A few days ago, I talked about the new look Las vegas Aces team and how far they could potentially go during this 2022 WNBA season. It’s now time to talk about the raining champions : the Chicago Sky. After a fabulous 2021 season that ended with a quite unexpected title (I mean back in May when the season started). So Chicago is back in 2022 with what looks like to be an even better team than last year. Can than win a second title in a row this year ? I think yes, but let’s see why !
What about the team of last year ?
So last year Chicago didn’t have the best roster in the league and this is why a lot of people were quite surprised when Chicago reached the finals and then won the championship. However they still had a solid team, especially since Candace Parker joined them adding an experimented and all-star caliber player to the roster (and I’ll also mention the fact that CP3 was playing for the city where she grew up). Around Parker how not mention Allie Quigley and Kaleah Cooper who clearly played a huge role during last year’s playoffs run. The conclusion we can make is that the 2021 Chicago Sky team was not obviously the best team but a team with enough talent to face bigger teams in the playoffs. More importantly, it was a team with experience as players Candace Parker or Allie Quigley have been playing in the league for years now.
Reinforcement coming from Belgium
This year, during the off season Chicago went big. In order to have a championship winning team, the Sky started by recruiting Ann Wauters as an assistant coach. The retired Belgian star will provide some excellent experience and basketball knowledge to the coaching staff. Then, Chicago announced the recruitment of Emma Meesseeman and Julie Allemand. The arrival of Meesseman and Allemand changes everything. These two are world class player who are taking the Belgium team to the highest levels of international basketball every summer. And by the way, Emma Meesseman already won the WNBA in 2019 with Washington and was elected Finals MVP. I’ll add that both Allemand and Meesseman are probably in their prime right now. After a season without playing in the W because she wanted to focus on the Euroleague and on the Eurobasket and Olympic Games with the national team, Meesseman is finally back and no doubt she wants another title, 3 years after the one conquered with Washington.
Emma Meeseman, Candace Parker, Julie Allemand, Allie Quigley, Kahmeah Copper, it’s clear that Chicago probably have the best roster in the league this year. Adding to that Ann Wauters who’s bringing her experience to the coaching staff and I honestly don’t see how Chicago can’t be the favourite team this season and in my mind they’ll clearly be able to achieve a back to back.
