Now that the Sky traded their biggest star to the Dream for mediocre draft picks years into the future, the question is: What’s next?
One part of the plan is to swing for the fences in free agency, per a source familiar with the team’s thinking.
Most of the league’s best players are available, though some have announced they’re staying put. The Liberty’s Big 3 of Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones recommitted to New York. Reigning MVP A’ja Wilson said she’s returning to Las Vegas.
And many top free agents have already been “cored” by their current teams, meaning they can only move via sign-and-trade.
Those players: Kelsey Plum, Kelsey Mitchell, Sabrina Ionescu, Arike Ogunbowale, Napheesa Collier, Allisha Gray, Ezi Magbegor, Bridget Carleton and Marina Mabrey.
Could any of them end up on the Sky? Well, if you think anyone would trade Napheesa Collier for the Sky’s best assets — Kamilla Cardoso, the No. 5 pick in the 2026 draft and a bag of magic beans from Atlanta — feel free to keep pondering that list.
If not: Consider the core players dead to us.
On to the more attainable ones.
Stars who are shopping around: Skylar Diggins, Nneka Ogwumike, Satou Sabally.
Stars whose current team is salary cap-constrained, making a bigger offer elsewhere plausible: Jewell Loyd, Emma Meesseman.
Stars who may not fit their current team’s future: Brittney Sykes, Gabby Williams, Brionna Jones, Natasha Cloud, Azurá Stevens, Brittney Griner, Courtney Williams, Tina Charles, DeWanna Bonner.
Let’s start with the point guard spot. Team sources say veteran Courtney Vandersloot is progressing well, but standard ACL recovery time suggests she won’t be ready for opening day.
Which means general manager Jeff Pagliocca should be targeting Skylar Diggins.
It wouldn’t be the first time he’s tried. The Sun-Times reported in 2024 that Pagliocca made aggressive pitches to both Diggins and Ogwumike. Neither was interested.
How many balloons will it take to change that? (If you missed it: The Lynx ordered a fancy balloon bouquet to welcome Ogwumike to her free agency visit, then the balloon company leaked a photo.)
The Sky’s pitch can focus on things that have changed since 2024. Like renderings of their new training facility in Bedford Park, or a Top 10 Courtney Vandersloot Dimes highlight reel.
Or maybe they should skip the slideshow and just drop a sack of cash on the table.
Thanks to the league’s new TV deal, the salary cap has risen sharply since 2024. Max contracts are now worth $1.19 million, up from $214,466. Stars like Diggins and Ogwumike might be less willing to take a discount to the max, as they’ve done in the past, now that it would cost them real money.
The problem for the Sky is that other teams — especially the Valkyries, Fire, and Tempo — will pay them the max, too. Money alone won’t sell the biggest stars, not to a team coming off two losing seasons, with an unproven coach and a practice facility whose completion timeline is ever-shifting.
However, money might attract players unlikely to receive a max offer elsewhere. Think Brittney Griner, DeWanna Bonner, and Natasha Cloud. If their next-best offer is $800,000, they might look past the Sky’s shortcomings.
That, Sky fans, is far more likely than Diggins taking her talents to Wintrust. That, or the front office trading away a truckload of assets for Marina Mabrey — again.
But let’s think happier thoughts for a moment.
Imagine the Sky somehow land one of the elite: Diggins, Ogwumike, Sabally, or Sykes. That immediately changes the narrative and softens the blow of losing Angel Reese.
Even bringing back a semi-star like Stevens or Courtney Williams — both of whom left Chicago in recent years — would signal confidence.
But if they strike out again? If the league’s best choose expansion teams over them?
There’s a bandwagon in Atlanta you can get on.
With Reese shipped off to the Dream, the Sky can target a “stretch” big in free agency. The problem is they don’t have a compelling pitch for why the best ones should join them.
A core qualifying offer is a fully guaranteed one-year deal worth the supermax, which is reported to be $1.4 million in the new collective-bargaining agreement.
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