2016 Chicago Sky season
WNBA team season
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The 2016 Chicago Sky season was the franchise's 11th season in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The season began on May 14, at home against the Connecticut Sun.
| 2016 Chicago Sky season | |
|---|---|
| Head coach | Pokey Chatman |
| Arena | Allstate Arena |
| Results | |
| Record | 18–16 (.529) |
| Place | 2nd (Eastern) |
| Playoff finish | Fourth Seed, Lost in Semifinals to Los Angeles 3–1 |
| Media | |
| Television | WMEU-CD ESPN ESPN2 NBA TV |
The Sky began the season with a win, but could not sustain that momentum and lost their next four games. They finished May with a win and extended their streak with three wins to start June. However, they only won one of their final five games in June to finish the first two months of the season with a 6–9 record. The Sky split a home and away matchup with Washington to begin July and lost two of their next three. The won three of their last four to end the month with a 5–4 record. The Sky came out of the Olympic break strongly, winning both their games in August and their first two in September. They lost their next two, before winning three in a row. They could not overcome Seattle on the final day of the season and finished with an 18–16 regular season record.
Their record was good enough for second place in the Eastern Conference and the fourth overall seed in the 2016 WNBA Playoffs. They earned a bye into the Second Round where they defeated sixth-seed Atlanta 108–98 and advanced to the Semifinals. There they matched-up against the Los Angeles Sparks. The Sparks defeated the Sky 3 games to 1 and would go on to finish as WNBA Champions.
Transactions
WNBA draft
| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/team/country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | Imani Boyette |  United States |
Texas |
| 3 | 34 | Jordan Jones | United States |
Texas A&M |
Trades and Roster Changes
| Date | Transaction | |
|---|---|---|
| January 7, 2016 | Extended Qualifying Offers to Jessica Breland, Clarissa dos Santos, and Jacki Gemelos | |
| Exercised 4th-Year Team Option on Jamierra Faulkner | ||
| February 9, 2016 | Signed Jessica Breland[1] | |
| February 11, 2016 | Signed Clarissa dos Santos to a training-camp contract[2] | |
| March 7, 2016 | Signed Yvonne Turner, Jacki Gemelos, and Shanece McKinney to training-camp contracts[3] | |
| April 21, 2016 | Signed Imani McGee-Stafford and Jordan Jones to rookie-scale contracts | |
| Signed Maggie Lyon to a training-camp contract[4] | ||
| April 28, 2016 | Waived Maggie Lyon | |
| May 6, 2016 | Waived Jacki Gemelos and Jordan Jones[5] | |
| May 11, 2016 | Waived Shanece McKinney[6] | |
| May 12, 2016 | Waived Yvonne Turner | |
Roster
| 2016 Chicago Sky roster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Players | Coaches | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Depth
Schedule
Preseason
| 2016 pre-season game log | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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May: 2–1 (Home: 2–0; Road: 0–1)
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| 2016 pre-season schedule | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Regular season
| 2016 game log Total: 18–16 (Home: 11–6; Road: 7–10) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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May: 2–4 (Home: 1–2; Road: 1–2)
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June: 4–5 (Home: 2–1; Road: 2–4)
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July: 5–4 (Home: 3–3; Road: 2–1)
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August: 2–0 (Home: 1–0; Road: 1–0)
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September: 5–3 (Home: 4–0; Road: 1–3)
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| 2016 season schedule | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Playoffs
| 2016 playoff game log | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Second Round vs. Atlanta Dream Won Series: 1–0
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Semifinals vs. Los Angeles Sparks Lost Series: 1–3
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| 2016 playoff schedule | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Standings
| Eastern Conference | W | L | PCT | GB | Home | Road | Conf. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 - New York Liberty | 21 | 13 | .618 | — | 10–7 | 11–6 | 11–5 |
| 4 - Chicago Sky | 18 | 16 | .529 | 3 | 11–6 | 7–10 | 8–8 |
| 5 - Indiana Fever | 17 | 17 | .500 | 4 | 8–9 | 9–8 | 8–8 |
| 6 - Atlanta Dream | 17 | 17 | .500 | 4 | 11–6 | 6–11 | 9–7 |
| e - Connecticut Sun | 14 | 20 | .412 | 7 | 8–9 | 6–11 | 4–12 |
| e - Washington Mystics | 13 | 21 | .382 | 8 | 5–12 | 8–9 | 8–8 |
Notes
- # – Playoff seed
- e – Eliminated from playoffs
Playoffs
The Sky's 18–16 regular season record was good for second in the Eastern Conference and fourth overall in the WNBA. This standing led to Chicago being seeded fourth and being granted an automatic bye from the first of two single elimination rounds. In the second single elimination round, the Sky drew sixth-seeded Atlanta, defeating the Dream 108–98 and advancing to the best-of-five semifinal round. The Sky fell to second-seeded Los Angeles in the semifinals, losing in four games.
| First round Single elimination (Sept. 21) | Second round Single elimination (Sept. 24 and 25) | Semifinals Best-of-5 (Sept. 28 – Oct. 6) | WNBA Finals Best-of-5 (Oct. 9 – 20) | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | Minnesota Lynx | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| 3 | New York Liberty | 94 | 8 | Phoenix Mercury | 0 | |||||||||||||
| 5 | Indiana Fever | 78 | 8 | Phoenix Mercury | 101 | 1 | Minnesota Lynx | 2 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Phoenix Mercury | 89 | 2 | Los Angeles Sparks | 3 | |||||||||||||
| 2 | Los Angeles Sparks | 3 | ||||||||||||||||
| 4 | Chicago Sky | 108 | 4 | Chicago Sky | 1 | |||||||||||||
| 6 | Atlanta Dream | 94 | 6 | Atlanta Dream | 98 | |||||||||||||
| 7 | Seattle Storm | 85 | ||||||||||||||||
Note: Teams re-seeded after the second round and semifinals.
- Bold – Game or series winner
- Italic – Team with home-court advantage
Statistics
| Legend | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game | RPG | Rebounds per game |
| APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game | BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game |
| FG% | Field-goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field-goal percentage | FT% | Free-throw percentage | TO | Turnovers per game |
| PF | Fouls per game | Team leader | League leader | ||||
Regular season
| Player | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elena Delle Donne | 28 | 28 | 33.1 | 48.5% | 42.6% | 93.5% | 7.0 | 1.9 | 0.6 | 1.5 | 21.5 |
| Cappie Pondexter | 33 | 29 | 27.4 | 42.9% | 36.2% | 88.2% | 2.8 | 2.7 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 12.9 |
| Tamera Young | 32 | 20 | 25.8 | 45.0% | 0.0% | 79.0% | 4.5 | 1.4 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 8.5 |
| Courtney Vandersloot | 30 | 21 | 24.3 | 41.9% | 35.1% | 90.4% | 2.7 | 4.7 | 1.4 | 0.1 | 9.5 |
| Jamierra Faulkner | 34 | 14 | 19.3 | 42.5% | 33.3% | 76.9% | 1.5 | 4.6 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 7.8 |
| Imani McGee-Stafford | 31 | 16 | 18.9 | 55.4% | — | 66.0% | 5.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 1.4 | 6.7 |
| Allie Quigley | 34 | 0 | 17.8 | 47.1% | 36.6% | 89.5% | 0.9 | 1.6 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 9.5 |
| Jessica Breland | 34 | 16 | 17.2 | 49.4% | — | 79.5% | 4.4 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 1.1 | 6.0 |
| Érika de Souza | 31 | 18 | 16.6 | 51.7% | — | 75.0% | 5.2 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 5.8 |
| Cheyenne Parker | 25 | 7 | 12.6 | 50.6% | 0.0% | 53.1% | 3.2 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 4.0 |
| Clarissa dos Santos | 20 | 0 | 9.4 | 33.9% | 0.0% | 85.0% | 2.2 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 2.9 |
| Betnijah Laney | 8 | 1 | 5.3 | 16.7% | 0.0% | 100% | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 1.0 |
Awards and honors
| Recipient | Award | Date awarded |
|---|---|---|
| Elena Delle Donne | Eastern Conference Player of the Week | July 18, 2016 |
| September 6, 2016 | ||
| Imani McGee-Stafford | WNBA All-Rookie Team | September 2016 |
| Elena Delle Donne | WNBA All-WNBA First Team | September 2016 |