The Chicago Sky are moving on from Chennedy Carter after opting not to extend a qualifying offer to the dynamic guard. Carter is now an unrestricted free agent and can enter into negotiations with other teams.
After initially joining Sky on a training camp deal, Carter worked his way into the starting lineup last season. The fourth-year guard has often been the Sky’s only source of offense, especially after Marina Mabrey left in a July trade. Carter averaged 17.5 points per game and single-handedly accounted for a quarter of Sky’s scoring after the All-Star break.
If Carter was such an integral part of the Sky offense, why didn’t the team even try to re-sign the guard? The one from Heaven decision not to re-sign Carter is based on two key factors: attacking style of play and locker room identity.
The offense can’t perform like it did last season. The Sky were the second-worst scoring team in the league, posted the second-worst offensive rating and scored the fewest 3-pointers. More importantly, they failed to properly channel their offense through rookie stars Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardosoproducing stagnation inside the arc that only got worse with their lack of shooting behind him.
Carter primarily functioned as a band-aid to those problems — she scored points, created shots out of nothing, and forced the Sky to pick up the pace in transition. But his style of play deviated sharply from the ideal system for Sky. Carter doesn’t take 3-pointers. She needed the fourth-highest usage rate (28.4) in the league to maintain her scoring, which meant the Sky offense responded strongly to isolation guard play that left Cardoso and Reese disengaged and uninspired on the offensive side.
This offseason, Carter found success in the Chinese Women’s Basketball Association, averaging 31.2 points per game on 51% shooting for Wuhan Shengfan. But his style of play hasn’t changed, requiring 24.6 shots per game to maintain that scoring level while shooting just 23.8 percent from deep.
Should the Chicago Sky re-sign Chennedy Carter in restricted free agency?
The Sky can’t afford another non-factor behind the arc in their starting rotation alongside Cardoso and Reese. And they need to improve team length and ball game facilitation, which would have been a tall order with two undersized guards already on the roster. Carter’s suitability for the Sky was further eroded by her perceived role in dissolving trust within former coach Teresa Weatherspoon’s locker room, who was fired in October after his first season as a WNBA head coach.
Carter is talented enough to compete at the highest level in the WNBA, but no offense in the league would function properly if it followed the formula the Sky used for its final season. If Carter wants to find her place in the WNBA, she will need to adapt her playing philosophy to encompass more pick-and-roll play while improving her 3-point shooting accuracy.
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Restricted free agency is only the first step in the WNBA’s free agency process. Teams could extend qualifying offers — a one-year contract with a slight increase over the previous season’s salary — and baseline designations to restricted free agents between Jan. 11 and Monday. Any restricted free agent who did not receive a qualifying offer Monday joins the rest of the league’s unrestricted free agents for open negotiations Tuesday.
The Sky has extended qualifying offers to restricted free agents Michaela Onyenwere, Dana Evans and Nikolina Milić. If no other team offers a higher offer to either player, they will return to Chicago or operate as trade assets as the front office looks to lead a crucial rebuilding year with new head coach Tyler Marsh.
The Sky are expected to re-sign Onyenwere, who has been a crucial leader in the locker room in addition to a journeyman winger who can step in as a starter in a pinch. They could also bring back Evans – who lost the point guard role again last season but still shows promise as a potential secondary guard – or more likely use him in a trade to continue building a stronger backcourt .
Milić was acquired in a trade last April to secure the No. 7 pick in the draft, but has not played in the WNBA since 2023.
With that first step taken, the Sky are approaching a pivotal point in the offseason as they join the race for top free agencies and trade targets like Jewell Loyd. The next two months will determine the basis of the roster for Marsh’s first season as the front office prepares for another crucial draft — and an even more crucial 2026 free agency window.
