The 2025 Chicago Sky will look vastly different from what fans saw in 2024, starting with the head coach all the way down through the roster. 

However, the two cornerstones (Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso) will still stand as the Skyscrapers in the post for the upcoming season.

The question last year was how will the guard group find a way to feed the two rookies inside. 

Well, that’s what free agency was for this year as the Sky signed Courtney Vandersloot, Kia Nurse and Rebecca Allen – three veteran guards with a vast skill set that will absolutely play a vital role in the two bigs’ development.

“Having two post players like that – young stars – is a point guard’s dream. It played a big part in why I wanted to go there,” Vandersloot said on ESPN’s WNBA Free Agency Special. “I think that adding them to the roster last year was huge, and I’m looking to help them expand their games, but they’re going to make me great too.”

Vandersloot is the Sky’s all-time assist leader by a mile with 2,387 over her 11 years in the Windy City. Bringing back a guard that knows how to find just about anybody can help in the on-court development, but it’s her 13 years of WNBA experience – including 2 championships – that will aid in off-court development.

Vandersloot knows more than anyone what it takes to win and to win in Chicago. Having that veteran presence can teach the posts how to take care of their body in the gym, sleep schedules, how to train, all the not-so-pretty things about what it takes to be a pro in this league.

That’s how the floor general can help, but what about the other additions? 

Both Nurse and Allen echoed the same sentiment as Vandersloot about how impactful having those two Skyscrapers are in creating offense, calling them ‘a shooter’s dream.’

“They’re both aggressive scorers as well as good defenders,” Allen said in her introductory press conference. “So I think it’ll be a nice sort of synergy between guards and bigs. Obviously, they’re going to be a focal point for us, and you’ve got Slooty in that point guard position who can just navigate everyone on the court. 

“So I think it’s a nice balance between veteran players and the younger generation coming through. You can just see that they’ve got a great work ethic, and then they play hard. That’s what you can ask for, so that you know that you can outrun teams and play at a fast pace as well.”

Having Allen on the roster allows the veteran forward to become more of a utility player – similar to recently re-signed Sky forward Michaela Onyenwere. Both Allen and Onyenwere have the build, versatility and physicality to play upwards of three positions. This allows Reese and Cardoso to understand off-ball movement, something that they just started to tap into at the end of the 2024 season.

“If you are the guard cutting, I think that’s how you can get those backdoor passes,” Allen said. “That’s what training camp is going to be about, because then they need to know when I’m cutting, too. Then you sort of build this connection.

“Knowing when I’m cutting and obviously not doing it too much, too. That’s why I think getting in there, getting there a bit early, too, and then also training camp. That’s when you develop or start to develop at least those connections.”

With Nurse, she saw the high potential in both Kamilla and Angel when she was on the Los Angeles Sparks last season. When Cardoso faced the Sparks twice in 2024, she posted a combined 27 points, 23 rebounds and 7 blocks while shooting just shy of 65% from the floor.

“One of the things that really stood out when we played against Chicago last year was just the dominance of the posts,” Nurse said in her introductory press conference. “I’m really looking forward to seeing [Kamilla] continue to grow. I think she’s got a great little mid-range, 15 footer in there as well. So you balance that, and it’s difficult for a lot of people to defend.”

Reese absolutely dominated against Los Angeles in 2024. In the last game against the Sparks on Sept. 6, she racked up one of her most efficient games offensively with 24 points on 60% shooting from the floor on top of her 16 rebounds. 

This was also one of the first games where she started to test her mid-range shot and get a bit more confident in expanding her shooting range – something she’s honed in on while playing in Unrivaled.

“She has the utmost confidence in herself. I can tell she’s got a ton of confidence in her teammates as well, from the way that she interacts with them,” Nurse said. “Even watching her now in this offseason, I feel like there’s already that development. You can see even more from her game, being able to expand it and kind of hit that mid-range a little bit more – at least take the mid-range even more. I think there’s so much potential for her.”

There’s still a lot of time before the start of the 2025 WNBA season. There’s still a possibility the Sky could add more pieces in free agency as well as their 4 picks – including the No. 3 pick – in the 2025 WNBA Draft.

As of Feb. 16, the Sky roster has 9 players: Vandersloot, Nurse, Allen, Onyenwere, Reese, Cardoso, Rachel Banham, Moriah Jefferson and Elizabeth Williams.