Season In Review: Chicago Sky


As a part of a WNBA.com offseason series, we’ll be taking a look at the seasons of all 12 teams in the league and touching on some of the top reasons to look forward to their 2016 WNBA campaigns.

The 2015 season was supposed to be a journey to take care of unfinished business for the Chicago Sky. A year removed from a crushing loss to the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA Finals, the 2015 campaign was about revenge and Elena Delle Donne’s emergence into superstardom.

And for much of the season it seemed like head coach Pokey Chatman’s squad was on a trajectory that would have them right back in title contention at the end of the season. An offseason acquisition of veteran guard Cappie Pondexter brought an added dose of talent to an already elite backcourt with Allie Quigley and Courtney Vandersloot.

Delle Donne stormed out of the gates and caught the attention of the entire league when she put up 45-point and 40-point games in the first month of play. She scored more than 20 points in the Sky’s first seven games of the season. Not even then-defending WNBA MVP Maya Moore was keeping pace with Delle Donne’s historic start.

But the Sky struggled defensively, which created a number of close games and losses. By the All-Star break the Sky boasted the best offense in the league, but they also were allowing the most points per game. At 11-6, Chatman’s team was still second in second place in the Eastern Conference.

Pondexter and Delle Donne were rewarded for their first half performances with an All-Star nod. But after the All-Star break the Sky’s roster got a shuffle. The first half of the season was played without center Sylvia Fowles, who decided to sit out while the team worked to find a trade suitor.

Finally, after numerous attempts to come to an agreement, the Sky traded Fowles in a three-team deal with the Minnesota Lynx and Atlanta Dream that sent Fowles to Minneapolis and longtime Dream center Erika de Souza to Chicago.

The Sky continued to battle for playoff positioning with the New York Liberty for much of the second half of the year. Delle Donne continued to shine, even if her numbers trailed off a bit from her massive start to the year. She was still the most dominant player in the league and her free throw prowess was unreal.

For the season, Delle Donne averaged 95 percent from the charity stripe, increasing her career average to 93.9 percent. For perspective, Steve Nash’s career free-throw percentage – which is the best in the history of the NBA – is 90.43 percent. Delle Donne has blown away that mark for her entire career.

Eventually, the Sky clinched the second seed in the East and were pitted with a rematch of the 2014 Eastern Conference Finals against the Indiana Fever.

Chicago took Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals behind a team-high 22 points from WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year Allie Quigley. On the night Delle Donne was presented with the 2015 WNBA MVP trophy, the Fever’s stifling defense held her in check, only allowing her to score 14 points.

The second game set up a close-out opportunity for Chicago, but the Fever rose to the occasion and defended their home court, setting up a decisive third game at Allstate Arena.

Delle Donne did everything within her power to get the Sky to the Eastern Conference Finals, but in the end her 40-point performance wasn’t enough. Tamika Catchings dropped 27 points for the Fever and the Indiana offense caught fire.

The Sky’s quest for a WNBA title was put on hold for another year.

Reasons To Look Forward To 2016

Delle Donne isn’t going anywhere, and after an offseason stateside (Delle Donne hasn’t ruled out the possibility of player overseas at some point in her career) she should be healthy again and better than ever.

An offseason acquisition to help shore up some of the defensive woes would help, but even if the roster stays mostly intact, Chicago should be right back in the mix in 2016.