Did the Sky bet on the wrong kind of rebuild?
Should the Sky have taken the Mystics’ approach to rebuilding?
Both teams missed the playoffs last year, fired their coaches and then charted very different courses. The Sky tried to compete right away, adding veterans to maximize young stars Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso.
The Mystics took a slower approach, trading franchise cornerstone Ariel Atkins to the Sky for a lottery pick. They used that pick, along with two others, to land one of the stronger draft hauls of 2025: Sonia Citron, Kiki Iriafen and point guard Georgia Amoore. They entered the season as the youngest team in the league by a long shot.
On Tuesday, they doubled down on youth, trading their leading scorer, Brittney Sykes, for the Storm’s 2026 first-rounder and boosting their own lottery odds in the process. They now have another three first-round picks in 2026.
“We are trying to be great,” Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson said of the rebuild. “Not just kinda good, not just kinda competitive.”
For the Mystics, the path ahead seems clear: keep adding young talent and focus on development.
The Sky’s future looks murkier. They’ve been neither “kinda good” nor “kinda competitive” this season. They’re not loaded up on lottery picks or rookie deals, having traded away their 2026 first-rounder to the Lynx. And they’ll have to convince leading scorer Atkins to stay in the offseason.
That was the gamble — a lottery pick for a one-year rental, while the Mystics took the other side, leaned into patience and played the long game. But Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca insists the risk was worth it because of the championship habits Atkins brings to practice.
“You’ll never hear me walk that one back,” he told the Sun-Times in June.
With their 78-64 victory against the Mystics on Tuesday, the Sky improved to 8-21, ahead of only the Wings and Sun. Injuries have derailed them, from losing Courtney Vandersloot early to long stretches without both Atkins and Reese. -Atkins returned to action against the Mystics, but there’s still no timetable for Reese’s return.
The Mystics, ironically, have done more winning — despite entering the season without playoff expectations and few veteran anchors. They fell to 13-16, squarely in the postseason mix.
“We’re doing better than expected,” Johnson said at shootaround. “We know that.”
Without Sykes, the playoffs become less likely — but then again, that’s the point. Losing her boosts the Mystics’ lottery odds, and the lottery worked out pretty well for them last year. Citron and Iriafen were All-Stars in their first season and showed they can be -viable cornerstones.
Even Amoore’s season-ending injury wasn’t catastrophic because there was no pressure to win — just space to grow. All three will be back next season on rookie deals that give the Mystics flexibility to keep shaping the roster.
So is that the enviable position?
It has its perks, but the long road isn’t all rainbows and sunshine. The Mystics and Wizards, both owned by Monumental Sports & Entertainment, have taken a similar approach — long view, draft-heavy — and the Wizards have racked up 131 losses over the last two seasons.
Assembling a roster that doesn’t win — whether by design or by accident — only lasts so long in pro sports. Fans get impatient. So do owners.
Rebuilding has no magic formula.
Ultimately, the course has to reflect the people steering it. And as long as Pagliocca is at the helm for the Sky, stashing picks and waiting quietly will never be their way.
“We’re always going to be in ‘win-now’ mode,’ ” he said at media day this year.
They’ve got the “now” part down; the roster was built with urgency. It’s the winning part that needs work.