Sky take Gabriela Jaquez with No. 5 pick in WNBA Draft

If there’s one thing guard Gabriela Jaquez, the Sky’s No. 5 overall pick Monday night in the WNBA Draft, knows how to execute, it’s a well-timed cut.

She did it all season for national champion UCLA, reading the double-teams on 6-7 center Lauren Betts and slipping through the seams for drop-off passes.

Her coach, Cori Close, told the Sun-Times that her knack for it boils down to a willingness to move without the ball and an instinct for finding open space.

That’s the kind of player Jaquez is — a glue player, the kind who makes things work for the stars. She can rebound. She can knock down shots from deep.

“For me, it’s going into every game just doing whatever the team needs,” Jaquez said Monday night.

She can definitely help the Sky. During a whirlwind free-agency period, the team completely revamped its roster into what looks like a playoff-caliber one, bringing in a true star in guard Skylar Diggins and making other additions — Rickea Jackson, Azura Stevens, DiJonai Carrington — who can score and create on offense.

As coach Tyler Marsh enters his second season, the Sky are trying to play faster and with more spacing. Jaquez can help keep things moving and is athletic enough to hold her own defensively.

She’s also no stranger to what comes next. The NBA’s Heat drafted her brother, Jaime Jaquez Jr., also a UCLA product, at No. 18 overall in 2023. Their mom once tried out for the Sparks, she told the Sun-Times.

Asked in February during a Sun-Times interview with UCLA teammate Gianna Kneepkens if anything about the upcoming transition to the WNBA intimidated her, Jaquez didn’t hesitate.

“Nothing intimidates us,” she said.

The Sky will be counting on it. Picking at No. 5, they missed all the real star power at the top. The first four picks — Azzi Fudd, Olivia Miles, Awa Fam Thiam and Lauren Betts — separated themselves as the prospects most likely to become All-Stars. Jaquez looks more like a high-end role player.

There are question marks in her game, too. Her three-point shooting has been inconsistent; she was a career 34% shooter in college but dipped to 29% in Big Ten play this past season. To stay on the floor in the pros, she’ll likely need to be in the 35% range.

Given all of that, it’s fair to ask whether the Sky should have taken a bigger swing in the draft. Jaquez was a relatively safe pick. But they left LSU guard Flau’jae Johnson — a flashier player with potentially higher upside — on the board. Johnson ended up going No. 8 to the Valkyries, then was immediately traded to the Storm.

Then again, Jaquez has shown her game has some pop. In the national championship game, she had 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists against South Carolina — the kind of performance that signals a player who gets bigger when the moment does.

The Sky are betting she’ll do the same in the pros.

“Jaquez is a battle-tested, three-level scorer who improved every year in college,” general manager Jeff Pagliocca said in a statement. “Combine her on-skill talent with the fact that she’s a proven winner, and you have a player that perfectly fits the Sky’s vision.”

Note: Jaquez is the third player of Mexican descent to play in the WNBA. She and Jaime Jaquez Jr. are the first Mexican-American brother-sister duo in the NBA/WNBA.