Chicago Sky First Half Stock Watch: Reese, Carter, Evans + More
Which players stood out before the Olympic break and who struggled to live up to preseason expectations?
The Sky’s first half is in the books, and it’s pretty safe to say that Teresa Weatherspoon and company have outperformed most people’s preseason expectations by holding a playoff position during the Olympic break. Whether they can hold on to it in the second half without Marina Mabrey remains to be seen, but a number of individuals have made an impression which suggests that, no matter what happens in the second half, they’re ready to be a part of the team’s future. But, whose stock has risen and fallen most amongst the Sky roster? The most obvious riser is Chennedy Carter who’s gone from out of the league in 2023 to one of the standout players of 2024, but I’ll have more on her exceptional play in another story coming next week (subscribe so you don’t miss that one!). Let’s dive into 5 other players who have made a substantial move in one direction or another so far this season.
Stock Up: Angel Reese
If not Carter as the player to lead this post off, who better than Reese? In general, I would call myself one of the bigger Reese advocates in the pre-draft process. I mentioned a couple of times that I thought Chicago should consider her with the third pick, praised her as a home run selection at #7, and suggested that she’d likely be one of the league’s top rebounders in her rookie season. Even then, I didn’t expect Reese would fair quite so well out of the gates. The offensive side of the ball is still an area where she needs polish, but the expectations can’t be overly high there as she had no true “offseason” after finishing her LSU career just over six weeks before the WNBA season tipped off. Whether she grows into an offensive force long term remains to be seen, but it’s clear she’s already made adjustments to her game (namely her patience trying to score on the block) that have led to notable steps forward in efficiency (33% FG in games 1-8, 42% since) based on the feedback she’s getting. If she continue to successfully integrate that type of feedback, the weak spots in her offensive game look easily addressable.
Meanwhile, the attributes Reese was expected to bring to the league at a “pro-ready” level have all delivered. Her defense, though obviously hampered by playing against some of the world’s best players at the 4, has been consistent, and there’s been few (if any) games where she looked overwhelmed by her match-up. Even in games where a veteran has gotten the best of her during a specific phase in the game, there’s never been an instance where that carried on as a weak spot in Chicago’s defense for the entire game. If Reese is not someone that opponents can target defensively as a rookie, there’s not going to be a point in her career where she is. Similarly, her rebounding has, without any doubt, transitioned to the W with no drop off in productivity. Again, I thought before the season that Reese might flirt with the top spot on the WNBA’s rebounding charts but was a bit hesitant to say she’d actually claim it. There’s still 16 games left to go, but her 11.9 boards per game have her comfortably ahead of third on the list (Collier, 10.2) and only a fraction behind A’ja Wilson (12.0) for the top spot.
Stock Down: Brianna Turner
With the franchise spending two first-round picks on front court players and all-defensive team selection Elizabeth Williams already in town, a limited role for Turner should come as no huge surprise. Yet, I’d have thought that Williams’ season-ending injury may have opened up a slight window for Turner to claim some of her minutes. Instead, the front court time has been split exclusively amongst three players—with Turner playing just 16 of the team’s 24 games and never seeing more than 10 minutes since Kamilla Cardoso returned from injury. The biggest culprit? Angel Reese. I had thought that rookie power forward, like Cardoso (26.2 MPG), would average a minutes count somewhere in the mid-to-high 20s. Instead, she’s played the second-most minutes (761) on the team with Weatherspoon quickly seeing just how valuable her rookie’s minutes can be. If Reese plays, say, 25 or 26 minutes per game as she adapts to the W, that delta of 5-6 minutes likely goes to Turner. With 5-6 minutes a game guaranteed, Turner would have a nightly chance to prove she deserves more, and it’s possible that Harrison or Cardoso’s minutes are each cut by a minute or two to get Turner closer to double-digits. In any case, it hasn’t panned out that way, and it’s not necessarily a huge negative for the Sky as they’re developing their young stars at the expense of a player who will likely depart in free agency anyways. The big loser will likely be Turner who will struggle to attract big offers from teams with so little W tape from 2024.
Stock Up: Isabelle Harrison
Harrison is one who I’m almost certain will continue to see her stock trend in a positive direction in the second half as she continues to gain more fitness and rhythm after returning from the injury that cost her the 2023 season. Even then, she’s shown plenty of flashes of her top form in the first half despite an up-and-down role early. Just before the Olympic break, Weatherspoon started to use Harrison as the team’s first player off the bench—spelling Cardoso in the first quarter and acting as a bridge between the starters and the reserve unit that had typically taken over to start the second. Though each game is unique, the overall outcome has seemingly been more consistent performances in second quarters—with the veteran’s ability to slide in with the starters and quickly accumulate rhythm key to giving the rest of the bench a much needed security blanket as they adapt to the flow of the game. Given the Sky’s energy out of the gates has been so consistently high, any player who can help them improve their game management and protect leads is of great value, and Harrison has done that well.
Stock Down: Dana Evans
Blame Evans, Weatherspoon or both; this is one that just hasn’t panned out as anyone hoped in the preseason. Many of the Sky’s fans were vocal about Evans as the team’s point guard of the future and another strong (though sometimes inefficient) season in Turkey had that momentum swelling before the season. Yet, at the All-Star break, Evans has not only been moved out of the starting line-up; she’s seen her role shrink to the point where she averaged only 11.6 minutes in the final 9 games of the first-half. Even in 2023, when some felt both coaches failed to give Evans the right platform, Wade (23.1 MPG) and Vatansever (20.4) gave her considerably more run than she’s gotten as of late. Because of Evans’ style of play, she’s never likely to be super-effective in an up-and-down role, and she’s unsurprisingly struggled to establish much rhythm or efficiency as a result (37% FG). To her credit, she’s actually been much improved from three (35%), but the inability to bring other improvements from overseas to the W (like her much improved playmaking) means she’s not on court enough to add major value from long-range. A trade before the deadline seems a logical next step for all involved, but that seems unlikely after the Mabrey trade. With Evans’ recent comments to the Chicago Sun-Times suggesting she and the team are no longer on the same page, the final 16 games of this season look to be her last in a Sky jersey.
Stock Up: Lindsay Allen
Floor generals have gone out of style to a certain degree in recent years because of the rise of ball handlers who simultaneously lead the offense and generate their own looks, but there will always be some value in a player like Allen who can make sure the ball goes the right places possession after possession, game after game. When your offense is heavily dependent on ball movement and without a load of explosive individual scorers (as the Sky are), there’s a lot more than “some” value in the presence of that organizational guard. The Sky’s best offensive performances have come when Allen—in addition to doing all of that for everyone else—is hunting her own shot. She may not be the biggest or most explosive athlete off the dribble, but she can find open space with intelligence and understanding of how the defense is set-up. If you go back to every lay-in that Allen has scored this season, you’ll find that many come after the defense has overcommitted to one area of the floor—with her recognition of that mistake allowing her to work her defender into the open space and finish at the rim.
If there’s one way she can improve in the second half, it’s by calling her own number more often. Though she’s generated much of her offensive output by exploiting simple weaknesses in the defense, she’s also had some fantastic finishes through traffic as well. With Mabrey gone and Evans in a reduced role, Allen is, perhaps, the second most important slasher on the team—meaning the Sky need her to build off of the aggressive mindset she flashed at times and attack the basket with more regularity.