NEW YORK — The Sky believed they were ready to compete for a playoff spot this season with a team that could give anybody in the WNBA a fight.
There’s no sugarcoating how sideways things have gone. They sputtered early, then lost veteran point guard Courtney Vandersloot to a torn anterior cruciate ligament Saturday night. They’re near the bottom of the league both offensively and defensively after loading up on veterans in the offseason.
Even understanding that growth takes time, the Sky shouldn’t have been this bad.
“It’s a long season and there’s a lot of games left, but this is unexpected, and I’ve been very disappointed,” general manager Jeff Pagliocca told the Sun-Times on Tuesday as he sat in the seats at Barclays Center watching the team’s morning shootaround. “We had pretty big, significant expectations for this season. That’s why I made the moves I made.”
Pagliocca’s assessment was that the Sky (2-6) need to improve “everywhere” to address a lack of cohesion on defense and poor shooting. Going into Tuesday night’s 85-66 loss to the Liberty, they had allowed a league-worst 90.1 points per game and were shooting just 39.9%.
Diving into the details of their ugly start, Pagliocca hit on insufficient pressure on the perimeter defensively, a lack of confidence in shooting, inconsistent effort and execution of coach Tyler Marsh’s game plan and failure to curb opponents’ runs before they become devastating.
But every conversation about the Sky starts with forward Angel Reese — the price of being the face of the franchise. She was averaging 9.1 points and 12.3 rebounds entering Tuesday, both numbers down from last season. Her turnovers were up at 3.7 per game.
That decline comes at a time when she and the Sky sought to broaden her game by stretching her shooting range and maximizing her play-making ability.
“That’s something that has yet to come together, but it’s a necessity for us to win,” Pagliocca said. “She’s had some great games, and she’s had some games like everybody else that haven’t been her best. But she’s our best chance at versatility on this roster. We need more production out of her, but we need her to help us in other ways, too.
“She’s been putting the time in. She’s been a great teammate. She knows we need to use her in a variety of ways. We’re still trying to pinpoint the most advantageous part of that.”
The alternative is that Reese stays the same player she was as a rookie, which creates redundancy and has her crowding the paint with center Kamilla Cardoso. Marsh indicated Tuesday he’s inclined to stagger their playing time to get better spacing.
Reese hasn’t ducked responsibility amid the Sky’s struggles. Asked before Tuesday’s game where she needed to make more contributions, she said she’s still seeking to diversify how she plays on offense.
“I put my head down and work every single day — I don’t give up on anything,” Reese said. “I critique myself the most. I know it’s going to translate. . . . I’m just going to put my head down and work, and I know the results will show.”
Then there’s Marsh, a 37-year-old first-time head coach who had only three weeks of training camp in which to implement his system. He quickly lost Vandersloot, whom he viewed as essentially an extension of his staff.
Throughout this ordeal, Marsh has been trying to balance conviction in his scheme against pressure to adjust a plan that hasn’t produced results. Pagliocca backed him emphatically, saying, “The record does not reflect the amount of work put in.”
He was especially pleased with Marsh’s composure. The upside to the culture Marsh has established is that it could be the guardrail that keeps this season from being a complete disaster.
“We have a lot of talented players here, so that’s why we’re not giving up hope . . . and they’re not accepting where we are right now,” Pagliocca said. “We’re just going to keep leaning into that until we turn the corner.”
But everyone knows that’s not enough. Good attitudes don’t factor into the standings. They might be the foundation of something in the future, but the Sky are in win-now mode.
They desperately need to play like it.
