Kia Nurse's experience with teams in transition will benefit Sky as they enter third year of rebuild
The Sky's 2025 roster came together outside of Chicago.
In Miami, Sky general manager Jeff Pagliocca and coach Tyler Marsh were able to win over point guard Courtney Vandersloot. In Nashville, center Elizabeth Williams helped them close the deal on guard Kia Nurse.
"I asked questions like 'Where do you guys live?'" Nurse said. "'Where do you guys practice? What's the day to day like for Chicago?' [Williams] was really honest with me. I thought there were a lot of really great things. I've heard a lot of really great things about Chicago in the summertime, too."
Aside from the elite reputation the city has garnered for its summer months, Nurse needed assurances on the team she was signing with on a one-year contract. Beyond the questions about lifestyle, Nurse wanted to know how the team was run and where in the roster she would fit.
"I was very honest with her," Williams said. "I told her the good and told her the bad. She took that well and it ended up working out."
Nurse is currently 19th on Athletes Unlimited's leaderboard. The startup league is in its fourth season, which is four weeks long. This season is being played in Nashville after previously being hosted in Las Vegas (2022) and Dallas (2023-2024). Williams is currently 10th on AU's leaderboard with 1,198 points despite being on a minutes restriction while she ramps back up after having surgery last year to repair a torn meniscus.
In total, Nurse had conversations with five teams before ultimately deciding to sign with the Sky.
"In my opinion, from a player's perspective on the outside looking in I thought this team did better than most people thought they were going to do," Nurse said of the 2024 Sky team. "They were hard to play against. They played hard, were physical and could score in a number of ways. Like a lot of the organizations I've been a part of there's been transitions in the front office, players and coaching staff. Seven teams this year are dealing with coach-staff transitions."
"The change aspect of it didn't scare me a ton."
Nurse has a wealth of experience playing for rebuilding teams.
She spent three seasons with the Liberty from 2018 to 2020 as the franchise moved from White Plains, New York, to Brooklyn. She played for the Storm in 2023, the franchise's first after the retirement of Sue Bird and Brenna Stewart's free agency departure. Last season, Nurse played for the Sparks who finished dead last in league standings.
The best team Nurse was part of during her WNBA tenure was the 2021 Mercury, who lost to the Sky in the WNBA Finals.
"This team is a good mix of young players and ones that have been around the league for a while," Nurse said. "There's a ton of emphasis on building around Angel [Reese] nd Kamilla [Cardoso], for good reason. I'm looking at it like a great opportunity. Being able to space the floor around Angel and Kamilla would be great. I like the construction of this roster."
The Sky have three available roster spots and $398,625 in available cap space.
Two of those spots could end up going to whoever the Sky selects with the No. 3 and No. 10 overall picks in the 2025 WNBA draft. Another scenario could land the Sky with another veteran two-way wing in exchange for their lottery pick.