Early in the 2026 WNBA season, the Chicago Sky are looking like a team that knows how to overcome adversity.
Faced with a four-game road trip and the absence of several rotation players, Chicago cobbled together wins against Portland, Golden State and Minnesota, going 3-1 thanks to strong defense, timely playmaking and a remarkable level of chemistry between the players on its overhauled roster.
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The Sky were dealt yet another tough blow, however, when forward Rickea Jackson suffered a torn ACL against the Lynx, and it’s going to be a difficult injury for the team to overcome. Jackson was in the early stages of a clear breakout season, leading the Sky in scoring at 22 points per game prior to her injury, while also having made noticeable strides defensively and on the boards.
Jackson joins forward Azurá Stevens (knee) and guards Courtney Vandersloot (knee) and DiJonai Carrington (foot) on the Sky’s injury report. While Chicago had been able to survive (and even thrive) until Jackson’s injury, there are only so many absences a team can overcome before their depth is compromised, and the Sky looked fatigued in their home opener, a 99-89 loss to the Dallas Wings. There’s no one player on the Sky’s roster who can replace Jackson’s scoring ability; it’s going to take a team effort (and perhaps some unorthodox coaching decisions) to make up for her absence while they wait for their other injured players to return.
Here are five ways the Sky can maintain their winning momentum, in spite of their mounting injury woes. In the comments, be sure to share your suggestions for Chicago.
1. More Aicha Coulibaly and Sydney Taylor
Whenever a starter gets injured, the first thing their team is going to do is look down the depth chart to see which players will have to step up.
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With the Sky now down two wing players in Jackson and Carrington, they may have to turn to a bench player like Aicha Coulibaly or Sydney Taylor to soak up some of those minutes.
Neither Coulibaly nor Taylor were locks to make the team out of training camp, but both players impressed in preseason, with Coulibaly earning one of the team’s developmental roster spots and Taylor making the team outright.
Coulibaly, who the Sky drafted in 2025 but did not sign immediately as she recovered from her own knee injury, brings athleticism and physicality on the perimeter, and the fact that she played 21 minutes in the game Jackson was injured in suggests that Chicago head coach Tyler Marsh will turn to her first. While Taylor played brilliantly in the preseason and is the more skilled offensive player of the two, she hasn’t gotten as much run in the regular season—yet.
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2. Even more Gabriela Jaquez and Jacy Sheldon
Gabriela Jaquez and Jacy Sheldon have already been starting and playing fairly heavy minutes, but with Jackson out, they may need to take on more responsibility offensively during their time on the court.
Jaquez was drafted by the Sky to fill a positional need on the wing, and that’s something she’s done admirably early in her career. The rookie has made a smooth transition to the WNBA (at least in terms of playing off the team’s veterans) and she certainly didn’t look to be in danger of losing her spot in the Sky’s starting lineup before Jackson got injured. Her scoring has been opportunistic and efficient, which is obviously what the team wants, but she’ll have to show a little more self-creation ability in Jackson’s absence.
The same goes for Sheldon, who was a major scoring threat in college but has been a lower-usage player in the WNBA.
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Like Jaquez, Sheldon has been highly efficient to begin the season, shooting 46.9 percent from the field and 58.8 percent on 2-pointers, but the Sky would probably like her to look for her shot more often, as she’s only attempting 6.4 field goals in 28.8 minutes per game.
3. Find ways to get Kamilla Cardoso more involved
The alternative to giving the Sky’s remaining healthy wing players more offensive responsibility is to give it to their bigs instead. The most obvious of these candidates is center Kamilla Cardoso, who finished her sophomore season strong and is already bearing high expectations for 2026.
There’s no question as to what Cardoso’s strengths are. She’s been one of the best offensive rebounders in the WNBA from the minute she entered the league—according to Basketball Reference, she ranked No. 3 in the WNBA in offensive rebounding rate in 2024, No. 4 in 2025 and is No. 4 thus far in 2026—and at 6-foot-7, she’s going to draw her fair share of fouls as opponents try to keep her off the glass.
Cardoso’s own offense hasn’t been as consistent. While she’s already eclipsed the 20-point mark several times this season, she was also held to single-digit scoring against the Valkyries and the Phoenix Mercury, shooting poorly from the field in both games.
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Without a true go-to perimeter scorer at the moment, the Sky are going to need Cardoso to be at her best offensively, whether that’s being more involved in the pick-and-roll or even just finishing her own putback attempts at a more efficient clip.
When the Sky signed Natasha Cloud near the end of preseason, it was expected that she’d add another veteran presence to the team’s backcourt, bringing vocal leadership, championship experience and her trademark defensive tenacity as a backup to Diggins and Vandersloot.
But while Cloud is mostly a point guard on offense, she’s virtually positionless defensively. Her ability to guard anywhere from the point of attack to the wing—and even the post—has been utilized more and more later in her career, and just as her coaches in Phoenix and New York recognized this luxury, Marsh and his staff will surely come to appreciate it in Chicago, too.
Do the Sky want Cloud guarding opposing power forwards full-time? Probably not. But with so many of their key players nursing injuries, they’re going to have to get creative with some of their lineups, and leaning into her defensive aptitude would be one way to do so.
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5. Wait for reinforcements
Ultimately, no matter how many different lineups Marsh tries or how well the Sky’s bench plays, the team is going to be somewhat limited until it gets at least one of Stevens, Vandersloot and Carrington back from injury.
The good news is that, while none of the three have a concrete timetable, Stevens appears to be close to returning. The 6-foot-6 forward is coming off a career year with the Sparks, and her ability to shoot the 3-pointer and play multiple positions on offense should, at the very least, help the Sky’s floor spacing and create some mismatches in their favor.
