Sky’s James Wade has plan to build another title-contending team

Sky coach and general manager James Wade actively evolves. Year to year, season to season, he never wants to be the same guy.

So after the Sky’s unceremonious elimination last September in the semifinals of the WNBA playoffs, he got to work.

“I visited four NBA teams this offseason,” Wade said, referring to the Bulls, 76ers, Trail Blazers and Celtics over the last few months. “I saw how they did shootarounds and different player-development things. I keep in consistent contact with some [NBA] coaches. You get coaches with 30 years of experience, coaches who played in the NBA for 20 years, and they tell you their experience and how they’ve seen teams get better.”

Earlier this week, Wade also was announced as part of former Jazz coach Quin Snyder’s Basketball Africa League Combine coaching staff. The two-day scouting event will be held Sunday and Monday in Paris.

No need to jump to conclusions about Wade’s future — he has adamantly said he wants to spend his career coaching in the WNBA, and the Sky picked up his option a day after their postseason ouster, a move that will keep him under contract through the 2025 season.

But as the last remaining coach/GM in the WNBA after a wave of coaching changes in the fall, he’s committed more than ever to improving.

Wade has long relished the dual role: constructing the team he’s then tasked with coaching. If there’s any argument to be made against him as GM, it’s that his draft classes haven’t been the strongest. He took forward Katie Lou Samuelson with the fourth overall pick in his first draft in 2019, and in 2021 drafted 19-year-old guard Shyla Heal. Those selections came with scrutiny, but Wade recovered when he traded Samuelson for Azurá Stevens in 2020 and Heal for Dana Evans in 2021, two months after drafting her. Both trades paid dividends for the Sky.

As far as free agency is concerned, over the last two years, Wade has cleaned up. After signing superstar Candace Parker in 2021, he added forward Emma Meesseman in 2022 and also acquired point guard Julie Allemand in a sign-and-trade, in addition to re-signing guards Courtney Vandersloot, Allie Quigley and Kahleah Copper. The moves contributed to him earning him his first Executive of the Year Award last fall.

This year, all eyes will be on Wade both because he’s the last person wearing two hats and because the Sky are facing a potential rebuild, depending on how free agency plays out.

Asked how the Sky can attract free agents while other teams are investing in state-of-the-art facilities, Wade said, “Of course, we have Chicago.” On top of the attractions of the city, he cited the central location.

But he seems most confident in the appeal of his coaching staff. Emre Vatansever, Tonya Edwards and Ann Wauters will return from 2022, and will be joined by another player-development coach. The Sky also added to their sports medicine staff and hired a sports psychologist last season.

“We pride ourselves on the people we bring into the organization,” Wade said. “The people we have are second to none. In the meantime, we are striving every year to get better things, to get new things, top-of-the-line things. We’re moving and evolving into that.”

In his first move of free agency, Wade extended a qualifying offer to guard/forward Rebekah Gardner, making her a reserved player, meaning she can negotiate only with the Sky. Gardner was another free-agency score for Wade last season.

Next up are the bigger challenges: re-signing the Sky’s unrestricted free agents. Vandersloot will be of the utmost importance, along with Parker, with Stevens, Quigley and Meesseman also on the market. No other team faces more potential turnover than the Sky except for the Storm, who said goodbye to Sue Bird after a 20-year career in Seattle. The hole left by the 13-time All-Star and four-time WNBA champion is just the right size for Vandersloot, the Sky’s floor general, who met with the Storm and Lynx last year before staying with the Sky on a one-year deal.

This year, things are different. For one, the Sky aren’t coming off a championship season.

Could their failure to repeat motivate the free agents to stay and redeem themselves? If not, does the team have enough to attract other top free agents?

Only time will tell, but one thing is clear already: Wade’s architectural vision doesn’t include demolition.

“It would have been nice to play for the championship [in 2022],” he said. “But we weren’t able to. So we have to figure out how to build to get there again.”