There’s no question that the Chicago Sky’s season ended in disappointment. With a record of 16-28, the Sky finished in 11th place in the WNBA, well out of playoff contention. It’s the third season in a row with no postseason for the Sky.
Still, Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca was upbeat when talking to media about how Chicago can improve next season.
“We came up short. There’s no way around it. We saw enough promising signs that will inform how we navigate this off season, but ultimately, I’m I’m very excited about the future of where we’re going,” Pagliocca said.
Tyler Marsh will be the Chicago Sky’s head coach in 2027
Despite external criticism, Pagliocca gave his full support to second-year coach Tyler Marsh, whose record with the Sky is 26-62.
“Tyler played a critical part in us landing all of those players in free agency. Although I’m a big part of the conversations, they’re coming here to play for the coach,” Pagliocca said. “He won over a lot of those players because of who he is as a person. He has a tactical and creative basketball mind.
“He played really critical parts in his former jobs in those organizations and helping them bring championships to where they were; he understands what winning is. He’s lived it, and I think it was going to be incredibly unfair to judge someone that has yet to play with healthy rosters as a young coach. I’ve seen enough growth there. He’s as selfless as I’ve been around. He coaches for the right reasons. He kept the locker room intact, and you all know what happens when you start losing.”
A common refrain during the Sky players’ exit interviews is that they were impressed with how the team stayed together even as they weathered injuries, losing streaks and close losses.
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The Chicago Sky blame their 2026 struggles on injuries
Chicago Sky players missed, according to the Sky, 121 games due to injury. Rickea Jackson’s ACL tear early in the season was the biggest blow to the team, but every player, except for two, missed games.
The free agency signings Pagliocca touted spent more time on the bench in street clothes than on the court. Skylar Diggins played in 19 games before shutting her season down with a lingering knee injury. Dijonai Carrington played just 11 games and didn’t start any. Azurá Stevens played in 32 of the team’s 44 games.
“The Rickea injury was a backbreaker,” Pagliocca said. “And the reality of the injury, and what we could have been, settled in again when we had the strongest stretches of the season, upon welcoming both [Courtney Vandersloot] and Dijonai back into the fold, and ultimately we led the league in games missed due to injury.”
Part of the problem the Sky faced was that they started the season with Stevens, Carrington and Vandersloot injured, and a tight salary cap thanks to the late signing of veteran guard Natasha Cloud. They had little room to maneuver once Jackson was injured.
A salary cap exception was granted because of Jackson’s injury, and developmental player Aicha Coulibally was signed. But the Sky lost developmental players Maddy Westbeld – a Sky draftee in 2025 – and Chloe Bibby to other teams in large part due to the lack of room in the salary cap.
“I guess I can blame Natasha Cloud for coming in so late and eating up a lot of our money, but it was well worth it, and again, that’s part of the game that you play when you’re trying to manage the cap,” Pagliocca said. “It was frustrating because we knew we found great players that could help a team win games in this league, and that were capable of being really strong pieces in a locker room, and I guess it points to our scouting or our evaluation process that we had players here that other teams wanted, and yes, it was frustrating to lose them.”
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How the Chicago Sky plan to approach free agency
Between multi-year contracts for free agents and young players still playing on rookie contracts, only three 2026 Sky players are unrestricted free agents: Cloud, Carrington and Rachel Banham. Pagliocca hopes to keep the roster as intact as possible.
“A lot can change in free agency, so I don’t want to speak too much in hypotheticals, but we signed all these players for a reason,” Pagliocca said. “I love this team. I love this group we put together, and I typically don’t want to discuss or make excuses for the injuries. But this was the year where we really had a chance to turn things around. We did our job. We had a great free agency, so I’m proud of the players that we signed. I can see them all back.”
One key free agent the organization will prioritize bringing back is Sydney Taylor, who was one of the few bright spots of the season. An undrafted free agent, she went from a training camp contract to a starting spot in Chicago, averaging 13.6 points per game.
Her rookie contract is different from those of drafted rookies. She is a free agent in 2027, but the Sky will have the right to match what any other team offers.
“We love her. She’s a cornerstone of who we are,” Pagliocca said. “She is an incredible addition to what we feel is one of the strongest young cores in the league, and I think Sydney shared this herself last week that she wants to be here for a long time.”
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Skylar Diggins is expected to be a member of the Sky in 2027
While Diggins was one of the Sky’s biggest free agency signings, she moved to the injured list not long after finding out she was being moved out of the starting lineup midway through the season. She’s spoken out about the problems with the Sky not coming through yet on the practice facility she was promised.
However, in her exit interview on September 1, Diggins said she does expect to be back in a Sky uniform next season.
“We’ll just have to see how the off season goes. But we’ve never had any talks with the organization or about trades or wanting a trade or anything like that during this process,” Diggins said. “We’ve been really close in communication with everything that’s been going on and everything that I’ve been doing.
“And so we’ve talked about one of the big reasons why we’re shutting this down is to prioritize my health and for the future, and for the future with this organization. And so, it’s hard to tell. Obviously, I’ve committed to playing a season at Unrivaled before, and so it’s a lot of basketball to get me back to how I want to feel, how I want to look on the court. But I haven’t had any or expressed any desire to not talk about me in a Chicago Sky jersey next year.”
Pagliocca echoed what Diggins, noting that she will be under contract, and the Sky want her to be on the court with them.
“She’s signed up to a two-year deal,” he said. “Unfortunately, she played 19 games. She’s a highly competitive player. We have a highly competitive coach. Anything that happened during the season, they had conversations about during, after, and as recent as last week, I have no reason to not feel like Skylar’s bought in. I don’t want to speak in hypotheticals, but she’s an incredible player. She’s a future Hall of Famer, and we don’t start the season 3-1 without Skylar Diggins in a sky uniform.”
The long-awaited practice facility is expected to open in November
One of the main issues players brought up in their exit interviews is that construction never finished on the team’s designated practice facility. It was supposed to be ready before the season, then delayed to mid-season, and finally pushed back to a November opening.
Reporting from the Chicago State of Mind found that there is still lots of work to be done before the facility, located in southwest suburban Bedford Park, is ready for players.
Several current Sky players, including Kamilla Cardoso, said they hoped to spend as much time as possible in Chicago in the off-season to train, but they need a place for it.
“I am not a contractor, and what I’ve learned in construction is to not throw any more dates out about this place. I will say I was there last week. I’m going again tomorrow. It looks incredible. I am confident we will be in there soon,” Pagliocca said.
