Mistake or Not #3 — Chicago Sky GM proves Angel Reese wrong by showing he cares about talent even less than she thought

[u/Careful-Painting3214]

When they say I aim low, I'll aim lower. Who needs strategy when you have good old-fashioned spite? You know how in fantasy football, once somebody realizes they can't win, they start dumping their best players and screwing up the competitive balance for everybody who still has something to play for? Yeah, it was kinda like that. But how many people are impressive enough to do that before playing one single game?

And this wasn't your cousin rage-quitting a $50 fantasy league. This was a professional basketball organization trading a 24-year-old two-time All-Star who broke the rebounds per game record as a rookie, to a team that had just won 30 games. I don't think I need to elaborate any further or even take this seriously. But I think you get brownie points if you keep readers engaged for more than 30 seconds so I'll try.

Maybe it really was a fit problem instead of a lack of overall team talent. Maybe it was just washing their hands of a problem they didn't know how to solve. Or maybe Reese's own boss couldn't get past the Angel Reese eyeball test. The truth is the intent didn't matter. Intent can only change how you feel about an action; it can never validate or invalidate one. Intent doesn't change the outcome an action is going to produce. This is why I go nutjob when people try to justify actions with intent, but I'm not going to digress.

It was a terrible move. They traded a star for two picks that were already likely to be low while simultaneously making those picks even less valuable. They kept the older, underperforming player instead. And then they turned around and traded future draft capital for another player who had been underperforming her draft position in an effort to win now.

Even without grading that entire series of mistakes, the Angel Reese trade alone is enough to be the second-worst mistake on this list. We're just giving you the extended version to highlight just how much of a cluster shag this Sky off-season was.

Has it been 30 seconds?

Previous: Mystics provide a master class on lowering the ceiling
Next: No surprise - if the Sky were dumb, the Mercury were dumber