Angel Reese's past and present WNBA employers are heading in drastically different directions as they met for the first time since her move.
It turned out that the Sky was indeed the limit for Angel Reese.
The WNBA's ongoing 30th season is but two months removed from a whirlwind offseason delayed by collective bargaining agreement negotiations. It opened in style when Angel Reese moved from the Chicago Sky to the Atlanta Dream for a pair of picks shortly after the frenzy tipped off.
The two sides met for the first time since the epic deal on Tuesday night, and Reese's new employers disposed of her old in the form of an 82-75 victory at Wintrust Arena. Reese had one last batch of thrills for her past and present adoring public, posting a serendipitous 17-point, 17-rebound double-double in the triumph.
Tuesday's game was a landmark for Reese in more ways than one: she matched her 17-rebound out from the Dream's prior win on Saturday against Washington (the fourth such streak of her career, tying Yolanda Griffith's WNBA record) and also registered her 57th pro double-double in her 75th game. That ties Blake Griffin for second-most at either the NBA or WNBA level through a participant's first 75 showings, the two sitting behind only Reese's mentor Shaquille O'Neal (63).
A preseason tilt between the two sides on April 29 allowed Reese to get any return jitters out of the way early and perhaps somewhat limited her nostalgia. Tuesday's tilt nonetheless present an interesting landmark for each dealer...
Angel Reese's 57th double-double is the most through 75 games in WNBA history‼️
— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) June 10, 2026
Over the last 40 seasons across the NBA and WNBA, only Shaquille O'Neal had more through 75 games 😱 pic.twitter.com/jLkMmZvSb9
Dream On
Despite its youth, the landmark 30th season of WNBA basketball has already seen the ordinary become the extravagant through ballers and breakouts. That's exactly what the tired trope of "location, location, location" did for Reese and her rollercoaster WNBA career.
It'd be one thing if the Sky traded Reese to a sister in rebuilding or one of the incoming expansion clubs. Sure, it'd be a lateral move for the postseason desires she made little effort to hide toward her final Chicago hours. But perhaps being the undisputed headliner for a franchise seeking forms of footing could've brought about a sense of peace that Reese's career could stand to benefit from.
Reese was instead dealt to the Dream (8-3), engaging in one of the more pressure-packed scenarios the league's many movers could've chosen or endured: Atlanta formally reintroduced itself to the W elite with a franchise-best 30 wins but postseason heartbreak in the form of a first-round loss to the Caitlin Clark-less Indiana Fever made an already-extended offseason downright agonizing.
The Dream has accomplished plenty in an era headlined by Allisha Gray and Rhyne Howard, though postseason advancement has continued to prove elusive. In the eyes of the basketball-viewing public, Reese thus becomes either the catapult or the anchor that respectively launches or further stalls the desired progress.
Bring it on, she effectively declared upon her entry.
"I always wanted to come to Atlanta," Reese said in April, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN. "When you think of championship culture, playing next to these players, the coach [we have], it just made sense. ... I didn't care about anything else but being here ... Other teams were interested, but [Atlanta] is really where I wanted to end up."
While adding a couple of side quests (i.e. drafting Madina Okot, who has been all-too-willing to work with the veteran Reese), Atlanta remains focused on any and all brands of hardware. Reese's polarizing play, essentially encouraging a base camp of sorts established in the post, has helped the Dream at least maintain last year's torrid pace.
For the flack Reese faces for her interior residence, it's essentially working as she patrols the paint while Gray and Howard fire away from deep: already formidable in post affairs thanks to a brief Brittney Griner tour and Brionna Jones posting some of her best numbers before injury, Reese has kept the pace up. Entering Tuesday's tilt, she was leading the league in rebounds while averaging 13.6 in scoring. She builds that latter output with just a handful of shots beyond 10 feet, setting the stage for her to continue the "mebound" trend she generated in her first professional stop.
It's clear through what's now her third WNBA season that Reese's work isn't for everyone. Atlanta is an undeniable ... and, of course, vital ... exception. Howard, for example, expressed her belief that Reese was a "missing piece" upon her arrival in a report from Brian Hamilton of The Athletic.
"She makes us more versatile on offense," Atlanta head coach Karl Smesko said after a few practices during April training camp, per Michael Voepel of ESPN. "She's going to get us extra possessions [with her rebounding]. We're going to be able to get out and run, so all the things we really like to do. That's going to make us even better at it."
True to her flair and showmanship, Reese made sure to save the best for last on Tuesday: with neither side leading by more in the fourth, Reese's reach helped change the course of the climax. With the game standing at one point margin, Reese pushed a Naz Hillmon misfire back into the shooter's grasp. Hillmon found instant redemption in the form of a layup that tipped off a run of nine straight for Atlanta. Reese played a role in six of the nine tallies, scoring on a cut from Howard and getting a Jordin Canada miss to Gray for another two.
“She had a remarkable game,” Smesko lauded in another post from Hamilton. “I really thought down the stretch, she made really big plays. We were looking for her to screen and get behind people and she did it. Just a great effort by her. It seems like down the stretch, she has a tendency to step up and do what needs to be done.”
Was Sky's Try Worth it?
It's obviously hard to judge the Sky's side of the trade without any named yields on the roster yet ... but maybe the fact they weren't able to get any such assets for a name-brand talent like Reese is damning enough.
The trade for Reese signaled the most brutal form of Inception a pro franchise can face: a rebuild within a rebuild. Reese's presence at least kept the team in the headlines but that doesn't carry much currency on the playoff bracket, especially for a group that has fallen off its 2021 championship perch fairly quickly.
While trading Reese hinted at desires of starting a long-term project, it's hard to say that the Sky (4-8) is getting the desired results in this latest chapter. New star attraction Skylar Diggins, perhaps signed to mask recent draft departures like Reese, Ajsa Sivka, and Hailey Van Lith, was all too willing to point that out after the latest defeat, citing the need to get rid of a "loser mentality." Sunday's 85-68 decision against the Toronto Tempo was the sixth in the last seven games after a 3-1 start. All but Tuesday's tilt and one other has come by double-figures.
Some of the shortcomings are beyond Chicago's control: there are far worse fates than a Rickea Jackson foundation but she's done for the year with a torn ACL (the same ailment that befell, and continues to hold out, franchise legend Courtney Vandersloot). A hot rookie start for Gabriela Jaquez has also endured medical interruption while DiJonai Carrington has yet to don her Sky jersey. The injuries to the veterans further muddled what the plot of this season was supposed to be for the Sky, one of five WNBA teams nursing multi-year playoff droughts.
Trading Reese could be viewed as commendable for its boldness, even if could well be the last major move for a front office under fire. But early Sky problems on the floor seemed to hint at a lack of a plan for Reese's departure: by far the biggest tell is the fact that Chicago is dead-last in rebounding, with only Kamilla Cardoso pulling in more than five a game. Cardoso once again picked up the headlining slack for the Sky on Tuesday, earning 13 points and four blocks, the latter tally including an emphatic rejection on Reese in the third quarter.
Kamilla Cardoso with a nasty block on Angel Reese.
— Gio (@jsmove7) June 10, 2026
You just know this game tonight is personal for both players. pic.twitter.com/3hwQl8TGfI
For all the concerns about Reese's lack of shooting diversity, it's absence is dampening the Sky's scoring skies: Chicago maintains middle-of-the-pack numbers in the points-in-the-paint but ranks dead last in second chance points, placing second in the department over the last campaign.
While full local discourse on the Reese trade will likely have to wait, Chicago has no visible regrets on the deal and seems content to play its current hand. His office may house one of the warmer seats in the W, but Chicago head coach Tyler Marsh refused to learn on the medical excuses earlier in the week, seeking only to find some sort of footing before things get truly out of hand.
Time will tell exactly what the future holds for Diggins but Marsh can be assisted in that realm by veterans Natasha Cloud (who scored 18 points in relief to lead all Tuesday participants) and Azura Stevens, the latter of whom recently came off the injury report.
“Every team’s going to go through some level of it,” Marsh remarked last week, per Maggie Hendricks of The IX Sports. “We’re taking our hits right now in bulk, but we got enough to suit up. We’re going to go out there, we’re going to play hard, we’re going to compete.”
“If you talk to [players] one through 14, everyone feels like they can give a little more, they can play a little bit better, coaching staff included,” Marsh added in Hendricks' report. “That’s not lost amongst us all, but the communication has been in alignment top to bottom in terms of where we’re at and where we’re capable of going and, as long as you’re aligned from that standpoint, I think that there’s room for hope moving forward.”
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
