Skylar Diggins was moved out of the Chicago Sky starting lineup on Monday, and she said she did not see it coming. The veteran point guard posted a blunt Instagram story that morning — “Now I’m coming off the bench?????? Cool.” — before saying at practice that coach Tyler Marsh had told her she would not start.
The shift lands at a moment when the Sky are searching for answers on and off the floor. Diggins had started all 19 games before Monday, and the team was 6-14 as the move became public. She has been one of the club’s most visible voices since arriving in Chicago in April, and the change to her role immediately turned a rotation decision into something bigger. For readers following the Sky, it is the same team that drew attention in recent close finishes, including the overtime loss in the Indiana Fever outlast Chicago Sky 114-106 in overtime behind 85-point core and a win in Skylar Diggins leads Chicago Sky past Connecticut Sun to end skid.
Diggins said she still does not understand why Marsh made the call. She also said she and Marsh had not spoken since Friday, and she pointed to “tons” of miscommunication since she got to Chicago in April. In June, after an ugly loss to the Tempo, she said the Sky needed more maturity and leadership and argued the team was not having everything it needed to be successful. That frustration has now resurfaced with her role changed and the team already under pressure.
Marsh kept the explanation short. He called the move a “coach’s decision,” declined to give specifics and said the conversations between him and Diggins would stay private. He also said the staff was still talking about whether the change was short-term or long-term, which leaves the door open but does not answer the central question of why one of the team’s most established players was moved out of the starting group.
The backdrop matters. Chicago has been working without a finished dedicated practice facility in Bedford Park, instead moving between UIC, Loyola and Wintrust Arena while ownership pushed the promised timeline from the start of the season to late spring. Diggins said a knee surgery in October has added to the strain, and she said she has been “sacrificing my body for this team.” That is the part of this story that will linger: not just that the Sky changed lineups, but that the player at the center of it says she still does not know why.
