CHICAGO — The Chicago Sky will not tank.

General manager Jeff Pagliocca made that clear in the wake of Courtney Vandersloot’s season-ending ACL tear Saturday against the Indiana Fever.

Things are dire in Chicago. At 2-6, the Sky have the third-worst record in the WNBA, ahead of only the Connecticut Sun (2-7) and Dallas Wings (1-9). And Vandersloot’s injury robbed the Sky of their veteran point guard and irreplaceable leader — and arguably their most consistent star.

Even before the injury, there was little to celebrate about this team. The Sky commit a league-high 19 turnovers per game. Their offensive rating (93.5) and defensive rating (110.7) are both second-worst in the league ahead of only the Sun. And it’s not just that the Sky are losing — they’re getting played out of the gym and onto the sidewalk, finishing with an average deficit of 20.7 points in their six losses.

“Regardless of (Vandersloot’s) injury, we were not trending in a way that I was happy about,” Pagliocca told the Chicago Tribune. “There’s been steep underperforming. We’re not guarding. We’re not playing hard enough in long stretches. We’re not leaving it all out there every single second. We’ve gotten run out of the gym a few times, and that should be enough to embarrass people into taking their matchups much more seriously. … Change needed to happen. And now this is kind of forcing us to change.”

Is it time to start tanking? Trade for a new point guard? Blow the entire thing up? While the pressure is on, the Sky front office feels that panicked decisions are the enemy at this juncture of a disappointing start.

Pagliocca rarely preaches patience. His first two seasons in Chicago have been defined by a flurry of action — trading Kahleah Copper to the Phoenix Mercury for the No. 3 pick, shipping Marina Mabrey at the deadline last season, dealing this year’s No. 3 pick to acquire Ariel Atkins. But right now, the Sky are pumping the brakes.

That starts with a refusal to punt on the 2025 season in an effort to win big in the 2026 draft. The Sky’s draft outlook for 2026 reads somewhat confusingly on paper due to a tangled web of trades. While they own the rights to a “pick swap” with the Sun, they do not own a natural first-round pick. Instead, the Sky will receive a first-round pick that technically belongs to Phoenix, but whose position is ultimately determined by the lottery outcomes of Connecticut.

In a nutshell, this means the Sky receive zero benefit from finishing in a lottery position, which is among the bottom four teams in the league.

So even if the Sky wanted a tank job to pay off, they first would need to acquire a natural first-rounder. Pagliocca was blunt about the concept of trading core players to move back into next year’s first round: “Yeah, never. No. Zero.”

While the Sky selected major additions — Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso, Hailey Van Lith — the last two years, Pagliocca said the front office doesn’t want to build exclusively through the draft process. He cited free-agency victories such as Vandersloot, Kia Nurse and Rebecca Allen and stressed the importance of the 2026 free-agent class, which is highly anticipated because of the new freedoms that will be created by a new collective bargaining agreement.

The draft still will be a crucial building block for the Sky, but the front office feels sufficiently bolstered by their odds of receiving a lottery pick from the Sun. And the arrival of Ajša Sivka — a Slovenian wing selected No. 10 in April who is expected to report to Chicago next year — is hoped to offer a similar boost as an additional 2026 pick.

“Give me the Connecticut pick and we’ll go through free agency,” Pagliocca said. “As far as next year, I feel OK with where we are with Connecticut’s pick and (Sivka). I feel like we’re protected as far as good players. We’ll have a potential lottery pick and then we’ll have a 6-foot-4 shooter. We’ll have all the start that we need.”

OK, so tanking is off the table. But what will the Sky do next?

First, the front office has one clear problem to address: The Sky don’t have a point guard.

Vandersloot is out for the year. Backup Moriah Jefferson has yet to play while battling a leg injury, the latest in a long string of absences for a dynamic guard who struggles to stay healthy. Van Lith isn’t ready to transition to full-time on-ball duties. And the rest of the Sky backcourt is an array of shooting guards who mostly benefit from playing off the ball.

With Jefferson unavailable, it would make sense for the Sky to make a change — either through a trade or by waiving her contract to free up space to sign a free agent. Fans already have lined up their preferred replacement options from the pool unsigned guards: Aari McDonald, Haley Jones, Dyaisha Fair and yes, of course, Chennedy Carter. (No, Carter’s return is not any more likely than it was the last time this subject was written about in the Tribune. Or the time before that.)

But the Sky did not waive or trade any players before Tuesday’s loss to the Liberty in New York — and such a move might take several weeks as Pagliocca weighs his options.

This is another area in which the general manager is attempting to utilize restraint. The Sky’s desperation is palpable for teams across the league. In the immediate aftermath of Vandersloot’s injury, Pagliocca said he fielded offers for a variety players. But the GM feels the Sky don’t have the depth to ship out rotational pieces such as Elizabeth Williams or Nurse — even if that trade would garner an upgrade at point guard.

“Do we end up making a move? At some point we will,” Pagliocca said. “Obviously, we’re going to have to. I’m just trying to be cautious.”

The Sky have to be pragmatic. Vandersloot simply can’t be replaced. There isn’t another franchise assists and points leader waiting in the wings. With this reality in mind, any trades or acquisitions the Sky make to offset Vandersloot’s absence must prioritize the team’s greatest weaknesses — the inconsistent perimeter defense — not attempt to replicate her production.

If Jefferson can’t get healthy, the Sky likely will waive a contract to look for a perimeter player who can help team defense and facilitation while also producing some 3-point shooting. But this could take time, especially because Pagliocca also is considering the potential of courting European players who will be available after the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket.

The conclusion of this tournament later this month will free up a wide range of players who are currently unsigned in the WNBA, giving the Sky a wider talent pool to pitch. And by that time, the prorated version of most midlevel contracts would fit under the Sky’s remaining salary cap.

Even if they bring in a new guard, the Sky won’t necessarily lean on this player as a primary distributor. Instead, Pagliocca said coach Tyler Marsh could opt to place those responsibilities on veteran guards such as Atkins and Rachel Banham while Van Lith grows into her role.

The Sky will have to make major adjustments in the short term to salvage what’s left of the season. But in the long term, the goals are still the same.

Pagliocca is committed to building around the young core of the team, which includes Cardoso, Reese, Van Lith and, eventually, Sivka. He remains confident in Marsh’s capabilities as a first-year head coach. And despite the “embarrassment” of recent blowout losses, Pagliocca said he felt the support of Sky ownership and leadership had not changed from the start of the season.

Still, the team has plenty of questions to answer: Why has the defensive effort been so lackluster? Why is every perimeter shooter substantially underperforming from her career average? When will the turnovers end?

And until those issues are resolved, every seat in Wintrust Arena will keep warming up.

“We’re going to get killed until we start winning games,” Pagliocca said. “Tyler will get killed, I’ll get killed. We’re used to it. … And I’m going to be way more angry and disappointed than (ownership) ever could be. They shouldn’t be happy — they should be disgusted like I am — but we still have to solve the problem.

“We will not stop. We are working hard. Players are staying longer. They’re recognizing they need to be looking in the mirror. … There’s only (36) games left. How patient can you be?”

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