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The 2020 Chicago Sky season was the franchise's 15th season in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). This was the second season under head coach James Wade. The Sky did not improve on their previous season's record of 20–14, but entered the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

The season was initially scheduled to feature an all-time high 36 regular-season games, tipping off at the Sky's home Wintrust Arena on May 15, 2020. However, this plan was halted on April 3, when the WNBA postponed its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under a plan approved on June 15, the league has been holding a shortened 22-game regular season at IMG Academy, without fans present, since July 24. Under this plan, the Sky's first game was on July 26, versus the Las Vegas Aces.

The Sky started out the season with success, posting a 10–4 record through 14 games. However, they lost 6 of their last 8 games to finish the season with a 12–10 record. They entered the playoffs as the 6th seed, losing to the 7th-seeded Connecticut Sun. In the offseason, the team added Azurá Stevens and Sydney Colson while losing Katie Lou Samuelson. During the season, they traded away Jantel Lavender and acquired Stephanie Mavunga. They also experienced a number of injuries throughout the season, ending the season without key players including Stevens and Diamond DeShields.

Starting guard Courtney Vandersloot set the all-time WNBA record for assists per game with 10, breaking her own record of 9.1 set in the 2019 season.

Transactions

WNBA draft

The Sky will make the following selections in the 2020 WNBA draft.

Round	Pick	Player	Nationality	School/Team/Country
1	8	Ruthy Hebard	United States	Oregon
3	30	Japreece Dean	United States	UCLA
3	32	Kiah Gillespie	United States	Florida State

Trades and Roster Changes

Roster

Chicago Sky roster
Players	Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Height Weight DOB From Yrs G 51 Colson, Sydney 5' 8" (1.73m) 140 lb (64kg) 1989-08-06 Texas A&M 6 G/F 2 Copper, Kahleah 6' 1" (1.85m) 155 lb (70kg) 1994-08-28 Rutgers 4 G 1 DeShields, Diamond 6' 1" (1.85m) 163 lb (74kg) 1995-03-05 Tennessee 2 C 31 Dolson, Stefanie 6' 5" (1.96m) 231 lb (105kg) 1992-01-08 Connecticut 6 F 24 Hebard, Ruthy 6' 4" (1.93m) – 1998-04-28 Oregon R F 23 Mavunga, Stephanie 6' 3" (1.91m) 205 lb (93kg) 1995-02-24 Ohio State 2 F 32 Parker, Cheyenne 6' 4" (1.93m) 193 lb (88kg) 1992-08-22 Middle Tennessee 5 F 15 Prince, Alexis 6' 2" (1.88m) 178 lb (81kg) 1994-02-05 Baylor 2 G 14 Quigley, Allie 5' 10" (1.78m) 140 lb (64kg) 1986-06-20 DePaul 11 F/C 30 Stevens, Azurá 6' 6" (1.98m) 180 lb (82kg) 1996-02-01 Connecticut 2 G 22 Vandersloot, Courtney 5' 8" (1.73m) 145 lb (66kg) 1989-02-08 Gonzaga 9 F 15 Williams, Gabby 5' 11" (1.8m) 172 lb (78kg) 1996-09-09 Connecticut 2	Head coach James Wade (Kennesaw State) Assistant coaches Olaf Lange Emre Vatansever Athletic trainer Meghan Lockerby Strength and conditioning coach Ann Crosby (Western Michigan) Legend (C) Team captain (FA) Free agent (IN) Inactive (S) Suspended Injured

Season overview

The Sky entered the 2020 season looking to build on dramatic improvements in the previous season, when they reached the playoffs for the first time in three years and were recognized with three All-Star selections and a Coach of the Year Award.

During the free agency period, the Sky made few changes to their roster from the previous year. The team traded away Astou Ndour and 2019 first-round pick Katie Lou Samuelson, acquired third-year player Azurá Stevens via trade, and signed veteran Sydney Colson. Free agents Allie Quigley, Courtney Vandersloot, and Stefanie Dolson were all re-signed to multi-year deals. Amid many All-Star players in the league changing teams, the Sky's decision to largely bring back the previous year's team received a grade of B− from SB Nation. On the other hand, women's basketball website Swish Appeal evaluated the Sky's decisions more positively and argued that the team positioned itself to contend for a championship. The WNBA-focused publication Winsidr gave the Sky a B+, rating the retentions of key players and addition of Sydney Colson highly, but criticizing the value of the trade for Stevens.

In the 2020 draft, the Sky selected Ruthy Hebard in the first round and Japreece Dean and Kiah Gillespie in the third round. The Sky received a grade of B in three post-draft evaluations from ESPN, CBS Sports, and SB Nation.

In March, the WNBA season was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Jantel Lavender will miss this season due to recovery from surgery on a broken foot, and Sydney Colson missed the beginning of the season due to recovery from COVID-19. Stefanie Dolson was also afflicted with COVID-19, but recovered before the start of the delayed season. On June 29, the Sky signed guard Stella Johnson.

The Sky returned to play for the shortened 22-game regular season at IMG Academy on July 26. Their first game was a rematch against the Las Vegas Aces, the team who had beaten them in the previous year's playoffs. Despite the Aces leading for most of the game, the Sky won 88-86. The Sky ended July with a 2–1 record. On August 1, they notched a narrow win against the Mystics, the last undefeated team in the league, and improved to 3–1. Over the next six games, the Sky alternated wins and losses and held a record of 6–4 after 10 games. During this stretch, on August 10, Courtney Vandersloot was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week. The Sky then won four consecutive games, including blowout wins against the Atlanta Dream and the New York Liberty, to improve to 10–4. Vandersloot was again named Eastern Conference Player of the Week following this run of games. However, they proceeded to lose the next two games against the lowest-seeded Liberty and the top-seeded Seattle Storm.

On August 28, the Sky traded two draft picks and Jantel Lavender, who had been out for the season due to injury, in exchange for Stephanie Mavunga. On August 29, two key players for the Sky, Diamond DeShields and Azurá Stevens, exited the IMG Academy bubble. Stevens left due to an injury that would require her to miss the remainder of the season and DeShields left for personal reasons. Both players had missed the previous two games due to injuries. On August 31, the Sky signed forward Alisia Jenkins to a seven-day contract.

On August 31, the Sky rebounded from their two-game losing streak with a win against the Indiana Fever. Courtney Vandersloot recorded 18 assists in the game, breaking the all-time WNBA record for assists in a single game (16) previously held by Ticha Penicheiro. Vandersloot's record-breaking 17th and 18th assists came in passes to her wife, Allie Quigley.

Game log

Regular season

Playoffs

Standings

• v
• t
• e

Notes

x – Clinched playoff berth

e – Eliminated from playoffs

Home and Away records not shown, as all games played at a neutral location.

Updated to include results from September 13, 2020

Source

Playoffs

Note: Teams re-seeded after each round.

Statistics

Regular season

Awards and honors

References

1. "Atlanta Dream Announce 2020 Schedule - Atlanta Dream". dream.wnba.com. Retrieved February 1, 2020.
2. "05/15/20: Minnesota Lynx @ Chicago Sky". WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA. Retrieved February 8, 2020.
3. "WNBA Statement Regarding the Start of the 2020 Regular Season". April 3, 2020. Retrieved April 3, 2020.
4. "WNBA Announces Plan To Tip Off 2020 Season". WNBA. June 15, 2020. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
5. "WNBA announces plans for 2020 season to start late July in Florida". NBC Sports Washington. June 15, 2020. Retrieved June 15, 2020.
6. "2020 Chicago Sky Schedule". sky.wnba.com. Chicago Sky. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
7. "Assisting an assist: Vandersloot aided in reaching 10 a game". The Seattle Times. September 14, 2020. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
8. "WNBA Single Season Leaders and Records for Assists Per Game". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved September 16, 2020.
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15. ^ "Courtney Vandersloot Re-Signs With Chicago Sky". Chicago Sky. February 25, 2020. Archived from the original on February 25, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
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25. "Sky's Lavender out for season after foot surgery". ESPN.com. July 1, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
26. Collier, Jamal (July 16, 2020). "COVID-19 drained Sydney Colson's energy, taking away her ability to train for the Chicago Sky and limiting her work in the fight for racial justice". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on July 17, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
27. Hendricks, Maggie (July 23, 2020). "Chicago's Stefanie Dolson details her experience recovering from coronavirus". The Athletic. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
28. "Chicago Sky Sign Stella Johnson". Chicago Sky. June 29, 2020. Archived from the original on June 30, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
29. Associated Press (July 26, 2020). "Sky rally late for 88-86 win over Aces in WNBA season opener". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on July 27, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
30. "Sky: Allie Quigley caps comeback win over rival Aces". NBC Sports Chicago. July 26, 2020. Retrieved July 27, 2020.
31. ^ "Wilson, Vandersloot Earn Players Of The Week Honors For Week 2". WNBA.com. August 10, 2020. Archived from the original on September 13, 2020. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
32. ^ "Vandersloot, Parker Garner Players Of The Week Honors For Week 4". wnba.com. WNBA. August 24, 2020. Retrieved August 24, 2020.
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34. "UPDATE on Diamond DeShields, Azurá Stevens". Chicago Sky. August 29, 2020. Archived from the original on September 1, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
35. "Chicago Sky Sign Alisia Jenkins". Chicago Sky. August 31, 2020. Archived from the original on September 3, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
36. Sun-Times wires (August 31, 2020). "Courtney Vandersloot sets WNBA record with 18 assists in Sky's victory". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on September 2, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
37. Ward, Zachary (September 1, 2020). "Vandersloot sets WNBA record with 18 assists on bucket from Quigley, her wife". Swish Appeal. Retrieved September 1, 2020.
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40. "A'ja Wilson And Candace Parker Unanimously Selected To 2020 All-WNBA First Team". wnba.com. WNBA. October 4, 2020. Retrieved October 5, 2020.

External links

• Official website of the Chicago Sky

• 2020 WNBA season
• Chicago Sky seasons
• 2020 in sports in Illinois
• 2020 in Chicago