After an injury-ridden 2024 WNBA season, the Chicago Sky currently only have six players under contract for the 2025 season: rookie stars Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso, Moriah Jefferson, Elizabeth Williams, Rachel Banham, and Lindsay Allen. Several of the Sky’s rotational players will be free agents this offseason, most notably Chennedy Carter.
Carter led the Sky in scoring in 2024, experiencing a revival under coach Teresa Weatherspoon. She averaged 17.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 1.1 steals per game, reminding the league of her talent as a scorer. Carter was the main driving force behind the Sky’s offense and already mentioned that she would love to return to Chicago after hitting restricted free agency this offseason.
That was before the Sky fired Weatherspoon, who had a great connection with Carter, though. Chicago’s new head coach, Tyler Marsh, was very vague on Carter’s future with the team when he appeared on The Athletic Women’s Basketball Show. Since free agency does not start until February, fans probably should not put too much weight on those comments quite yet.
It is still a while until the final decision on Carter’s WNBA future has to be made, and in the meantime, she is doing her best to prove her value while playing in China.
Chennedy Carter has been phenomenal playing in China
This offseason, Carter is playing for Wuhan in the Chinese Basketball Association and has been on a heater. Over 11 games, Carter is averaging 31.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, 5.6 assists, and 2.3 steals per game. She already scored forty or more points three times on incredibly efficient shooting. So far, Carter is converting almost 60 percent of her two-point attempts.
In her most recent game with Wuhan, Carter put up 20 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, and 5 steals. While it marked the second-lowest scoring output of her season so far, Carter was instrumental in the win and setting her teammate Ding Yike up for a career game. It was already the seventh time Carter dished out more than five assists in a game.
Carter’s 3-point shot is still up-and-down, which is a concern next to two bigs who do not really shoot threes right now, but she is still proving her worth to the Sky. Chicago needs to surround Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso with capable 3-point shooters, but they also need a dynamic guard who can get to the rim, set up her teammates, and just put the offense on her back at times.
Carter was exactly that during the 2024 season and is proving over and over again that she can do it consistently. Carter may not be perfect, but she is the kind of scorer teams should want to keep around—especially a team like Chicago that only featured four players who averaged 10 or more points, one of which was Marina Mabrey, who was traded to Connecticut during the season.
Carter’s production would be incredibly difficult to replace if the Sky choose to not re-sign her or cannot convince her to stay. Losing Carter would also make Chicago much less attractive as a free-agency destination. Unless Angel Reese and/or Kamilla Cardoso take massive leaps this offseason or the Sky land a big name in free agency, it does not seem that they will be ready to compete quite yet. They definitely won’t be if they lose their top scorer, which would likely prompt the top free agents out there to not even consider Chicago.
For now, Carter should be a priority for the Sky. If her performance in China is any indication, she is ready to set the WNBA on fire in 2025.