I liked this take on the Sky’s season so far from Annie Costabile at the Chicago Sun-Times:
“Nothing seems to be going right for the Sky to start the 2023 season, and yet everything is working out just fine.”
We’ve only made it through 1/8th of the season, but two of our top six players are now recovering from surgery. First, Isabelle Harrison tore her meniscus in pre-season, and then, most devastatingly, our beloved sixth man Rebekah Gardner broke “something in her foot” in our home opener.
But despite these big losses…the Sky are still 3-2! Which includes a really nice road win against the Phoenix Mercury and a two-point loss to the Washington Mystics that may have gone differently if Gardner was still playing in the closing minute.
Our Lead Basketball Analyst summarizes her thoughts about our Survivin’-Somehow-Sky:
“It’s not time to freak out after the Atlanta loss nor is it time to say that we are definitely going to prove doubters wrong all season. James Wade has assembled a strange but balanced team. My main worry is how injuries are going to affect us. We are juggling a lot of those. The Atlanta loss had to be near rock bottom for us—not happy it came before our matchup with the Liberty, but it is what it is. I’m excited about Kah’s stardom, the evolution of Dana, and seeing how our new pieces continue fitting into the puzzle.”
Our LBA then digresses into her frustration with certain WNBA communication oddities:
Why can’t we learn the exact nature of our players’ injuries? I feel like we know the exact injury diagnosis the minute it happens for NBA players. James Wade is a weirdo for saying Rebekah Gardner broke “something in her foot” lol. Clearly if she’s getting surgery, they probably know the nature of the break.
8 Reflections on 1/8th of the Season
1. It’s been a rollercoaster so far!
After we wrote our first blog post of the year, our national correspondent told us we were being “too negative” and “not getting her excited about the season.” But hey: only one of the Sky’s four All-Stars were returning from last year’s Semi-Final squad, and we had never even seen most of our new squad play! How excited can you be about the literal unknown? (Pretty philosophical, amiright?)
Then the Sky went undefeated in their first two games and the Townies thought: Wow! Look at that defensive intensity! Look at how legit Liz Williams is at the center spot! Maybe we’ll be even more fun to watch than last year!
And then Rebekah Gardner broke her foot right in front of our eyes, and a few days later, we got whooped by the Atlanta Dream, a mediocre team. Now we have to play the godforsaken New York Liberty twice in one weekend! What’s next?????
2. The emotional impact of losing Rebekah Gardner has lingered.
After Gardner’s injury, the Townies talked amongst themselves about “how close is too close” when it comes to being a fan of your favorite teams. The more you invest in your team, the harder it is to separate yourself from their ups and downs. Gardner’s injury actually brought me back to a season-ending thumb fracture I had during my playing days. I remembered how hard it was mentally, losing the ability to contribute to the team, because that’s how athletes tend to value themselves during season. More on this theme in a future post, but for now, suffice it to say that the Townies are struggling.
Our Lead Basketball Analyst on Gardner:
“I love when she goes all unhinged and commits three fouls in a quarter. I love how hard she plays, her length on the defensive end, and how active she is on offense. She plays with joy. You know what she is going to bring game in and game out. I will miss that and will miss her returner presence.”
Sorry, not trying to have a memorial here for Beks. She’s still alive. I bet she’ll be a great presence on the bench and hopefully she’ll be back later in the season.
3. Thank goodness for our easy schedule.
I think the Sky’s easy schedule so far is a huge part of the “everything is working out just fine” piece of the Sun Times’ Annie Costabile’s observation.
Unlike the poor Washington Mystics, who had to play the New York Liberty and the Connecticut Sun twice already, or the Seattle Storm who played both the Las Vegas Aces and the Liberty, the Sky avoided all the league’s top teams in our first five games.
What better way for a new, injury-ridden team like us to find our groove than opening up against the worst team in the league (Minneosta), then play a handful of Decent-But-Not-Great teams (Phoenix, Dallas and Atlanta), and go down to the wire with one Really Good team (Washington) to push us a little bit?
It’ll be a reality check this weekend though against the Liberty’s Super Team.
4. Kahleah Copper is probably not happy with herself, but we are still pumped.
For the past several years, All-Star Kahleah Copper has been playing alongside some WNBA GOATs, Candace Parker and Courtney Vandersloot. As great as that duo was, sometimes the Townies worried Copper deferred to them too much.
Now, with the old ladies gone, it’s clear that Copper is ready to be The Man. She’s taking 15 shots per game, the most she’s ever taken in her career, which is exactly what we want from her! (Maybe get that stat up to 16 or 17 shots per game?!)
The only problem is: she’s not making enough of them yet. Shooting 36% from the field, she’s probably about 10% below where she wants to be. Some of this has to do with something we discussed in our KFC Buckets Analysis: Kah’s opponents know she likes to drive baseline and are quick to send help. We want Copper to start peeping that help side sooner and have an exit plan when she goes into the lane. Right now her drives are resulting in too many contested shots or turnovers.
Some VERY good news though: she’s shooting 42% from three-point range! She has to keep shooting the three ball and available mid-range so teams can’t sag off.
5. The Sky must get back to our stealing ways!
We were averaging nearly ten steals per game in our first two games. Our guards were swarming the ball from all angles, and Kahleah Copper and Liz Williams were showing off their ability to get deflections down low. It was that kind of defense that got the Townies pumped about the season.
In the last three games, however, our steals average has gone down to five.
Can we still get enough steals without Beks, our stealer extraordinaire? She was averaging three steals per game before she got injured and finished in the top 15 in that category last season.
Our next best stealers are Liz Williams (1.4 per game) and Copper (1.2 per game)—they’ll have to pick up the slack. No steals, no KFC transition buckets!
6. I think we’ll be better next year.
Not saying that we can’t make waves this year. I just think that going into the season without Isabelle Harrison, our primary front court player, made it so we couldn’t afford any more injuries—especially not to Beks!
We’re such a new team (can’t stress this enough!), and we need more time to gel. The reason it was so easy last year for newbies like Emma Meeeseman and Rebekah Gardner to slot in (and for Candace to slot in the year before) was because of the longstanding chemistry between Vanderquigs and Copper. I think Copper, Mabrey and Liz Williams need time to develop into that core that others can latch onto.
The good news is: it seems like our team has great off-the-court chemistry and really positive attitudes. That stuff goes a long way!
7. I’m not sure Courtney Williams is gonna work out.
Sorry. I’m not trying to be a hater. She seems really likable as a teammate, and as a fan, I love having her for clutch scenarios. She rises to the occasion in the fourth quarter, and I know she’ll turn it on in the playoffs.
BUT.
She’s on a one-year contract, and if we are building the team around Kahleah Copper and Marina Mabrey—players who are focused on creating their own shots—we need a point guard who is going to take responsibility for making the whole offense gel. Is that going to be Courtney Williams, who prefers to hang in the background and pick her spots to make plays? I don’t think so. And I’m not sure Coach Wade thinks so either. Mabrey and Evans have played PG so far for the Sky—not Courtney Williams.
8. Despite our ups and downs, the Sky are still projected to finish 8th in the league (according to online sports betting odds).
This probably pisses our players off! Which is great. More fuel for the fire. I bet we can finish 5th or 6th, which might get us out of playing the New York Liberty or the Las Vegas Aces in the first round. How cool would it be to make it back to the Semi-Finals!?
Our next home game is TODAY Friday June 2nd @ 5p.m. against the New York Liberty. See you there!