After two years of questionable decisions and tough injury luck, the Chicago Sky, once again, have one of the worst records in the W. They sit in twelfth place with just four wins and a three-game losing streak. GM Jeff Pagliocca and head coach Tyler Marsh should both be on the hot seat.
Cheryl Reeve, meanwhile, is basking in the glory of being a genius on the sidelines and in the front office alike. Reeve is one of the few coaches in dual roles. She was made GM alongside her coaching responsibilities in 2017 and promoted to President of Basketball Operations in 2022, meaning that she had a hand in all executive decisions the Lynx made even when they had a GM, Clare Duwelius, between 2022 and 2024.
On draft day two years ago, the Lynx made a deal with Pagliocca to trade down in the draft in exchange for the Sky’s 2025 second-round pick and a 2026 first-round pick swap. Alissa Pili, the player the Lynx picked instead of Angel Reese, didn’t work out in Minnesota, but the genius was in the long-term implications of this move. A year later, Reeve, without a GM since Duwelius took on an executive role with Unrivaled, gave up her late first-round pick to own Chicago’s 2026 first-round pick outright instead of having to swap.
The Sky’s first-round pick ended up being a lottery selection, which Reeve used to draft Olivia Miles, who is the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year as well as an MVP candidate and just gave the Lynx a chance to beat the defending champions with Napheesa Collier still watching from the sidelines. After a slow start, Miles took over the game on her way to 29 points to bring the Lynx within one possession. And this is just the beginning. Miles will just continue to get better, and Reeve already proved that she can build a winning team around her with or without Collier in the mix.
Pagliocca has made many mistakes as the Sky GM in recent years, but knowing that he gifted the Lynx Olivia Miles for a chance to draft Angel Reese, who isn’t even on the team anymore, will haunt him more than anything else.
Chicago hasn’t drafted or traded well
The Sky’s current downward spiral started in the 2024 WNBA Draft. They had two first-round picks—three and seven after the trade with Minnesota—and used them to pick Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese.
Both are great players, but they were not great fits next to each other. So, giving up a pick swap to draft Reese after already using a lottery pick on a center made little sense. It could have been a great move if they had drafted Rickea Jackson third overall with a vision of Jackson and Reese as the frontcourt of the future. Instead, the Sky ended up with a clunky fit between Reese and Cardoso (again, not the players’ fault! It was a bad front office decision to draft both) and eventually traded the former for picks that will be late first-round selections if Atlanta keeps up its success.
A year later, the Sky traded their lottery pick to the Washington Mystics for Ariel Atkins. Sonia Citron was an All-Star, while Atkins couldn’t save a flailing Sky team, but they turned her into Rickea Jackson this offseason, so the trade doesn’t look as bad anymore as it did at first. But that could change quickly. The Mystics also have the right to swap 2027 first-round picks and could jump ahead of the Sky in a lottery that might feature JuJu Watkins.
After the Atkins trade, the Sky were left with two first-round picks and selected Ajsa Sivka and Hailey Van Lith. Sivka hasn’t made her WNBA debut yet, and the Sky waived Van Lith this offseason, leaving Cardoso and Gabriela Jaquez as the only recent first-round picks on the Sky’s 2026 roster.
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