Quick Three: Sky’s Late Firsts Land Ajša Sivka & Hailey Van Lith in WNBA Draft
Chicago’s front office was aggressive—once again—in the lead up to the WNBA Draft with two new first rounders now added to the franchise’s young core.
As has become the norm in the Jeff Pagliocca era, Chicago was uber-aggressive in leveraging future draft capital for present day assets when, for the second consecutive year, the Sky moved rights to a 2026 first-round pick to the Minnesota Lynx the day before the draft in exchange for enhanced capital in the next day’s first round. And while last year’s trade carried both massive risk (trading rights to a potentially valuable first-rounder in 2026) and reward (landing Angel Reese), this year’s iteration felt slightly more practical—as Pagliocca moved only the remaining swap rights to Minnesota’s pick next year (a likely late first rounder) to get back into the first round of a class he and his staff clearly viewed quite favorably. And in the end, the Sky used those picks to grab two players that—in some capacity—meet the team’s current and future needs. Let’s dive into how both of Sivka and Van Lith will help the Sky’s roster in 2025 and beyond.
1. Sky start with Ajša Sivka at 10.
Pagliocca’s first pick of the night was used on an international prospect who, while not guaranteed to arrive in the WNBA in 2025, should be a force as she continues to settle into the professional game both on her home continent and in the W. After a here and there role with Italian giants Schio in previous seasons, Sivka excelled with Tarbes in France this season—with her performances in the team’s EuroCup run registering as particularly impressive. She’s a very modern forward with her most obvious offensive skill being her ability to shoot the ball from the outside. She’s shown potential to navigate screens and be a lethal catch-and-shoot threat (especially from the corners) but also has the finesse needed to create her own shots with step backs and other moves that put her defender off-balance.
At the same time, Sivka is also a very impressive passer of the ball—especially for someone who plays primarily off ball and stands at 6’4”. Her ability to find teammates on the break and in the half court has been reliable, and she should be a great complement to Reese and Kamilla Cardoso because of her ability to space the floor and then consistently find them with entry passes. At the other end of the court, she’s an equally valuable component to the Sky’s overall plans around their talented young front court as she’s continuously shown herself to be a reliable defender on the ball and as a helper. As she adds more size to her frame, she’ll be able to take on more physically challenging match-ups (perhaps even at the 4) and become a bigger factor on the glass than she’s been so far.
Of course, all of the fantastic aspects of her game don’t come without the occasional weakness (as evidenced by her making it to #10), but I think most, if not all, of her obvious weaknesses could resolve themself with age. Her frame, as mentioned above, still needs some strength added and the result is that she’s an inconsistent finisher at the rim while also a potential target for physically imposing players at the opposite end. At just 19 (she won’t turn 20 until November), there’s plenty of time to work with strength coaches—both in Europe and Chicago—to add enough extra muscle to improve in that area. As she gets stronger and drives more, there’ll also be incentive to tighten up her handle to become a more convincing attacker (and blow by the hard close outs she’s likely to draw). Defensively, her biggest weakness (aside from lacking strength) is that she has a tendency to gamble in an attempt to create turnovers and allow easy scores as a result. Again, I see age (and improved patience) correcting this.
All in all, this is—in my opinion—a home run pick for the Sky at #10. Sivka is a perfect complement to the front court the Sky put in place during last year’s draft, and she has the genuine potential to be the best of that trio—something you could not say about any of the other players left on the board when Chicago made this pick.
2. Pick from Lynx lands Hailey Van Lith at 11.
With two picks in the first round, the Sky always needed to target a player they believed could be their point guard of the future with one of the selections and they did just that by landing Van Lith—who finished her collegiate career in excellent form last year at TCU after a challenging season alongside Reese at LSU in 2023-24. While Van Lith’s draft stock a year ago at this time was a partial motivation for her move to Fort Worth, it was no secret that she became a realistic candidate to go in the first round this winter, and Pagliocca made that a reality when he selected her as the player to learn under Courtney Vandersloot for (at least) the next few months.
Like Sivka, Van Lith has shown plenty of traits that suggest she’ll be able to help the Sky’s front court excel which, inevitably, is going to be a goal for any lead guard that Chicago adds to the equation in the next couple of seasons. Her assist numbers were up drastically at TCU last season (after a complicated fit at LSU hampered her overall productivity), and her exceptional work in the pick-and-roll with the bigs the Horned Frogs had should be a compelling case study for how she can help Reese and, especially, Cardoso (the more dynamic pick-and-roll player thanks to her extra size and strong passing) succeed in two player actions. Of course, the Sky will also want Van Lith to look for scores of her own, and, once again, her TCU tape showed a much more confident player (45.2% FG) than the one from the year before (37.8%). Granted, it’s important to note that much of the success Van Lith experienced at TCU was because of the big role on offer and with the Sky (in some ways like at LSU) she’ll likely have to build for at least a few seasons before having large portions of the offense built around her.
At the defensive end, Van Lith fits a relatively common profile of an offensive standout guard who’s a bit undersized and far from exceptional but competes to a level where—in any given game—she can make her opposite number’s night a long one. Don’t expect her to be a standout on that end, but she’ll be passable as a second or third perimeter defender in line-ups during her rookie season (just as much—if not more—than Vandersloot will be with the first unit) and can grow into a more consistent defender with time on account of her high motor.
In the end, Van Lith is a player with the potential to fit the Sky’s need which is a long-term starting point guard, and she carries herself with the right attitude to take on and excel in more limited roles that she’s handed in the early parts of her WNBA career. The concern for me is that Van Lith’s best basketball—which she played last season—came when so much of the offense flowed through her both as a scorer and a creator, and I think we’re some way away from seeing her with that level of trust from a WNBA coach. In the meantime, she’s not a standout shooter (33.8% on 4.4 3PA per game in her college career) nor defender and may struggle to offer much beyond setting the table for others.
As Chicago saw last year with Lindsay Allen, a great playmaker is good to have but can only get you so far when there’s so many non-shooters on the floor. A more dynamic and physically-imposing option like Shyanne Sellers (who made it past this pick to Golden State at #17) who brings the profile needed to be the occasional engine of a WNBA offense from the jump would’ve been a better pick for Chicago’s specific needs in my opinion, but I still see the path for Van Lith to become Vandersloot’s successor which must’ve led Pagliocca to this pick. That said, I think everything would need to fall perfectly for that to happen, and it’s more likely Van Lith becomes a quality bench player than a starter long-term.
3. What next for Chicago?
As crazy as it sounds, there’s less than two weeks until training camp opens, and Sky players will likely start to trickle into Chicago over the next ten days to conduct individual or small-group workouts in the lead-up to April 27th. Once camp is open, expect the competition for roster spots to be strong, but the path to the roster to be clear for at least 11 players (Atkins, Vandersloot, Nurse, Banham, Allen, Onyenwere, Williams, Cardoso, Reese, and tonight’s first rounders). Moriah Jefferson, by virtue of her guaranteed contract and experience in the W, likely enters camp as the odds-on favorite for the final roster spot, but it wouldn’t be a great surprise to see Chicago absorb her salary and use the slot on a different player. At that point, the candidates for the final spot on the roster would be training camp invitees (Guirantes, Wilson & Bertsch) as well as the second round picks Chicago made in tonight’s draft (Maddy Westbeld and Aicha Coulibaly). Right now, it’s actually Westbeld who seems most likely to get the last spot thanks to the change of pace she’ll offer as a back-up to Angel Reese—with Jefferson surplus to requirements after Van Lith’s arrival. Of course, a delayed arrival for Sivka (who could opt to focus on EuroBasket with Slovenia this summer) also changes the equation as far as roster spots and need.
Meanwhile, the level of competitiveness for WNBA roster spots also means that none of the draft picks tonight are truly guaranteed a spot on the opening day roster, but it would be shocking to see Pagliocca move on from either of the first-rounders without giving them a proper stab at regular season minutes given the assets that departed in order to bring both to Chicago.
And speaking of the regular season, the next step after camp (which includes three preseason games against the Lynx [2] and the Brazilian national team [1]) closes and opening day rosters are set is the tip off of the 2025 season in Indiana on May 17th. Chicago opens the campaign with 12 of their first 18 games on the road—meaning new head coach Tyler Marsh will need to set the bar high in camp for his team to hit the ground running during that stretch. If the Sky and their new draftees can survive the initial onslaught that includes trips West (GS, LA & PHO) and East (NY, ATL & CON), they should have a great opportunity to settle into a rhythm (and a nice position in the standings) when they hit the home heavy portion of their schedule (10 of 12 from 7/9-8/8) in the middle of the summer.