The Chicago Sky finished their 2026 season with a 16-26 record. They failed to make the playoffs and had a losing record for the third straight year. Even with Chicago hosting a successful All-Star Game, the Sky’s players were absent from the court.
Still, an average of 8,236 fans showed up to the Wintrust Arena and United Center to see the Sky in Chicago, and there were bright moments throughout the season.
The good
Sydney Taylor
Early in 2026, Sydney Taylor won the MVP of Basket Liga Kobet, a Polish women’s basketball league playing for MB Zagłębie Sosnowiec. The Sky signed her to a training camp contract, and she quickly showed that she was special.
Coming off the bench in late May, she scored 27 points against Toronto, and then 30 against Atlanta. She moved into the starting line-up in June, and became one of the team’s go-to shooters. But no moment was bigger than the Sky’s August 1 game against the Las Vegas Aces.
With three seconds left in the game, A’ja Wilson put Las Vegas up by two. The game seemed over. Natasha Cloud inbounded the ball to Taylor, who launched a three to seal the win.
“That was a big time game for us, for me. So that was probably my favorite moment of the season, for sure,” Taylor said.
She was named to the Associated Press all-rookie team, and is likely to have more accolades from her breakout season.
Development of young players
The Sky’s roster was stratified by age, with several players in the first three years of their WNBA careers: Taylor, Gabriela Jaquez, Aicha Coulibally, Jacy Sheldon and Kamilla Cardoso.
Cardoso’s scoring was up more than a point from 2025, while her turnovers were down. Sheldon’s defense improved, with better steals and block numbers. While Jaquez, the Sky’s first-round draft pick, dealt with injuries and some fatigue after being a part of UCLA’s NCAA title-winning team. However, she did have some impressive games, including scoring 22 against the Liberty.
“The positives probably start with our young core and the development and the growth and experience that they were able to gain throughout this year in a tough year,” Sky coach Tyler Marsh said. “They got some quality reps, some quality minutes. I know the roles fluctuated at times, but I think that that’s kind of where the focus and the direction and the investment will continue to be for them moving forward.”
The WNBA introduced developmental player roles in 2026, and this was an area where the Sky were particularly successful.
Maddy Westbeld and Aicha Coulibally were the Sky’s developmental players to start the season. Coulibally was elevated to the team’s main roster in June. Westbeld was signed by the Phoenix Mercury in August.
Chicago added Chloe Bibby as a developmental player in June, and by August 1, the Minnesota Lynx added her to the main roster.
The bad
Injuries, injuries, injuries
The injury bug hit the Sky badly. In fact, the Sky had the most games missed due to injury in the WNBA with 128. Only two players, Elizabeth Williams and Jacy Sheldon, played in every game in the 2026 season.
Part of the reason so many games were missed is that the Sky started the season with Azura Stevens, Dijonai Carrington, and Courtney Vandersloot on the injury list. Vandersloot returned from an ACL tear on June 26, and was able to stay healthy the rest of the season. Stevens played in 32 games, averaging 10.6 and 6.4 rebounds per game. However, Carrington’s injury issues persisted, and she played in just 11 games.
The biggest blow, however, came when Rickea Jackson tore her ACL in a game at Minnesota. Losing her pushed the already injured Sky roster as players had to play out of position.
“We’re battle tested. It’s next person up. We had a lot of injuries, a lot of people in and out of the lineups for various reasons,” Carrington said. “But I don’t think that the product that was put on the floor exemplified what all the stuff we were going through off the court.”
Shooting
Looking at where the Sky ranked among the rest of the 15 teams in the league, the numbers are not great. The Sky’s field goal percentage of 44.5 put them ninth in the league, three-point percentage of 31.5 ranked them 14th, and 13th among the rest of the league with free throw shooting with 76.5.
Injuries were a huge part of the Sky’s struggles, of course, but no team can win consistently with shooting numbers like those.
The ugly
Skylar Diggins’ tenure with the Sky
When Skylar Diggins signed with the Sky, she was the team’s flashiest free-agent signing since Candace Parker in 2021. She’s a seven-time All-Star and an Olympic gold medalist who grew up and played college ball in South Bend, just an hour and a half east of Chicago.
In her first month and a half with the Sky, Diggins was impressive. She managed a double-double in the first game of the season, and was comfortable as the team’s point guard. But cracks began to show when Vandersloot returned.
Though they played together well, little was said to Diggins about how her role would change when the Sky’s roster would carry three veteran point guards in Vandersloot, Diggins and Cloud.
“I don’t think we went and delegated roles of this is what you do, this what you’re going to do. I haven’t been told anything. I haven’t been told anything about it,” she said on July 1.
The next day, Diggins complained on social media about being moved to the bench. She was then moved to the injury list with a lingering knee issue that came up when she played for Unrivaled. She didn’t play again in the 2026 season.
In her final interview, Diggins spoke about how the Sky’s long-promised but yet-to-be delivered practice facility affected her. When the Sky went on the road, she went back to Notre Dame to rehabilitate her leg.
“A lot of things that were out of our control with the practice facility, and I wanted to be in that,” she said.” I think a lot of us were promised, and we thought that was going to be the case, and so that would be the biggest frustration with this season, just never feeling like we had a home base. Sometimes, we have limits or restrictions or how many hours we could be there, and that affects everything when you’re trying to be a pro and get in what you need.”
Continued questions of the Sky’s practice facility
The Sky first broke ground on their practice facility in October of 2024, and then in September of 2025, celebrated the enclosure of the building in Bedford Park. The Sky insisted that the building would be available before the 2026 season.
That date was then moved to the midseason, and finally after midseason came and went, the Sky announced they would not move into the facility for the 2026 season. Now, the team is aiming for November with the hope that players can continue to do offseason training in Chicago.
“I think people don’t realize that plays a big part when you’re bouncing from gym to gym and don’t have a set spot and whatever you need to get done. So I think that’ll be a big improvement for us next season,” Taylor said.
Part of the reason the facility has been pushed back is that the footprint of the building has nearly doubled. Still, the facility was part of the lure for free agents like Diggins, Carrington and Stevens. If any more delays happen, it could affect the Sky’s ability to bring more free agents in for the 2027 season.
