PG: Courtney Vandersloot/Sharnee Zoll
SG: Epiphanny Prince/Eshaya Murphy
SF: Elena Delle Donne/Tamera Young
PF: Swin Cash
C: Sylvia Fowles/Carolyn Swords/Ruth Riley
(plus SG Allie Quigley or PF Michelle Campbell, pending a final cut)
Significant gains: Elena Delle Donne, Sharnee Zoll might be significant if they’re lucky.
Significant losses: Sonja Petrovic, Le’coe Willingham and Ticha Penicheiro are all gone, but none will be missed much on the floor.
There was only one significant change for the Chicago Sky over the offseason, but it was a doozy. The #2 pick in the draft produced Elena Delle Donne, a 6-5 scoring marvel from the University of Delaware, providing yet another ray of hope for the Sky that they might finally become a contender in the WNBA. Beyond that, this is the same group of players and the same coaching staff that flattered to deceive last year before tailing off and missing the playoffs yet again.
It feels like we’ve all been saying this for years about the Sky, but if they can put all the pieces together they ought to be a very good basketball team. Shooting guard Epiphanny Prince was in the midst of a breakout season last year before injury slowed her down, but if she can touch those heights again she becomes one of the scarier perimeter scorers around. In the post, center Sylvia Fowles has been a remarkably efficient scorer ever since she was drafted – whenever they can get her the ball – and remains a powerful defensive presence around the rim. However, she had injury problems last year as well (not for the first time) and followed it up with a very disappointing season in Turkey. With Prince blossoming and Delle Donne joining up, maybe some of the pressure will come off Fowles and she can work through the season without so much weight on her shoulders. Her ability to stay in one piece is almost as important to the Sky as head coach Pokey Chatman figuring out smarter ways to feed her the ball.
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