Although the 2024 season has exceeded expectations for the Chicago Sky, who currently sit in eighth place in the WNBA standings, this was always supposed to be a rebuilding year for the franchise. On Wednesday, the Sky made another move to secure their future, even if it hinders the team right now.
Per a release from the team, Chicago is trading Marina Mabrey to the Connecticut Sun in exchange for Moriah Jefferson and Rachel Banham. The Sky will also receive the Sun’s 2025 first-round pick and the right to swap Phoenix’s first in 2026 with Connecticut’s. Chicago will also send New York’s second-round pick in 2025 to Sun to complete the deal.
Chicago gets one more selection in what should be a loaded 2025 draft featuring multiple fifth-year seniors who exercised their COVID-19 bonus year. The Sky also get a chance in for a higher pick in 2026, banking on Connecticut’s inability to field as competitive of a team in 2025 when DeWanna Bonner, Alyssa Thomas and Brionna Jones’ contracts are off the books.
Mabrey averaged 14.0 points and 4.5 assists for the Sky in 2024. Not only was she the team’s leading scorer, but she was responsible for more than half (56 out of 109) of Chicago’s 3-point makes. The Sky take the fewest 3s in the WNBA and will have a hard time replacing that volume, even with Banham — a career 37 percent 3-point shooter — on her way in.
Meanwhile, Connecticut, which is 10th in the league in 3-point attempts and makes, gets another reliable long-range threat to pair with Bonner. The question is whether Mabrey steps in as a starter in place of Ty Harris or DiJonai Carrington or comes off the bench and gives coach Steph White another option in the closing lineup. Most players on max contracts start, but the Connecticut starting five has played the most minutes in the league and have a net rating of plus-10.4.
This is significant draft capital to surrender for a team that has three players under contract for 2025, but the Sun have made the WNBA semifinals for five consecutive seasons. They needed some perimeter help to take the next step and capture the franchise’s first title, and they determined Mabrey — who excelled in the 2022 playoffs against them — was the necessary addition.
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This is a rare in-season trade for the WNBA, a league whose hard cap and roster sizes limit movement outside of the offseason. In the five seasons preceding this one, there has only been one in-season move that featured players who suited up for their new teams that year. It’s often difficult to integrate new players during a short schedule, but perhaps the month-long Olympic break gives the Sun confidence that they can get Mabrey up to speed in their title push.
On Chicago’s end, the Sky don’t control their first-round pick in the upcoming draft, so tanking doesn’t behoove them. Then again, Dallas owns swap rights on that pick, and the Wings’ terrible record means Chicago might not fall too far in the draft anyway. If the Sky are content with not making the postseason this year, they could still trade away veterans such as Isabelle Harrison and Brianna Turner more even more draft assets as they expedite their rebuild.
The most important move for Chicago will be retaining Chennedy Carter as an unrestricted free agent in the offseason and keeping the core of Carter, Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso together. This move is a bet on that trio, assuring that the the Sky can maximize their prime down the line instead of chasing futile wins in the present.
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