Tyler Marsh hasn’t been very lucky since joining the Sky as a first-time head coach in 2025. In fact, the guy almost seems cursed.
Two of his top players have torn their ACLs in the first month of the season — Courtney Vandersloot in 2025 and Rickea Jackson in 2026. Injuries up and down the lineup have ripped away any semblance of consistency, though they’re far from the only factor in his 26-62 start as a head coach.
Now it seems the Cursed Man is getting some grace from above. During his exit interview on Thursday, Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca announced that Marsh will be returning for a third season.
“It was going to be incredibly unfair to judge someone that has yet to play with healthy rosters as a young coach,” Pagliocca said.
It may have been unfair, but it certainly wasn’t a given. Pagliocca told the Sun-Times in July that despite injuries to key players, he expected the team to make the playoffs. When they failed, it raised doubts about Mash’s future.
Even Marsh was reckoning with whether or not he’d be back in Chicago in 2027, telling reporters he was grateful for his experience — and that if he did return, he’d approach it with the same zeal he always has.
Pagliocca now says that he saw enough flashes of promise to keep the faith that Marsh is his man.
“The way we started the season — that’s the healthiest we were — and we went 3-1,” Pagliocca said. “The plan and the vision, we never got to see it.”
He’s also still bought into Marsh’s character.
“I never heard him make excuses,” he said. “I never heard him shy away from taking responsibility, in a lot of moments where he didn’t need to or shouldn’t have. We were in those games. Whether the players weren’t executing or he wasn’t executing, he was owning that responsibility.
“He’s as selfless as I’ve been around. He coaches for the right reasons. He kept the locker room intact.
“He knows what he wants to do differently, and he’s made me believe that he’s the guy to lead this team.”
Is Marsh actually cursed — or just in need of some professional development? He said last week that end-of-game management is one area where he needs to grow, as the Sky were second-to-last in win percentage in close games. Players have also requested more accountability and discipline starting from the top.
Those are all necessary boxes to check. But if Marsh’s growth is going to matter, Pagliocca has to do his part too.
After three losing seasons, the Sky are trying to get back on track. Back to the golden years of Courtney Vandersloot’s prime, when fans could count on them to make the playoffs every year.
For that to happen, Pagliocca needs to add multiple stars around their young core.
He said Thursday that his approach to offseason dealings will be in the same aggressive vein that he’s used since taking over in 2024.
“We will be looking to win,” he said. “We took a lot of aggressive swings [last offseason]. We’ll continue to take risks… because we believe in what we’re doing.”
Some of those past swings mean that the Sky will be dependent on trades and free agency, rather than the draft, to acquire a star. They’ll be sending their 2027 lottery pick to Washington in return for one in the late first round — just as they had to send their lottery pick to Minnesota last year. They also owe their 2028 pick to the Mystics.
These may seem like curses too, but they’re part of a process that Pagliocca’s bosses are still fully on board with.
“I know that ownership was extremely encouraged and happy with our free agency [this past offseason],” Pagliocca said. “I thought this was the year to turn things around. They can’t put any more pressure on me than I’m putting on myself. The fans deserve a winning basketball team here.”
Pagliocca won’t have quite the same free agency bonanza to work with as he did last year when nearly every veteran was available. But some big names will hit the market in Jackie Young, Kelsey Mitchell, Napheesa Collier, and Kayla Thornton.
If Pagliocca could somehow land one of them, fans might have a little grace for him too. At the very least it would make the Cursed Man feel anything but.