Sky Get Reminder of Lucky Angel Reese Decision After Cardoso’s Struggles
The 2024 WNBA Draft night unfolded exactly as expected with Caitlin Clark becoming the undisputed first overall selection, heading to the Indiana Fever to begin what many anticipated would be a transformative professional career. Following Clark’s predictable selection, the Chicago Sky made their intentions crystal clear by choosing NCAA Champion Kamilla Cardoso from the University of South Carolina with the second overall pick, specifically targeting her impressive collegiate rebounding prowess to address their well-documented interior weaknesses. However, what many overlooked at the time was that five selections later, the Sky would make an equally crucial decision by selecting Angel Reese from LSU with the seventh overall pick, ostensibly for the same rebounding deficiencies that prompted the Cardoso selection just moments earlier.
The significance of both selections became painfully apparent during Thursday night’s contest when the Sky hosted the Seattle Storm at Wintrust Arena, with Angel Reese conspicuously absent from the lineup due to injury concerns. Compounding Chicago’s personnel challenges, the team was also forced to play without Ariel Atkins, one of their most reliable offensive contributors and a player who consistently ranks among their top three leading scorers throughout the season. With two of their most impactful players sidelined, the stage was perfectly set for Kamilla Cardoso to step forward and demonstrate exactly why the organization invested such a high draft selection in her services, providing a compelling reminder of her value proposition and championship pedigree.
Unfortunately for the Sky faithful, Cardoso’s performance served as a stark reminder of why the Angel Reese selection proved to be such a fortuitous decision, as the former South Carolina standout struggled mightily across multiple facets of the game. The most glaring issue emerged in Cardoso’s discipline and foul management, as she became the only player on either roster to foul out during Thursday’s contest, accumulating six personal fouls and earning an early exit in the fourth quarter when her team desperately needed her presence on the court. This fouling problem represented a disturbing trend for the Sky’s starting center, as Thursday’s disqualification marked the second consecutive game in which Cardoso had fouled out, creating a pattern of unavailability that significantly hampered Chicago’s defensive schemes and interior presence.
The previous instance of Cardoso’s fouling troubles occurred during Tuesday night’s disappointing home loss to the Minnesota Lynx, marking the second time this month that Chicago had fallen to Minnesota on their own court with key players missing from the rotation. What made Thursday’s fouling issues particularly concerning was that Cardoso had managed to avoid fouling out entirely throughout the regular season prior to these recent struggles, suggesting either a concerning decline in defensive discipline or perhaps the mounting pressure of increased responsibilities in the absence of key teammates. During her rookie campaign in 2024, Cardoso had been disqualified due to excessive fouls on only two occasions, with the first instance not occurring until late August, demonstrating that her recent fouling troubles represent a significant departure from her previously reliable court presence.
Beyond the fouling concerns, Cardoso’s overall defensive impact against Seattle proved to be deeply disappointing, as evidenced by her team-worst plus/minus rating of negative thirty-seven, indicating that the Sky were dramatically outperformed whenever she was on the court. The statistical breakdown of her defensive contributions painted an equally troubling picture, with Cardoso managing just one steal and zero blocked shots throughout the entire contest, while simultaneously contributing zero assists and committing two costly turnovers that further hampered Chicago’s already struggling offensive flow. This defensive inadequacy became even more pronounced when considering that Seattle managed to place six different players in double figures, including four of their five starters, demonstrating the complete breakdown of Chicago’s interior defensive schemes in Cardoso’s presence.
The Storm’s balanced offensive attack was spearheaded by veteran forwards Nneka Ogwumike and Gabby Williams, each contributing ten points, while guard Erica Wheeler added thirteen points to complement Skylar Diggins’ game-high scoring performance that ultimately sealed Chicago’s fate. Seattle’s offensive efficiency was further highlighted by their ability to score at least twenty-five points in three of the four quarters, while Chicago’s anemic offensive output never exceeded eighteen points in any single quarter, creating an insurmountable deficit that grew progressively worse as the game progressed. This stark offensive disparity emphasized the Sky’s desperate need for the scoring punch and rebounding presence that Angel Reese typically provides when healthy and available.
From an offensive perspective, Cardoso’s five-for-eight shooting performance might appear respectable in isolation, but the context of missing both Reese and Atkins made this output woefully inadequate for a player expected to shoulder increased scoring responsibilities. The Sky’s historical success with Cardoso has been directly correlated to her scoring output, as evidenced by their perfect 2-0 record in games where she scores twenty points or more this season. The most recent examples of this correlation occurred on May 29th, when Cardoso’s twenty-three point performance powered Chicago to victory over the Dallas Wings, and again on June 24th when her twenty-seven point explosion against the Los Angeles Sparks secured another crucial home victory at Wintrust Arena.
Both of those successful performances took place in the friendly confines of Wintrust Arena, making Thursday’s inability to replicate that production against Seattle all the more disappointing for Sky supporters and coaching staff alike. Instead of rising to meet the challenge presented by key absences, Chicago suffered their fourth consecutive defeat in devastating fashion, falling to Seattle by an embarrassing margin of 95-57 that highlighted just how much they miss Angel Reese’s consistent double-double production and infectious energy. This lopsided defeat served as a painful reminder that while Cardoso was selected earlier in the draft with higher expectations, it is Angel Reese who has emerged as the more indispensable player for Chicago’s championship aspirations, making her seventh overall selection look increasingly like one of the organization’s most prescient decisions in recent memory.