To understand the Sky’s struggles on offense, start by appreciating what it takes to be a top-tier offense in today’s WNBA.
You have to have an elite scoring engine — an A’ja Wilson, a Paige Bueckers, a Kelsey Plum — who can take it upon herself to drop 20 a game.
Or you have to have multiple shooters consistently hitting north of 35% of their 3-pointers at significant volume. The league’s top offenses — the Wings, Lynx, Valkyries, Tempo and Aces — all have at least one of the two.
The Sky have neither.
Nobody on the team is scoring more than 15 points per game, and the only player shooting 35% or better from the 3-point line is rookie Gabriela Jaquez — and that’s on limited volume.
Now, what they do have: an elite point guard in Skylar Diggins, who hasn’t averaged fewer than 15 points in any of her last 10 seasons. A frontcourt that can score in Azura Stevens and Kamilla Cardoso. And solid shooters in Jaquez, Stevens, Jacy Sheldon and Rachel Banham.
So while the roster’s limits might keep them out of the top tier, there’s no excuse for the offense ranking 13th out of 15 teams, which is where it sits today.
Coach Tyler Marsh has taken the blame publicly this season, saying he needs to be better.
Still, it’s not yet clear what that actually means. Should he change the offense? Change rotations? Use his best players differently?
Marsh said Tuesday that while he and his staff are discussing big changes to the offense internally, for now they’re mostly tweaking points of emphasis and fixing execution.
Cardoso agreed that execution was the problem in Toronto — and beyond.
“We need to do a better job as players executing, doing the little details,” Cardoso told the Sun-Times. “We have amazing plays, and sometimes we gotta set a screen and we don’t hit a body. Sometimes we gotta execute a little better and be more poised.”
Note the direction each is pointing: Marsh says the staff has to be better, Cardoso says the players do. Both sides taking accountability is good news. The bad news is that the on-court connection has been inconsistent, and everyone’s frustrated.
After the Sky lost their sixth game in seven in Toronto, Diggins said she expects more maturity, leadership and effort from everyone — players and staff. She clarified Tuesday that she included herself in that, and that she and Marsh are on the same page.
“If we had a problem, I’d just come out and say it,” Diggins said.
She said her message was well-received despite the short turnaround. And the Sky did come out much stronger in the first half Tuesday, leading the Dream 42-39, with Diggins and Cardoso each scoring 11 points.
Marsh said before the game it’s on him to get Diggins more open looks and figure out how to best use her.
Diggins acknowledged she’s still working out how she wants to be used to best complement her teammates — especially after Rickea Jackson’s injury changed the team’s trajectory.
“I think what we imagined changed so much,” Diggins said. “We just had so much change, so I think a lot of our visioning is pivoting, rediscovering what that is. That’s what we’re in the process of doing. Maybe not how I imagined, but we don’t even have the personnel that I imagined.”
That’s the unlucky part. The Sky did come into the season with an elite scorer in Jackson, but she tore her ACL in the fourth game. And they didn’t have a backup, because that’s what defines a team’s best player — she can’t be replaced.
When a team underachieves like the Sky have, the question is always: Is it the roster, the coaching or bad luck? With the Sky, it’s all three. But Marsh knows the pressure’s on him to turn around.
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