SAN FRANCISCO — Before the Sky’s season opener in Portland, coach Tyler Marsh reminded Jacy Sheldon about the skeptics. All the ones questioning why the team surrendered a first-round pick to get her.
Not that Sheldon, the 25-year-old guard from Ohio, really needs that kind of motivation. She’s out for blood no matter what. But she acknowledged that every competitor wants to prove people wrong.
“I’ve been like that since I was in high school,” Sheldon said after practice Monday. “I have that underdog mentality. Don’t really worry about the outside noise. All we’re worried about is the people in this gym.”
Sheldon backed up that talk in Sky’s debut win against the Fire. She held Portland’s lighting quick guard, Carla Leite, to 3-for-11 shooting while adding 13 points, 4 assists, 3 blocks and a steal of her own.
For the Sky’s front office, Sheldon’s style of play is central to building the team’s new identity.
“She’s extremely important in who we are,” general manager Jeff Pagliocca said during training camp. “The athlete, the competitor, the fire.”
Even more than Sheldon reflecting the Sky’s new identity, her landing in Chicago reflects Pagliocca’s. He traded the 2028 first-round pick for Sheldon — the kind of move he has made again and again since becoming GM in 2024.
“Probably would have given up more [to get her],” Pagliocca said.
If that sounds a little extreme, it’s because Sheldon is still proving herself. Since being drafted No. 5 by Dallas in 2024, Sheldon has been a nomad. She averaged a modest 6.5 points per game during her first two seasons, bouncing from the Wings to Connecticut to Washington before landing in Chicago.
But she left an impression everywhere she went. Veteran point guard Natasha Cloud reached out to Sheldon after her rookie season in Dallas.
“I was like, ‘Man, you’re tough,'” Cloud said. “She’s like a little feisty dog. People will elbow her in the mouth, she’ll get knocked out. Dust that s— off and get right back up. Totality of a player on the defensive end.”
“Even the little things that won’t show up on the stat sheet. Deflections. Ability to press full court and disrupt offense and really just get into people. I love it.”
That matters for a Sky team that was weak defensively last season and tried to get tougher by adding Sheldon, Cloud and DiJonai Carrington — a 2024 All-Defense first-team selection — in the offseason.
Offensively, Sheldon’s game is sturdy. She finishes well at the rim. She beats players down the floor in transition. She’s a connective player who doesn’t need plays called for her — not unlike Gabriela Jaquez, the Sky’s No. 5 pick in the 2026 draft.
But her ultimate ceiling may depend on the 3-point shot. She hit 41.2% on three attempts per game in Connecticut last season, much improved from her rookie year. If she can sustain that efficiency, she’ll hold down a starting spot for a long time.
That’s the glass half-full outlook on the Sheldon trade.
Skeptics might counter that even if Sheldon becomes a high-quality starter, she’s unlikely to reach the star power available in the 2028 draft. UConn forward Sarah Strong, a franchise-changing talent, is projected to be the top pick in that class.
Of course, the Sky have no intention of landing in the lottery in 2028. They’ve built this roster to compete for the playoffs in the next two years. If it works, their 2028 pick ends up late in the first round anyway — not much of a loss for a player they’re building around now.
If the plan fails? The Sky front office isn’t one to hold onto draft capital as insurance.
“We will make that move 100 out of 100 times to get a Jacy Sheldon,” Marsh said.
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