncommon size and has to show she can use it.
“There’s not a lot of six-foot-seven athletes in this league, and you can’t rely on that forever. So we have to make sure her weak hand is evolving. Her go-to work around the rim is evolving. Her face up is evolving. Her catch and shoots,” Pagliocca said. “We want everybody to shoot the basketball, and she can shoot a ball, but we have to keep building confidence in players like her to want to build those skill sets. And she works. She wants to be great.”
Cardoso played in the Chinese Women’s Basketball Association and with the Brazilian national team during the offseason, and used that time to work on her game.
“I’ve been focusing on my defense and my perimeter game. That’s something we have talked about, and that was my area of focus,” she said.
Marsh and Pagliocca have pressure on them as well
Marsh is in his second season as the Sky’s head coach. In his first season, the Sky went 10-34 while dealing with injuries to key players like Vandersloot and Reese. Their 12th place finish in the league was tough on both players and coaches.
Pagliocca was hired after the 2023 season, and in his tenure, the Sky haven’t made the postseason. Teresa Weatherspoon, who was hired before him, ended up being fired after just one season.
This season will be the five-year anniversary of the Chicago Sky’s only WNBA championship, and the team will host the WNBA All-Star Game at the United Center in July. There’s enormous spotlight on Chicago and both Pagliocca and Marsh are at the forefront.
“We have high expectations. We have a group of people that won’t accept anything but keeping championship standards here at this point, and we’re gonna have no problems being very bold and who we want to be,” Pagliocca said. “We want to compete with and beat the best teams in the league, and we expect that out of the players.”
The Sky’s season starts this weekend with their first game against the Portland Fire on Saturday, May 9.
Want more team-by-team previews for the 2026 WNBA season? Read them all here!