PHOENIX — How do you build an identity when the roster keeps shifting underneath you?
The Sky (7-14) are still working their way through that question.
As point guard Skylar Diggins put it recently, the only constant the team has had this season is change.
They almost immediately lost leading scorer Rickea Jackson to a season-ending ACL injury. Point guard Courtney Vandersloot returned from her own ACL tear, and she is proving she can still play at a high level.
Now, Diggins’ role is less clear after she publicly aired out surprise with being moved to the bench, then sat out with a knee injury on Tuesday.
All of this churn has naturally forced changes in identity.
The Sky started the season trying to define themselves through scrappy defense, sparked by guards Natasha Cloud, Gabriela Jaquez and Jacy Sheldon. Now, they’ve begun to look more like a team with a balanced and formidable offensive attack.
Shooting guard Sydney Taylor’s emergence has given them another major threat, averaging 16.4 points on 40% shooting from deep since earning the starting spot. Forward Azura Stevens is back stronger from injury and clicking alongside center Kamilla Cardoso.
As a result, the Sky’s offensive rating has jumped to second in the league over the last four games. Their defensive rating, though, has dropped to 11th over that span and ninth overall.
That is the push and pull of this version of the Sky. The offense is growing, but they need the defensive edge to make them whole.
“We’re a really great defensive team,” Cloud said Tuesday. “We started the league, we were like top three and then we kind of got away from it. That is our identity and I think our offense will always come from it. But I think the difference [against the Mercury in a win on Tuesday] was our defense and making them feel us and pushing them out of the spaces they wanted to be in.”
It wasn’t the prettiest win against the Mercury, but their rebounding and pressure were better, and they held Phoenix to 66 points. In a perfect world, the Sky would be able to pair that with the higher-scoring attack they have found lately.
But they’ll have to do it amid more personnel changes.
First, there is Diggins. Their second-leading scorer will either come off the bench, remain out with injury, or possibly move on if the two sides decide a trade is the better path forward.
Then there is DiJonai Carrington, an All-Defensive guard whose rehab from foot surgery has progressed to the point where she is doing drills with the team. Her eventual return will force Marsh to find minutes for a key piece while asking the players already in the rotation to adjust again.
Cloud has had to bend significantly already, moving in and out of the starting lineup and playing different positions. But she told the Sun-Times that was pretty much what she expected when she signed.
“I didn’t know where I was going to find [my role], but I just knew that between my defense and my vet experience, I was going to be on the court,” Cloud said. “It doesn’t matter what the combination is. That ultimate goal is to get a ‘W’ in that column.”
She added: “The team we have is selfless. If that means [Sheldon] plays and she’s a menace for 90 feet on the court, then I want [Sheldon] to be the menace that she is.
“Same with [Taylor], an undrafted rookie from a mid-major [school]. We don’t expect to get this type of production out of her, but she does, so she earns her starting spot. So you move the [expletive] over because this baby is hooping.”
Cloud tends to carry a glass-half-full view. Maybe the constant bending and readjusting will make the Sky tougher or more versatile down the stretch.
So far, though, it has looked like a royal pain.
Latest on the Sky and WNBA
