The Chicago Sky won during Sunday’s lottery a No.3 pick in what will be a packed 2025 WNBA draft – and general manager Jeff Pagliocca has already specified the kind of attributes the franchise needs to provide firepower alongside Angel Reese.
“The top priority is going to be shooting,” said Pagliocca. “Obviously, if you can get it with length or a player that can play at both ends of the floor — defend, make plays for other people – that’s nice. But it takes a little bit to adjust to our league.”
Chicago finished the 2024 season with a disappointing 13-27 record – the first time the franchise failed to make the playoffs since 2018. With all that in mind, here are three potential players Sky could be scouting in the days and weeks ahead.
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Olivia Miles
Pagliocca said he’d ideally be looking at players with height, specifically, guards who are 6-foot, or taller. However, Notre Dame guard Olivia Miles is one of the best shooters available, even if she falls a few inches under Pagliocca’s requirement, at 5-foot-10.
Miles missed a season due to an ACL tear, but has produced incredible numbers through college, and opened her senior season with 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists.
Hailey Van Lith
Hailey Van Lith is enjoying a stellar 2024/25 season
The TCU guard is even shorter than Miles, at 5-foot-7, but is really coming into her own right now, as she posted a double-double in TCU’s extraordinary upset win over NC State on Sunday. TCU is now ranked 19th in AP’s women’s college basketball poll – the college’s highest ranking in 16 years.
Van Lith’s 18 points and 10 assists ensured her first double-double with points and assists, and shows the strides she’s made to integrate playmaking into her shooting – something that may have piqued Pagliocca’s interest as he eyes someone who can sink buckets, and assist others.
Van Lith even played alongside Reese for one season at LSU, and the Sky superstar was one of the first to praise her former teammate on X at the weekend. “HVL [Hailey Van Lith],” Reese wrote. “That’s all ima say.”
Kiki Iriafen
6-foot-3, Kiki Iriafen is tall enough to satisfy Pagliocca’s height requirement – and he will be aware of the tear the USC star is on, having won the Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year award.
In her last season for Stanford, Iriafen posted superb numbers including 19.4 points per game on average, 11 rebounds per game, and sunk a third of her three-pointers – the kind of firepower Pagliocca is after.
One glaring issue with Iriafen is that she may go as the second pick, after Paige Buckers in first. Van Lith and Miles, though, could be solid back-up options.
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