Chicago Sky Season in Review: Robyn Parks
Reviewing Robyn Parks’ rookie season including her defensive excellence, three-level scoring potential and more.
Continuing through December 18th, I’ll have a weekly post reviewing one member of the Sky’s 2023 season each Monday. Each post focuses on three positives from the player’s season and one thing I’d like to see more of from them next year. Think of it like a (highly positive) end of season report card. You can view past reviews here.
Given all the circumstances surrounding the Chicago Sky’s 2023 season, there was always bound to be a couple of unexpected surprises on the roster this season. A word is owed to Alanna Smith, Sika Koné and a few others, but no player served as a bigger surprise to me than 30-year-old rookie Robyn Parks. Having achieved journeywoman status after stops in Spain, Hungary, Angola, Poland, Egypt, Italy and Mexico, Parks arrived in Chicago off the back of a strong Italian season where she led Campobasso to a playoff berth with 19.4 pts and 7.1 rebs per game. Even after she arrived in the Windy City, Parks’ season was a bit of a roller coaster with varying involvement through the first half of the season (10 MPG average) before her role became more defined post All-Star break (16 MPG average). In any case, she lived up to her rookie-vet status by seamlessly blending situational energy off the bench with a level head and read of the game in important situations (it’s no coincidence Parks stepped in to the starting five in each of the 2 games Kah missed this season). Measured by any metric, Parks’ 2023 season has to be seen as a bright spot for the Sky which positions her to be an attractive bench piece on the free agent market this winter. Let’s dive into the details that made it a success:
1) One vs. One Defending
As with any player, you can pull out a mistake or two from the film, but the general defensive consistency for Parks is exceptional. In large part, I think you can attribute most of her success in one-v-one situations to her focus on the technical details. She’s great at positioning her body when defending off-ball so that she can quickly arrive into defensive positions that limit the ball handlers’ options. No matter how good of a defender you are, great scorers will always find ways to get towards their spots but making an honest effort to limit their options is often half the battle. There’s some experience and know-how that goes along with that, but a lot of it comes down to the willingness to maintain good habits and effort every possession. Her continued commitment to those efforts after she secured a roster spot is what helped her build a place in the rotation and underline a case to be back on a W roster again next season.
On top of her technical diligence, there’s obvious benefit on the defensive side that comes from Parks’ frame. It feels like the ‘3&D’ wing has been in fashion for so long that it’s due to go out of fashion, but the three point shooting rates at all levels of basketball suggest the trend still has considerable legs. In that respect, Parks looks and moves like the prototypical wing player. She’s quick enough to cover the open floor and close out open shooters but also strong enough to hold her own in the post on occasion. When you pair those attributes with her extended wingspan which allows her to reach that close out position from further away, Parks really does have all of the physical tools you would look for in a great defender as well. One key item to watch for next season will be how Parks defends against opposing fours. I think the best option to get both of the Sky’s elite wing defenders on the court would be using one at the four. If that’s the case, I imagine Parks (not Kah) slides to the four — a role she did play in spurts this season — for several reasons. It’s not going to work against a team with two traditional bigs like Kiah Stokes and A’ja Wilson, but there’s a lot of matchups where a Kah-Parks duo could be useful for a key defensive period or even in closing time.
2) Spot Up Shooting
You can call me captain obvious for this one, but Parks had games (the late July home win against Phoenix most obviously) where she was practically unconscious from behind the three point line. That’s obviously important as the second piece of her fitting the “3&D” prototype, but it’s also important for the Sky to find secondary sources of scoring in their bench unit beyond Dana Evans. When you pick up a player like Parks who has scored a lot for a team overseas, it can be difficult to integrate them into your offense when their usage rate practically falls off a cliff. For certain types of scorers, the drop off in opportunity can be crushing whether from a confidence or rhythm perspective. I’m sure Parks found difficult adapting to the fall-off in volume, but the three point shooting gave her an avenue to get shots up every night. I tend to think — purely based on technique and the stretches she went on — that Parks is probably a much better shooter of the ball than her 37% clip (which still isn’t half bad) from beyond the arc reflects.
Even in dry spells, Parks stayed confident in her ability and continued to fire — which provided just as much value for the Sky from a spacing perspective as it did a scoring one. Below a certain percentage, we often tend to disregard a shooter’s ability, but there’s a reason a post player like Joel Embiid continued to fire four attempts a game even back when his three-point percentage threatened to go below 30%. Whether it’s playing alongside Dana Evans with the second unit or Kahleah Copper with the starters, Parks sees minutes alongside players who have skill going to the basket. Whether it’s for a lack of confidence or any other reasons, opposing defenders won’t guard her as honestly on the three point line if she stops pulling the trigger when she’s open. As soon as she stops taking open threes, opposing defenses will adapt and the paint becomes a lot more difficult to score in. The long term effect is a far less functional offense for all involved. The objective next season, then, is to continue with the loose trigger and get in rhythm as often as possible to deliver more knockout blows like she did in the aforementioned victory over Phoenix (14 pts, 3 assists, 4 threes in 19 minutes).
3) Dependability
Whether James or Emre called on Parks to play 5 minutes or 25 minutes, they could say with almost complete confidence that she would execute upon the gameplan put in place and wouldn’t do anything that harmed the team’s chances of winning. Were there nights where she failed to positively contribute to the team’s performance enough to help the Sky win? Sure. But that’s true of every player. What she did do — without exception — was make sure that her personal floor was average. It sounds basic and boring, but there’s a lot of players in both the MNBA and WNBA who can go well below average at times. You have to ride some highs and lows in basketball, but it makes the job tricky for a coach when deciding whether to bring a player off the bench or give them a DNP becomes a serious discussion during the lows. With a player like Parks, that type of dialogue doesn’t need to come into the equation as, at bare minimum, you can trust her to defend hard and offer some type of offensive threat even on an off night.
Beyond the coach, that dependability also permeates throughout the team. It’s obvious how a player like Taylor Soule, or even Sika Koné, could benefit from seeing a professional like Parks work hard every day irrespective of the minutes she got the night before. However, there’s learnings from Parks and her career journey for everyone on the team — regardless of role. No two players’ stories will ever be the same, but Parks’ attitude (at least in the public eye) is a positive one for a person who, at least in the context of sport, has had a challenging journey to reach where she’s at now. For everyone in the organization, that positive attitude is an important measuring stick. More specifically, in a franchise building around a player like Kahleah Copper, you can never really have enough individuals with the willingness to grind every day even if the result isn’t instant gratification. To do all that while keeping an upbeat, easygoing persona and delivering consistent performances on the floor is an invaluable package to have in a bench player.
What I’m Looking for From Parks Next Season:
If a 3&D player like Parks can do just one more thing (pass, score at the rim, etc.) really well, they suddenly become an exponentially more valuable asset than they already are to their team. It’s early in the European season, but Parks is already showcasing the ability to continue scoring from all three levels overseas even after moving to a higher-profile EuroLeague club like Schio. The question, then, is how can she translate that play into the W and part of it may just be a matter of time. Veteran or not, Parks was ultimately a rookie at the WNBA level last season, and it’s not abnormal for rookies to add plenty to their game in years two and three. With a certain level of comfort on defense established and a smooth shooting stroke from deep already in her arsenal, Parks might now start to open up and use her skills off the dribble to create more two-point opportunities next season.
The Sky coaching staff, for what it’s worth, were more than alert to the potential for Parks to do more offensively with Emre having told a broadcast crew (I believe Seattle) that he was looking for her to do more than shoot threes. On the surface, those words could sound harsh, but they’re actually a recognition of Parks’ potential to score at multiple levels. Ironically enough, from the game where that was mentioned forward, I saw Parks putting the ball on the floor a lot more often. I can’t get in any player’s head to say for sure, but the external clues I saw suggested to me that — at times — Parks was trying to force drives and mid-range shots into her game later in the season. As a result, I felt like there was plenty of occurrences where Parks would’ve been better off taking the three but instead tried to go to the basket and came up empty. Both pulling up and driving have merit, but there’s no reason to force yourself to the rim just for the sake of it. When you’re shooting the ball at nearly a 40% clip (and I bet Parks clears 40% next year), you can afford to settle for a three occasionally — the numbers will even out. That said, when the opportunities do arise, I expect Parks to add balance to her game and be more aggressive in getting to the rim or finding her spots in the mid-range next year. In an ideal world, she’ll carry the rhythm of a strong European season into a consistent role for the Sky — allowing her to seamlessly apply her high-usage decision making process to the more selective opportunities she gets in the W.
