Programming Note: We won’t be publishing as much in the off-season, but please do look out for a post from us if there’s major trade news.
Well I guess that’s that! The Sky did not, as the Townies predicted, steal a game in Vegas, and so our dreams of a playoff home game were shattered.
Today we have one last post for you before breaking for the off-season, so we want to first thank you for your support.
It was a big year for the Townies and we can’t thank you enough for being a part of it. We grew our newsletter audience from 17 to 150. We were crowned the Jewel-Osco dance-off champions at Wintrust Arena.1 We threw maybe the first ever Sky Bingo Watch Party.
Most of all, we three college teammates got another year of working together, loving basketball, reflecting on old sports traumas, talking sh*t in our WNBA group chats, and staying connected to a national network of associates who also love women’s sports.
Reflecting on the Marina Mabrey Trade
Earlier this year we talked about how certain players—typically the ones who stick around longest—come to embody the team. That’s been the case with Kahleah Copper for the Chicago Sky. But lately I’ve been wondering whether certain players come to embody the tension in an organization.
Let’s take Marina Mabrey.
In our play-off clinching game against the Minnesota Lynx, Mabrey broke the Sky franchise record for most made three-pointers in a season (previously held by Allie Quigley) with 89. This was pretty impressive by WNBA standards too—only Kelsey Mitchell, Kelsey Plum, Jewel Lloyd, Rhyne Howard, and Arike Ogunbowale made more threes than Mabrey this year. In other words, breaking the record was a legitimate accomplishment for a young player, despite Mabrey struggling at times in her first year in a Sky uniform.
After they announced the record, everybody in Wintrust Arena clapped—about a fourth as loud as they would have for Kahleah Copper or Dana Evans, and only after looking around to see if everyone else was going to clap first.
Ouch.
Mabrey has had a cooler-than-normal reception from Sky fans, I think less so because of her actual performance2, and more so because of former head coach James Wade.
Let’s go back to the end of the 2022 season. Our Sky blew their shot to win a second straight WNBA championship, so the team broke up. Candace Parker went to Las Vegas. Sloot went to New York. Emma Meesseman and Julie Allemand decided to stay overseas. Allie Quigley retired.3
Of the team’s top eight, only Copper and Rebekah Gardner planned to return for the 2023 season.
It felt to most, I think, like a natural moment to rebuild.
But James Wade had other ideas. He told reporters he was “not planning on f*cking losing.” He signed Marina Mabrey, a Very Good young shooting guard to a Very Expensive three-year deal, in the process trading away the rights to our 2024 and 2025 draft picks.
The deal was highly criticized then and now, so I won’t re-hash, but for those who need context, I’ll just say that it’s kind of a strange time in the WNBA to be trading away your future for a player who’s not even an All-Star yet. This year, the Indiana Fever drafted a future MVP caliber player with their first pick, and even second round picks like Olivia Nelson-Ododa and Dorka Juhász made huge impacts on playoff teams.
The draft classes are just getting better and better. And you only have to pay them like sixty-grand a year, whereas Mabrey is earning north of two-hundred grand annually. Rookies also give your organization a sense of motion because of how much they tend to develop year to year.
So while Mabrey helped us avoid a Seattle Storm or Phoenix Mercury level losing season this year, the deal got us kind of stuck.
Barring a major signing in the off-season, we’re likely to end up in a similar position next year.
Maybe we’ll make the playoffs, maybe we won’t, but either way, advancing out of the first round will take a miracle.
Las Vegas, New York, and Connecticut are just too talented and cohesive to be truly threatened by a “not f*cking losing,” but also “not really rebuilding” type of team.
None of this is Marina Mabrey’s fault though! That’s why I want to try to give her a little more grace next season. Especially because in her exit interviews, she displayed a remarkable capacity for self-reflection.
“I like to think of myself as a very skilled player, really high IQ,” Mabrey said. “But I get tired out there. I need to be in better shape and I need to be in better condition and I need to be stronger because the physicality that I saw this season is like something I’ve never seen before. The double teams, the defensive schemes to take the ball out of my hands. And then when it was getting tough to stop me then it’s just reverting to physicality. Hit after hit after hit after hit on me, that kind of a toll. It became a narrative that if you are physical with her and you wear her down, you will come out on top. So I appreciate all of the players I played against showing me my weaknesses because I will make that my strength. … I’m happy that I have the awareness I do now and that they exposed these weaknesses in my fifth season, not my 10th.”
Word! The Townies would have said the exact same thing. She’s gotta get in better shape, not just for her offensive production, but so that she can stick with the league’s quicker guards on D. That will make it easier to live with her rough shooting nights.
Off-Season Priorities
Here’s who’s coming back for sure in 2024: Kahleah Copper, Marina Mabrey, Elizabeth Williams, Isabelle Harrison, Dana Evans, Sika Koné, Li Yueru
Here’s who could leave: Courtney Williams, Alanna Smith, Rebekah Gardner, Ruthy Hebard, Robyn Parks, Morgan Bertsch
Here’s a graphic from our friends at the CHGO podcast on who we could pick up out of free-agency.
Our Lead Basketball Analyst says we should go after a veteran point guard and/or a more physical post presence, depending on what we can afford.
From our LBA:
“My PG pick is Natasha Cloud of course. My post pick is Nneka Ogwumike or Jonquel Jones. I like the versatility of Aerial Powers and think she could be a sneaky pick-up too.
From the Voice of Gen Z:
“I choose either/both of the Ogwumike sisters, or Jordin Canada. Gimme the Sparks.”
Personally, I think Jonquel Jones would be an amazing grab that also seems somewhat possible. I don’t think she gets the ball enough in New York—why not come be a centerpiece in Chicago?4
For the point guard spot I’d be totally cool with Cloud or Canada, but part of me also wants to pursue Skylar Diggins-Smith. I’ve always hated her as an opposing star and think it would be fun to cheer for her as our PG.
But the other part of me feels like we’re at a vulnerable moment in the life of the organization and shouldn’t risk the drama.
Final Thoughts
Oh yeah—we also need to hire a General Manager to actually make these deals, and a head coach to run the team. Unless the Sky organization is expecting the Townies to step in, which we certainly would.
Well the Voice of Gen Z did. Don’t sleep on the Worm!
Mabrey’s performance was a little ambiguous this season, but the same was true of our other signings, who we’ve mostly embraced.
I think?
I guess because the Liberty are a Championship contender and we probably still wouldn’t be 😂.