Locked On Women’s Basketball: How Angel Reese, Chennedy Carter are remaking the Chicago Sky

They discussed areas where the Sky have struggled despite their roster construction, in particular defensive rebounding. Though some of this may be tied to injuries to Elizabeth Williams and, early in the season, Kamilla Cardoso, Hirsh explained how Angel Reese has been the key to keeping them afloat:

“The only reason that they’re ninth [in defensive rebounding percentage] and not last is because of the jump that Angel has,” Hirsh said. “So I think, you know, Em Adler just wrote about this in Sunday notes that like, without Angel’s, defensive rebounding, you know, the Sky are just not good. And, you know, some of that is, I think, just personnel, right? Like some of the players they have coming off the bench, whether that’s Dana Evans, or Diamond DeShields, you know, rebounding is not necessarily their forte, but I do think like, when you look at the Sky, and you look at what levers do they have to pull without necessarily making roster moves, defensive rebounding feels like it should be one of them, right? Because it feels like something that is tied to effort, and practice and things like that. So theoretically, it’s something that can change. But I don’t know exactly, outside of Angel just continuing to put the team on her back in that category, it’ll be interesting to see what they can do in that category.”

Then, they discussed how Chennedy Carter has kept the Sky’s offensive engine running and how her game needs to evolve in order to keep up with increasing attention from defenses:

“Down the stretch, their best option is to give the ball to Chennedy,” Hirsh said. “And her teammates talk about that freely, right? Like people can’t guard her one-on-one. And, I mean, now [head coach Teresa Weatherspoon] and a number of the players are starting to talk about okay, defenses are adjusting, obviously, like they’re sending help. They’re in gaps. And so the next level for Chennedy is being a distributor, which she’s already been doing. But I think you’ll see more of that as the season goes on.”

“I think what we’ve seen from her is just an extremely high basketball IQ,” Hirsh said. “Everybody talks about her quickness, as they should because it’s unlike what we see from other players around the league, it’s amazing, she can get past her first defender, but then it all becomes reads, right? And it becomes an ability to decide what sort of finish to use. I think all of that just shows her handle on the game. And I think if the next level is to become a distributor, I see no reason why she won’t.”

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“[If she’s going to] be a distributor, people got to knock down shots, right? And the Sky have not done a great job, I think, getting like the inside-outside three-point looks. And I think Chennedy herself has kind of preferred the post dump-offs, which have worked really nicely, but I do think if she can look for [Marina Mabrey], if she can look for Dana sort of outside the arc, that’s going to be a good option for them.”

Tune in to hear more about the Sky, how Angel Reese put together a historic double-double streak, and areas where Chicago may look to improve as the trade deadline (Aug. 20) approaches. Make sure to subscribe to the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast to keep learning about the WNBA, women’s college basketball, basketball history and much more!