What if the Chicago Sky can defy expectations?

Of course, the preseason carries only so much weight.

The Liberty enter the regular season with a collection of league MVPs and all-time greats. Nobody on the Sky roster has ever started an All-Star Game. In addition, Chicago has a new head coach, two high-profile rookies who will play big minutes and a totally revamped roster.

As a result, ESPN ranked the Sky last in its preseason power rankings.

But what if the sum of the parts turns out to be something greater than anyone imagined?  The Sky’s fate this season may depend on the answers to the following four questions.

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1. Can Marina Mabrey develop into a superstar? 

To bring Marina Mabrey to the Sky from the Dallas Wings in 2023, then-general manager James Wade traded away two first-round draft picks as well as the right to swap first-round picks in 2025.

That meant the organization missed the opportunity to draft up-and-comers such as Zia Cooke and Jordan Horston in 2023. It then traded franchise star Kahleah Copper to recoup draft capital in 2024.

Should the Sky fail to make the playoffs this year and win the draft lottery, the right to draft college stars such as UConn’s Paige Bueckers will belong to Dallas.

In other words: The Mabrey deal was risky!

To justify its cost, Wade needed to develop Mabrey into one of the best players in the league. Instead, he left midway through the 2023 season for a job with the Toronto Raptors. The pressure of validating the deal landed squarely on Mabrey’s shoulders. 

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To her credit, Mabrey took a meaningful step forward in 2023. She averaged a career-high 15 points per game and set the franchise record for most 3-pointers in a season with 89. But consistency was an issue, as she failed to score in double digits eight times last season. Compared to premiere guards such as Jackie Young, Jewell Loyd or Kelsey Plum, that’s too many.

In Tuesday’s preseason game, Mabrey scored a game-high 20 points and was efficient from inside and outside the arc. By definition, one game tells us nothing about consistency. But Mabrey’s shooting confidence, range and quick release are difficult to ignore. The potential to become one of the league’s best shooters is there.

If Mabrey can lead the Sky to the playoffs this year, it may change the assessment of Wade’s gamble from “fiasco” to “interesting choice.”

2. Does the new Sky leadership have the right vision?

In building their first Sky roster, head coach Teresa Weatherspoon and general manager Jeff Pagliocca prioritized defense and competitiveness. They drafted two post players — Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese — who must improve offensively but are tough, proven champions at the college level.

The potential of this vision became clearer against the Liberty when viewed alongside its complement: speed. Sky guards Dana Evans, Diamond DeShields and Chennedy Carter consistently beat the Liberty down the floor, which led to easy transition buckets.

Tough on the inside and fast on the wings was working for Chicago.

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Weatherspoon showed an early command of balancing these components. With a team stacked with posts, she started an almost comically small lineup of Evans, Mabrey, DeShields, Michaela Onyenwere and Reese.

The lineup neutralized the Liberty, who did not score in the first five minutes of play. Onyenwere, a 6′ forward, held reigning WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart to one shot attempt during that span, while Reese outhustled and outperformed Stewart and Jonquel Jones. 

Then Weatherpoon brought her more experienced frontcourt players off the bench. Solid performances from Isabelle Harrison, Brianna Turner and Elizabeth Williams suggest that an injury to Cardoso may not set the team back that much.

3. Can Chennedy Carter realize her potential?

Few players embody the open-endedness of the Sky’s season more than Carter. She is known around the league as one of the more talented players in the 2020 draft class, but her stints in Atlanta and Los Angeles ended harshly. She was suspended in Atlanta and then waived in Los Angeles. 

This season, she was offered a training camp contract with the Sky. Waiting to check in at the scorer’s table against the Liberty, Carter could hardly contain her smile.

“All she wants to do is play this game of basketball,” Weatherspoon said. “All she wants to do is share her gift with everybody that’s watching.”

Her ball-handling ability and willingness to attack bigger defenders are unmatched around the league. Her crossover alone will be a treat for Sky fans to watch.

Carter’s only limitations seem to be her smaller size, her reluctance to part with the ball once she has it, and her past difficulties fitting into a team. If she is ready to make the sort of team sacrifice required of any great talent, the Sky’s future will instantly look a lot brighter. 

4. Will Dana Evans get her chance to star?

The Sky fan base has been waiting for Evans to play a bigger role ever since she arrived as a rookie in 2021. Chicago’s immediate and enduring embrace of Evans has a “rooting for the underdog” feel.

“I feel like they can see themselves in me,” Evans said of Sky fans. She is one of only five active WNBA players under 5’6.

The come-up for Evans began in 2023, when her minutes nearly doubled from the previous season. So did her shot attempts.

Against the Liberty, she got into the lane, launched deep threes and pushed the pace, and she did all that with a sharpened skill set and a more patient approach.

“Dana can do whatever Dana wants to do on that floor,” Weatherspoon said. “We trust Dana. Everyone trusts Dana.” 

A legendary point guard in her own playing days, Weatherspoon has been counseling Evans to facilitate first and then inject herself. Evans finished the game with seven assists and no turnovers to go along with 19 points.

If Evans can regularly produce that kind of stat line, a starting spot and a chance at stardom will be hers.

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With the outcome of the game decided by the third quarter, fans relaxed and returned to familiar stadium rituals. During one timeout, two fans competed to unwrap a Sky T-shirt the fastest.

The wrapping was sticky, knotted and surprisingly strong. But after an extended struggle, the fans wrestled the T-shirts free.

The moment echoed the experience of being a WNBA fan, particularly for a fan base that watched the Sky’s preseason opener against the Minnesota Lynx streamed on a Lynx fan’s phone.

As the WNBA enters its 28th season, patience around product wrapping continues to be a virtue. Patience may be needed for the Sky this season, too — but there’s also a chance they could defy expectations.