Less than 48 hours before her first All-Star Game appearance in Phoenix last month, Sky rookie forward Angel Reese found herself in a bind.
She’d be leaving from Las Vegas, where, a few days earlier, the Sky had wrapped up the first half of season with a win over the Aces. But her flight was canceled, requiring her to road-trip.
Despite the chaos and nearly five hours in the car, Reese arrived ready to shine alongside the league’s biggest stars. She concluded her first All-Star practice by sinking a half-court shot.
“I was feeling it,” she said.
And that was just a prelude to her game performance — 12 points and a game-high 11 rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench in Team WNBA’s 117-109 win over Team USA.
That July weekend in the desert sums up the whirlwind of Reese’s first half. On the one hand, she’s a league-shifting star whose presence is less novice and more like that of the MVPs she shared the court with in Phoenix.
But underneath the bravado, she’s just a 22-year-old with an eagerness to learn from her veteran peers.
“Being with some of the best women in the world, being able to practice with them and pick their brains, was really cool,” Reese said. “They love me. Also, just being able to go against Team USA, matching up against great competition, was something I really enjoyed.”
Reese is at the center of a shift taking place in the WNBA, but it’s not just her who has had a seismic impact in just a few months. Fever point guard Caitlin Clark, another first-time All-Star, as well as Sparks forward Cameron Brink, Sky center Kamilla Cardoso and several others, are part of a rookie class that is redefining what the league will become.
What sets Reese and Clark, apart, however, is how naturally they seem to fit in among the WNBA’s upper echelon.
Within three months, Reese set a new league record for most consecutive double-doubles, became a front-runner for the Rookie of the Year Award — along with Clark — and has helped put the Sky in position for a sixth consecutive playoff berth.
“I’ve seen a lot and been able to grow and get better every day,” Reese said. “It’s the midway point of me seeing where I am and being able to come out in the second half of the season and finish strong.”
After the Sky’s trade of guard Marina Mabrey to the Sun just before the All-Star Game, Reese is the team’s second-leading scorer behind guard Chennedy Carter, with an average of 13.5 points. Her 11.9 rebounds per game are second in the league behind Aces center A’ja Wilson’s 12.0.
“The game is starting to slow down for her,” Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca said. “I don’t think it’s all go, go, go for her and being relentless around the rim, only scoring in the paint. She’s being more patient with her catches and finding her spots more consistently.”
WNBA rookies face a unique challenge: no more than a few weeks between their college seasons ending and their pro careers beginning. Reese, whose career at LSU ended with a loss to Clark and Iowa in the Elite Eight, had only two weeks between that game and the draft, where the Sky took her seventh overall.
Her first real offseason for making significant improvements to her game doesn’t start until sometime in the fall, depending on how the Sky finish. She won’t be playing internationally, having opted instead to compete in Un-rivaled, a new league created by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier.
In the meantime, she’ll continue to work on making adjustments in-season. When she was drafted, the biggest question was her shot efficiency. She’s currently shooting only 40.2% but has demonstrated an ability to pull defenders outside the paint with her mid-range jumper.
She often talks about becoming an elite stretch four. That will require more development of her shot and perimeter skills.
“I want her to remain confident in the shots she takes,” Sky coach Teresa Weatherspoon said. “They give it to you? Take it. Take it with a level of confidence, which is something you work on.
“But the one thing about Angel is she always wants to play the game the right way. She wants to make sure everybody eats.”