What Next for the Sky After Quiet WNBA Trade Deadline?
Jeff Pagliocca chose to stay put at the deadline after dealing Marina Mabrey in July -- leaving Chicago with work to do in free agency and the 2025 Draft.
As expected, Chicago’s front office stuck with the personnel in place following Marina Mabrey’s trade to Connecticut on Tuesday when the WNBA’s annual in season trade deadline passed with only a couple of deals involving the Mystics. Given the tradable assets on the Sky’s current roster, the lack of flexibility most of the serious title contenders have and GM Jeff Pagliocca’s reluctance (at least presumably) to sell future draft picks, there was never likely to be a number of attractive deals on the table, and the result is the eighth-placed Sky looking at holding on to their slender 1.5 game lead over the Atlanta Dream with the same roster that started the second half of the season 1-2 last weekend. Playoffs or not, a big offseason is on the way for Pagliocca in his first full winter as the team’s lead decision maker; let’s look at where the roster will stand after the season wraps up and what other options the Sky will have for 2025.
2025 Roster
Players Under Contract (5)
Moriah Jefferson ($145,500 - guaranteed), Rachel Banham ($95,000 - guaranteed), Lindsay Allen ($90,000), Kamilla Cardoso ($78,066), Angel Reese ($74,909)
The Sky’s rookie duo, of course, will return as the core pieces of the franchise’s new era while Allen, at that price, will be as good as any replacement Chicago can recruit on the open market. Jefferson will almost certainly be back in 2025 as few teams will have the cap space needed to absorb her high salary for a (likely) middle of the rotation player. Banham, on the other hand, could be dealt again as she’s a valuable shooter on a manageable contract that could bring back a draft pick or another rotational piece. In any case, the Sky need to add shooters not let them go; so, all five of these players may end up making the opening day roster in 2025.
Restricted Free Agents (3)
Michaela Onyenwere, Dana Evans, Chennedy Carter
Onyenwere should start the rest of the season at the three, and I maintain my preseason stance that someone in the W will throw her a decent offer sheet. A multi-dimensional player who can reliably guard three-four positions and score at multiple levels is simply not easy to find. Whether or not Chicago ultimately matches that offer is another story entirely—with Teresa Weatherspoon’s reluctance to reward her strong stretches of play with a consistent role suggesting they’re very much on the fence. Evans could, in theory, still return but will likely only be back if no opportunities arise with other teams. Even if the market is lukewarm, she still may not return as the Sky will likely draft or sign a new point guard to complement Allen this winter. Carter, in all likelihood, will return to Chicago on a high-priced deal—though it will be interesting to see whether the franchise locks her up immediately or allows her to test the market with promises to match the best offer she finds.
Unrestricted Free Agents (4)
Isabelle Harrison, Elizabeth Williams, Brianna Turner, Diamond DeShields
Harrison seems the only of these 4 who’s likely to return to Chicago next season given the success she’s had complimenting Reese and Cardoso, and her ability to play alongside them at both the 4 and the 5. Williams and Turner should have more attractive circumstances elsewhere given their experience and defensive abilities while DeShields’ future is a bit of an unknown given her reduced role and disappointing shooting splits (32/17/64) this season.
Restricted Players (1)
Nikolina Milić
At this point, there’s been no suggestion that Milić plans to suit up for the Sky after she arrived in the trade that landed the Sky the 7th pick in April’s draft. Serbia are expected to qualify for next summer’s EuroBasket, and the veteran will likely skip the WNBA season to focus on her national team duties.
Salary Cap Space
The cap for 2025 will be $1,507,100 (all salary data comes from Her Hoop Stats), and the Sky will have $1,023,625 available if all 5 of their contracted players return. Carter and Harrison, if retained, would both likely make in excess of $150,000 next season, but the Sky would still have nearly $600,000 in cap space to fill 3 roster spots if the veteran duo and a pair of first-round draft picks took slots 6-9 on the 2025 opening day roster.
With a league maximum contract for 2025 set to cost $214,466, Chicago would have plenty of flexibility to pursue a pair of max-contract players and still fit comfortably under the salary cap. In short, Pagliocca and Weatherspoon will have plenty of opportunity to add marquee players if they can convince them to join the Sky—something they couldn’t do last offseason.
Notable Free Agents
The below is a list (though far from exhaustive) of notable upcoming free agents:
Cheyenne Parker-Tyus, Alyssa Thomas, Brionna Jones, DeWanna Bonner, Satou Sabally, Kelsey Mitchell, Kelsey Plum, Azurá Stevens, Alysha Clark, Kia Nurse, Natisha Hiedeman, Myisha Hines-Allen, Breanna Stewart, Sophie Cunningham, Brittney Griner, Diana Taurasi, Nneka Ogwumike
There’s obviously a number of useful players here, but the list largely puts the Sky in a difficult position. The superstars on the list (Sabally, Thomas, Plum, Stewart) are unlikely to choose Chicago so early in their retool (especially before the team’s new facilities have opened), and the role players will all have competitive offers from several other teams that feel they can better contend for a title. Given the Sky’s need for shooting, I’d expect Chicago to throw big offers at anyone who’s willing to come and can knock down shots. Even then, there are few truly elite shooters on this list. Mitchell is one but doesn’t really make sense in a backcourt pairing with Carter while Cunningham is a better roster fit but would seemingly have little incentive to leave Phoenix (especially given her history with Chicago). In the end, the Sky will likely have to settle for another quiet free agency or massively overpay a mid-tier name to choose them over the competition.
Draft Capital
The Sky currently have a pair of picks in the 2025 Draft. The first is their own pick—though they’ll owe it to Dallas to complete the Marina Mabrey trade if it ends up higher than Dallas’ pick. As things stand, Dallas is outside the playoffs—meaning they’ll pick in the lottery and Chicago won’t. If it stays that way, each team will make their own pick, and the much-maligned Mabrey trade will be complete with no further obligation. If both Chicago and Dallas end up in the lottery, the Wings will have the option to swap up until the lottery is complete—meaning Chicago could still miss out on the top pick and a likely chance to select UConn guard Paige Bueckers. In any case, the Sky will have a pick of some kind, likely in the top 5, with the exact positioning and who the pick belongs to the only matter yet to be decided.
Additionally, the Sky will also have a pick later in the first round from the Sun—acquired in the deal that sent Mabrey out of town. As Chicago saw this year with early second-round pick Brynna Maxwell, picks outside the top 5 and especially outside the top 10 are no lock to make a WNBA roster. Thus, don’t be shocked if this pick amounts to very little. That said, with an expansion team joining the mix for the 2025 season, later picks will have increased value. The Sky may use this pick to add a cheap young player to the back of the roster or deal it to a team that needs to replace an expansion-drafted player at a higher than normal price.
Projected 2025 Roster
G: Chennedy Carter, Moriah Jefferson, Rachel Banham, Lindsay Allen, Sami Whitcomb, ‘25 Draft Pick #1
F/C: Michaela Onyenwere, Kamilla Cardoso, Angel Reese, Isabelle Harrison, Kennedy Burke, ‘25 Draft Pick #2
Given the limitations the Sky have in recruiting free agents, I see them sending big offers the way of role players like Whitcomb and Burke. Both can shoot the ball (Whitcomb to a much higher degree) and could, perhaps, be sold on a bigger role with a team that has playoff ambitions. If not these specific players, I think this is at least the mold of player the Sky will be chasing—rotational players on teams with legitimate title aspirations. I also expect Onyenwere to return when, in the end, the Sky see the lack of other options on the market. Predicting what players the Sky will draft is a lottery, but I’d expect their first pick to be used on a player they envision as a starting guard alongside Carter with the later first-round pick going towards filling out the bench behind Cardoso and Reese.