Paige Bueckers could be last chapter of Sky's rebuild

Howard Lao/AP

This is the wrong time to do this story. Problem is, the right time would be too late. So better now than never. Because if this isn’t said out loud now, then anytime after this would, as we say, upset the set up.

So the beginning of the new life has begun. The season we believe will be the rise of the shine that is soon to follow and stay. Where the Sky’s sky becomes shared space with the WNBA elite. Back where they belong.

New coach. New “big two” tag team tandem. New front office and leadership group. New players. New life. A life, as we will find out early on, that is in its discovery (not rebuild!) stage; a life that is finding itself game by game; a life that is incomplete.

A journey where winning right here, right now, is not essential but how to not lose is the foundation. Even as you lose. Consciously. Kinda tricky, kinda flawed, but there’s an art, science and genius to it. Especially when done with intention.

For the Sky the trick this year is to look across town at the how the White Sox season began and say to themselves, “How do we master that?” But only stack “L's” with a plan in place. Only do it with purpose. Do it with the one player in mind who, once she puts on that Sky Town rebel jersey, will change everything.

“And at guard, from University of Connecticut, No. 23  (Get it? The Jordan/Chicago connection. Plus the No. 5 she wears now belongs to Angel Reese and the No. 1 she wore in high school and in AAU belongs to center Elizabeth Williams) … Paige Bueckers.”

The generational unicorn who could “one player away” the Sky’s new fortune. The guard who could come in, run the team and grasp head coach Teresa Witherspoon’s philosophy with immediacy and accuracy and possibly turn Reese and Kamilla Cardoso into perennial All-Stars by Year 3. Turning the opulence of this year’s draft into something even the Bears would envy.

In order for this to happen, unfortunately, the Sky have to put themselves in a calculated position to have one of, if not the, worst records in the WNBA this season. And that is because winning 18 games and making the playoffs last season has now come back to hold itself against them and decrease their chances of getting that first pick. Because the way the WNBA works the lottery odds for the draft are increased by a team's combined record the past two seasons, not just one.

But first Adam Fox (Sky president/CEO) and Jeff Pagliocca (Sky general manager) have to buy in. And this isn’t an easy sell. But as they say in business, “Sometimes you have to lose a million dollars to make three million.” Well, sometimes in professional sports you have to lose a season to win a few championships. Or in this case, legitimately be in the conversation to compete for one.

While the whole “big three” thing in the NBA seems to have proven a non-guaranteed way toward winning championships and is on its way out as a roster structuring mechanism (thank you Denver, Minnesota, OKC, Boston, Memphis, Miami, etc. for disrupting that decade-long strategy), there’s still value in applying that line of logic in the WNBA. Particularly when done through the draft, similar to how Seattle did it in 2015 and 2016 when they used their back-to-back No. 1 draft picks to get Jewell Lloyd followed by Breanna Stewart to add with the already there Sue Bird. Winning chips in 2018 and again in 2020.

Which could be the template for the Sky to pattern their future moves on. A philosophical approach that can work in their favor strictly based on who they were able to get in this year's draft with Reese and Cardoso, especially with Coach ‘Spoon putting her identity on this team much the same way Becky Hammond put her identity on the Aces’ two years ago when she took over. And we all see how that’s worked out.

The other and probably more important key here, is to not let Indiana do this first. Again. And with hope that the new expansion team in Golden State isn’t granted first, second or third dibs.

I refuse to use the word “tanking” to make this case as the method the Sky should exercise. I’m suggesting something similar conceptually but with elevated tact and integrity. Very much like the smooth way the Spurs put themselves in perfect position to get Victor Wembanyama or how Cleveland blatantly did not win over 20 years ago to get LeBron or low-key how the Fever played it last season to position themselves to win the Caitlin Clark sweepstakes.

If Clark and Reese are the Taylor Swift and Beyoncé of women’s basketball right now, then Bueckers is the Billie Eilish. The hitmaker, the chart-topper, the stream-setter, the trophy collector, the prodigy, the phenom, the next next next to those who got now. The final piece to a perfect plan on which this city’s next dynasty can be built.

And she can be all ours. If the Sky play the game to perfection.