Angel Reese Will Enter Her Most Important Season Yet After Blockbuster Trade
Angel Reese has wanted to play for a playoff team ever since she came into the league, and the Chicago Sky’s inability to give her that caused some serious—and understandable—frustration. No elite athlete wants to lose as much as the Sky did in Reese’s first two seasons.
Reese finally got her wish. The Sky traded her to the Atlanta Dream in exchange for two first-round picks. On paper, Reese looks like a great fit next to Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray. She also seems excited about the move, judging by her social media activity.
But being involved in such a prominent trade also comes with a lot of pressure. Reese will have to prove that she is worth trading two first-round picks for and that her demands for a better team around her were justified. In other words: she needs to help the Dream find some playoff success.
Atlanta hasn’t made it out of the first round since 2018
If you have an opportunity to trade for a fan magnet and an All-Star like Reese, you take it. More importantly, however, it seems fair to assume that the Dream imagine that adding Reese to the roster will bolster their playoff chances.
The franchise hasn’t found much playoff success in the last ten years. The last time they even made it past the first round was in 2018, when the Washington Mystics eliminated them in the semifinals.
After that, the Dream didn’t make the playoffs for four straight seasons. Tanisha Wright got them back to the postseason in 2023 and 2024 but endured two consecutive first-round losses. The Dream’s 2025 season under Karl Smesko was the best in franchise history. The Dream even looked like a borderline contender, but, once again, they flamed out in the first round, losing to a shorthanded Indiana Fever team.
Angel Reese has won everywhere but in the WNBA
Reese and the Sky only won 23 games over her two seasons with the team. It was a brutal start to a promising WNBA career and certainly a tough change after playing for a championship team in college.
After two seasons with the Maryland Terrapins, Reese transferred to LSU and immediately helped lead the team to a national championship.
Reese also won a title in Unrivaled. Although she was injured during the playoffs, she was instrumental in the Rose’s late regular-season push for a postseason spot.
Landing with the Dream is her chance to prove that she can also win in the WNBA.
Elaine Blum covers women’s basketball for On SI from Europe. She has been writing about women's hoops since 2023 and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism and a master’s degree in American Studies with a focus on women’s and gender studies. She started playing basketball when she was 10 years old and won several league and state championships at the youth and senior level.