Last season, it was as if the Chicago Sky were stuck in the deep end and were struggling to find their way out of it. Of course, they put up a fight; they scratched and clawed their way trying to achieve something meaningful, but it ended on a sour note, with the team comprehensive failing to make the playoffs.

The Sky have since fired coach Teresa Weatherspoon and replaced her with Tyler Marsh, who won the WNBA as the assistant coach twice with the Las Vegas Aces. Marsh will have a young core of Angel Reese and Camilla Cardoso to work with as they look to build around them going forward. Reese herself had a standout rookie year, averaging 13.6 points, 13.1 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game while earning a spot as a WNBA All-Star. Unfortunately, an injury to her meant the Sky missed their chance at playoffs last year. Coming into the 2025 season, Sky were looking promising but this WNBA veteran has just pointed out the meat of their problem.

When talking about Chicago Sky’s core players for next season, Lexie Brown said on Friday’s episode of her Full Circle podcast, ” Their core players will probably be Angel, Camilla and Hailey, so that’s…babies, right?” Reese will be entering just her second season, as will Cardoso. That is youth as well as inexperience. The Chicago Sky selected Hailey Van Lith with the No. 11 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, she is a promising rookie, but still a rookie. That means they have to fish for experience.

Courtney Vandersloot gives them a reliable veteran ball handler and scorer, but she is expected to come off the bench. They have brought in Atkins this past offseason as well. The 28-year-old, a two-time All-Star, started all 40 games for the Washington Mystics last year. These additions bring some experience. Brown is very interested in whether Sky will try the double-big strategy. For that, the central issue becomes the importance of the ability to bring the ball up for the center and being versatile.

Brown mentions that Sky doesn’t have that, saying, “You don’t have that in any of the bigs in Chicago, respectfully; that’s not a knock on them, it’s just true. Camilla, Angel, and Elizabeth are very interior post players, which is very important but very hard to play a certain style with both of them on the court at the same time.”

This becomes a chess-like puzzle to solve for coach Marsh, but he will have some time on the court with this group at the training camp. Marsh will need to figure out how to make these girls play at their highest potential. He will have to utilize all of his championship-winning experience in order to organize this group and drill them in a specific way of playing basketball. Reese is facing a lot of off-court tension as well, with her heated battle against Caitlin Clark a rivalry that goes back to college days.

Angel Reese sends out a strong message ahead of her second WNBA season

Angel Reese was the star of the show in her opening season in the WNBA. Bringing in eyeballs and showing her class on the court. Her spicy rivalry with Caitlin Clark just made the fans more excited. She has widely received criticism for her on-field and off-field behaviour. In the public eye, right from early on in her life, she has had to face some mental struggles. Reese sent out a strong message ahead of the training camp and the 2025 WNBA season.

Reese really gave a life lesson here to her fans, asking people to keep everything to themselves. Not everything is a topic of gossip. Look at your own life first. The Chicago Sky star is herself walking the talk as she is ferociously working on her game to make herself better. Raised by a single mother, she has seen struggle right from her childhood. So, to work hard is the only thing she knows.

Reese and Sky will want to improve upon the 2024 season in 2025. They will have enough time to work on their tactical problems, and Marsh will be well-equipped to take this group to the next level.