2016 Chicago Sky season

2016 Chicago Sky season
2016 Chicago Sky season
Coach	Pokey Chatman
Arena	Allstate Arena
Attendance	7,009 per game
Results
Record	18–16 (.529)
Place	2nd (Eastern)
Playoff finish	Fourth Seed, Lost in Semifinals to Los Angeles 3–1
Team Leaders
Points	Elena Delle Donne – 21.5
Rebounds	Elena Delle Donne – 7.0
Assists	Courtney Vandersloot – 4.0
Media
Television	WMEU-CD; ESPN; ESPN2; NBA TV
	← 2015 season 2017 season →

The 2016 Chicago Sky season was the franchise's 11th season in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The season began on May 14th, at home against the Connecticut Sun.

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 Olypmic 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 Semfinals. 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[edit]

WNBA draft[edit]

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[edit]

Date	Transaction
January 7, 2016	Extended Qualifying Offers to Jessica Breland, Clarissa dos Santos, and Jacki Gemelos
January 7, 2016	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
April 21, 2016	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[edit]

2016 Chicago Sky Roster

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Ht.	Wt.	From
C	34	Boyette, Imani	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	195 lb (88 kg)	(1994-10-11)October 11, 1994 (aged 21)	Texas
F	51	Breland, Jessica	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	170 lb (77 kg)	(1988-02-23)February 23, 1988 (aged 28)	North Carolina
F/C	41	de Souza, Érika	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	(1982-03-03)March 3, 1982 (aged 34)	Brazil
G/F	11	Delle Donne, Elena	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	188 lb (85 kg)	(1989-09-05)September 5, 1989 (aged 26)	Delaware
C	8	dos Santos, Clarissa	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)	196 lb (89 kg)	(1988-03-10)March 10, 1988 (aged 28)	Brazil
G	21	Faulkner, Jamierra	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)	141 lb (64 kg)	(1992-03-09)March 9, 1992 (aged 24)	Southern Miss
G/F	44	Laney, Betnijah	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)	160 lb (73 kg)	(1993-10-29)October 29, 1993 (aged 22)	Rutgers
F	32	Parker, Cheyenne	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	190 lb (86 kg)	(1992-08-22)August 22, 1992 (aged 23)	Middle Tennessee
G	23	Pondexter, Cappie	5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)	160 lb (73 kg)	(1983-01-07)January 7, 1983 (aged 33)	Rutgers
G	14	Quigley, Allie	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)	140 lb (64 kg)	(1986-06-20)June 20, 1986 (aged 29)	DePaul
G	22	Vandersloot, Courtney	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)	145 lb (66 kg)	(1989-02-08)February 8, 1989 (aged 27)	Gonzaga
F	1	Young, Tamera	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)	170 lb (77 kg)	(1986-10-30)October 30, 1986 (aged 29)	James Madison

Head coach: Pokey Chatman (LSU)
Assistant coaches: Jonah Herscu (Lake Forest College)
Christie Sides (Louisiana Tech)

Athletic trainer: Heidi Wlezien

Strength and conditioning coach: Ann Crosby (Western Michigan)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(FA) Free agent
(IN) Inactive
(S) Suspended
Injured

Notes

Age of player is as of the start of the regular season.

Depth[edit]

Pos.	Starter	Bench
C	Erika de Souza	Imani McGee-Stafford Clarissa dos Santos
PF	Elena Delle Donne	Jessica Breland Cheyenne Parker
SF	Tamera Young	Betnijah Laney
SG	Cappie Pondexter	Allie Quigley
PG	Courtney Vandersloot	Jamierra Faulkner

Schedule[edit]

Preseason[edit]

2016 pre-season game log

May: 2–1 (Home: 2–0; Road: 0–1)

Game	Date	Team	Score	High points	High rebounds	High assists	Location Attendance	Record
1	May 1	New York	W 93–59	Elena Delle Donne (17)	Betnijah Laney (7)	Courtney Vandersloot (4)	Bob Carpenter Center 3,432	1–0
2	May 4	Connecticut	L 84–81	Elena Delle Donne (13)	Jessica Breland (6)	Jamierra Faulkner (5)	Mohegan Sun Arena 4,207	1–1
3	May 5	Atlanta	W 95–75	Betnijah Laney (14)	Cheyenne Parker (5)	Courtney Vandersloot (6)	Mohegan Sun Arena 4,025	2–1

2016 pre-season schedule

Regular Season[edit]

2016 game log
Total: 18–16 (Home: 11–6; Road: 7–10)

May: 2–4 (Home: 1–2; Road: 1–2)

Game	Date	Team	Score	High points	High rebounds	High assists	Location Attendance	Record
1	May 14	Connecticut	W 93–70	Vandersloot (14)	Breland (9)	Vandersloot (7)	Allstate Arena 6,719	1–0
2	May 18	Minnesota	L 80–97	Delle Donne (28)	Delle Donne Young (6)	Vandersloot (11)	Allstate Arena 5,034	1–1
3	May 22	@ Atlanta	L 81–87	Pondexter (17)	Breland (10)	Pondexter (5)	Philips Arena 6,152	1–2
4	May 24	Los Angeles	W 80–93	Faulkner 17	Breland Young (9)	Faulkner (10)	Allstate Arena 5,554	1–3
5	May 27	@ San Antonio	L 78–79	Delle Donne (27)	de Souza Delle Donne (9)	Faulkner (11)	AT&T Center 5,210	1–4
6	May 29	@ Dallas	W 92–87	Pondexter (18)	Boyette (8)	Faulkner (9)	College Park Center 5,297	2–4

June: 4–5 (Home: 2–1; Road: 2–4)

Game	Date	Team	Score	High points	High rebounds	High assists	Location Attendance	Record
7	June 1 6:00 PM^[a]	@ Washington	W 86–78	Delle Donne (18)	Delle Donne (9)	Vandersloot (8)	Verizon Center 5,649	3–4
8	June 3 7:30 PM	Washington	W 98–72	Delle Donne (18)	de Souza (7)	Faulkner (9)	Allstate Arena 5,489	4–4
9	June 10 6:00 PM	@ Indiana	W 73–64	Boyette (16)	Boyette (12)	Vandersloot (6)	Bankers Life Fieldhouse 7,533	5–4
10	June 12 5:00 PM	@ Phoenix	L 80–86	Delle Donne (18)	de Souza (7)	de Souza, Faulkner (3)	Talking Stick Resort Arena 9,055	5–5
11	June 14 9:30 PM	@ Los Angeles	L 85–98	Pondexter (20)	de Souza (12)	Pondexter (5)	Staples Center 7,348	5–6
12	June 17 6:30 PM	@ Atlanta	L 97–101 OT	Delle Donne (26)	de Souza (8)	Vandersloot, Pondexter, Faulkner (5)	Philips Arena 4,560	5–7
13	June 21 7:00 PM	San Antonio	W 81–75	Delle Donne (23)	Young (9)	Faulkner, Young, Delle Donne (3)	Allstate Arena 5,744	6–7
14	June 24 6:30 PM	@ New York	L79–80	Delle Donne (31)	Delle Donne (8)	Vandersloot (5)	Madison Square Garden 10,120	6–8
15	June 29 11:30 AM	Indiana	L 83–95	Delle Donne (21)	Delle Donne (6)	Pondexter (6)	Allstate Arena 11,892	6–9

July: 5–4 (Home: 3–3; Road: 2–1)

Game	Date	Team	Score	High points	High rebounds	High assists	Location Attendance	Record
16	July 1 6:00 PM^[a]	Washington	W 86–84 OT	Delle Donne (28)	Delle Donne (11)	Vandersloot (5)	Allstate Arena 5,320	7–9
17	July 5 7:30 PM	@ Washington	L 82–87	Delle Donne (38)	Delle Donne (10)	Faulkner (7)	Target Center 7,433	7–10
18	July 8 7:30 PM	New York	L 85–88	Quigley (29)	Delle Donne (7)	Faulkner (5)	Allstate Arena 5,633	7–11
19	July 10 6:00 PM	Phoenix	W 100–95	Quigley (21)	Boyette (13)	Vandersloot, Faulkner (7)	Allstate Arena 7,021	8–11
20	July 13 5:00 PM	Los Angeles	L 67–77	Delle Donne (15)	Boyette (7)	Vandersloot, Faulkner (5)	Allstate Arena 16,444	8–12
21	July 14 9:30 PM	Los Angeles	W 84–77	Delle Donne (24)	Boyette (8)	Faulkner (6)	Allstate Arena 6,012	9–12
22	July 17 6:30 PM	@ Seattle	W 91–88	Delle Donne (35)	Delle Donne (11)	Faulkner (4)	KeyArena	10–12
23	July 19 7:00 PM	@ Phoenix	L 77–79	Delle Donne (18)	Boyette (10)	Vandersloot (3)	Talking Stick Resort Arena 9,318	11–12
24	July 22 6:30 PM	Connecticut	L 89–94	Delle Donne (20)	Breland (8)	Vandersloot (6)	Allstate Arena 6,893	11–13

August: 2–0 (Home: 1–0; Road: 1–0)

Game	Date	Team	Score	High points	High rebounds	High assists	Location Attendance	Record
25	August 26 11:30 AM	Atlanta	W 90–82	Delle Donne (34)	Boyette (9)	Delle Donne, Pondexter (5)	Allstate Arena 6,016	12–13
26	August 28 11:30 AM	@ Dallas	W 92–85	Delle Donne (18)	Delle Donne (9)	Vandersloot (9)	College Park Center 5,651	13–13

September: 5–3 (Home: 4–0; Road: 1–3)

Game	Date	Team	Score	High points	High rebounds	High assists	Location Attendance	Record
27	September 2 11:30 AM	Seattle	W 92–88	Young (24)	Breland (10)	Vandersloot, Pondexter (5)	Allstate Arena 5,997	14–13
28	September 4 11:30 AM	San Antonio	W 97–73	Delle Donne (35)	Boyette (7)	Vandersloot, Pondexter 5	Allstate Arena 6,034	15–13
29	September 7 6:00 PM	@ Washington	L 81–118	Vandersloot (17)	Boyette (7)	Vandersloot (8)	Verizon Center 5,373	15–14
30	September 9 5:00 PM	@ Los Angeles	L 88–95	Pondexter (22)	Breland (9)	Vandersloot (4)	Bankers Life Fieldhouse 10,533	15–15
31	September 11 9:30 PM	@ Los Angeles	W 96–86	Pondexter (24)	Breland (10)	Pondexter (5)	Mohegan Sun Arena 6,620	16–15
32	September 13 6:30 PM	Minnesota	W 98–97 OT	Pondexter (24)	de Souza (11)	Pondexter (4)	Allstate Arena 6,050	17–15
33	September 16 7:00 PM	New York	W 92–68	Young (22)	Young (9)	Faulkner (11)	Allstate Arena 7,925	18–15
34	September 18 6:30 PM	@ Seattle	L 75–88	Faulkner, Breland (14)	Boyette, de Souza (6)	Faulkner (7)	KeyArena 12,186	18–16

2016 season schedule

Playoffs[edit]

2016 playoff game log

Second Round vs. Atlanta Dream
Won Series: 1–0

Game	Date	Team	Score	High points	High rebounds	High assists	Location Attendance	Series
1	September 25	Atlanta	W 108–98	Vandersloot (21)	Breland (16)	Vandersloot (13)	Allstate Arena 3,922	1–0

Semifinals vs. Los Angeles Sparks
Lost Series: 1–3

Game	Date	Team	Score	High points	High rebounds	High assists	Location Attendance	Series
1	September 28	@ Los Angeles	L 75–95	Faulkner (13)	Breland (7)	Vandersloot (5)	Walter Pyramid 3,894	0–1
2	September 30	@ Los Angeles	L 84–99	dos Santos (15)	Breland (9)	Quigley (5)	Staples Center 7,855	0–2
3	October 2	Los Angeles	W 70–66	Vandersloot (17)	McGee-Stafford (11)	Faulkner, Vandersloot (5)	Allstate Arena 5,018	1–2
4	October 4	Los Angeles	L 75–95	Pondexter (19)	McGee-Stafford (10)	Young (6)	Allstate Arena 3,841	1–3

2016 playoff schedule

Standings[edit]

Eastern Conference v t e	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[edit]

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-five (Sept. 28 – Oct. 6)						WNBA Finals: Best-of-five (Oct. 9 – 20)



						1	Minnesota Lynx		113	96	82

			3	New York Liberty	94	8	Phoenix Mercury		95	86	67

5	Indiana Fever	78	8	Phoenix Mercury	101							1	Minnesota Lynx	76	79	75	85	76

8	Phoenix Mercury	89										2	Los Angeles Sparks	78	60	92	79	77

						2	Los Angeles Sparks	95	99	66	95

			4	Chicago Sky	108	4	Chicago Sky	75	84	70	75

6	Atlanta Dream	94	6	Atlanta Dream	98

7	Seattle Storm	85

Note: Teams re-seeded after second round and semi-finals.

Statistics[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

Recipient	Award	Date awarded
Elena Delle Donne	Eastern Conference Player of the Week	July 18, 2016
Elena Delle Donne	Eastern Conference Player of the Week	September 6, 2016
Imani McGee-Stafford	WNBA All-Rookie Team	September 2016
Elena Delle Donne	WNBA All-WNBA First Team	September 2016

References[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

^ ^a ^b All times are specified as Central Time.

Notes[edit]

^ "Chicago sky re-signs forward Jessica Breland". hoopfeed.com. Hoopfeed. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
^ "Sky Re-Signs Clarissa Dos Santos". sky.wnba.com. WNBA. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
^ "Sky Adds Turner, McKinney and Gemelos to Training Camp Roster". sky.wnba.com. WNBA. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
^ "Chicago Sky Adds Maggie Lyon to Training Camp Roster". nusports.com. NU Sports. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
^ "Sky Waives Gemelos and Jones". sky.wnba.com. WNBA. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
^ "Sky waive Shanece McKinney". chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 27, 2022.

[time-7] All times are specified as Central Time.

[1] "Chicago sky re-signs forward Jessica Breland". hoopfeed.com. Hoopfeed. Retrieved July 27, 2022.

[2] "Sky Re-Signs Clarissa Dos Santos". sky.wnba.com. WNBA. Retrieved July 27, 2022.

[3] "Sky Adds Turner, McKinney and Gemelos to Training Camp Roster". sky.wnba.com. WNBA. Retrieved July 27, 2022.

[4] "Chicago Sky Adds Maggie Lyon to Training Camp Roster". nusports.com. NU Sports. Retrieved July 27, 2022.

[5] "Sky Waives Gemelos and Jones". sky.wnba.com. WNBA. Retrieved July 27, 2022.

[6] "Sky waive Shanece McKinney". chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved July 27, 2022.

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v t e 2016 WNBA season by team
Draft Playoffs Finals
Eastern	Atlanta Dream Chicago Sky Connecticut Sun Indiana Fever New York Liberty Washington Mystics
Western	Dallas Wings Los Angeles Sparks Minnesota Lynx Phoenix Mercury San Antonio Stars Seattle Storm
← 2015 WNBA season 2017 →