MINNEAPOLIS — There has been a lot of talk around the Sky about the new-and-improved Angel Reese, but the staples of her game could get better, too, as the team looks for better space and pace in its offense.
One of the most valuable effects of stocking the roster with three-point shooters is giving Reese more room to work in the post. She’s looking to broaden her game, even working on three-point shooting, but she’s at her best in the paint and can grow there, as well.
“You’ve got to get better every year,” she told the Sun-Times. “I can’t be the same player as last year. I played well last year and definitively could’ve been better, but you just continue to get better every year, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
The Sky finished their preseason Saturday with a 92-87 loss to the Lynx at Target Center. Rachel Banham and Kia Nurse led the team with 14 points each. Reese played 25 minutes and had 10 points and five assists.
Not that it matters. Everything for the Sky is about their season opener next Saturday against Caitlin Clark and the Fever. That’s when they’ll show how serious they are about making a leap from going 13-27 last season.
They’re swinging big with a revamped roster that includes three new starters in veterans Courtney Vandersloot, Ariel Atkins and Nurse, but Reese remains central to their ambitions.
Whatever she adds in her second season will help, but she’ll be better at her most reliable skills, too. The addition of outside shooting and a brilliant point guard in Vandersloot already seems to have opened up the paint and kept Reese and center Kamilla Cardoso from facing double-teams.
“It makes it easier for me to make multiple moves around the basket with one person guarding me,” Reese said. “Even just coming down, getting a rebound and pushing and being able to create off that. That’s one of my strengths, and that’s a pace I like to play at and this team is going to play at.”
Coach Tyler Marsh called the offense “still a work in progress” and wants to sharpen it more before fully turning his team’s attention to the Fever.
Versatility is vital throughout Marsh’s rotation, thus the emphasis on Reese branching out.
She noted that she was the top wing player in the country coming out of high school, and she played that spot her first two seasons at Maryland before playing center at LSU. This isn’t entirely new to her.
Still, three-point shooting has never been part of her repertoire. She shot 5-for-32 on three-pointers over four seasons in college, then 3-for-16 last season. She has been working on it relentlessly at practice and in pregame warmups, and she missed one from the right side in the fourth quarter Saturday.
Recognizing when to let it fly is part of the process, so even the miss was progress for a player who was unsure about taking longer shots as a rookie.
“It’s continuing to get there,” Reese said. “I’m finding where the shot is, where it’s going to be open for me.”
She also brought the ball up the court a couple times and created off driving to the hoop.
“It continues to showcase the versatility that I’ve been talking about with Angel and not putting limitations on who she can be as a player,” Marsh said. “She was all over, and that’s how we want her to be. That’s how we see her potential moving forward.”
Nothing will be more important for the Sky than the strides she makes. It’s a good reminder that she’s only 23 and is far from a finished product. There’s so much more upside to unlock.