Dana Evans uncertain about her future with Sky after frustrating move from starting role

CHICAGO — It’s no secret that Dana Evans isn’t satisfied with her role on the Chicago Sky.

In a matter of months, the Gary, Ind., native has fallen from the team’s starting point guard to a deep rotational player, barely getting off the bench for more than six minutes in the team’s last two losses.

Evans kept her feelings close to the vest throughout the season, but frustration bubbled over Monday when her longtime marketing manager Gregory Jones II, in a series of posts on social media, accused the Sky of playing the guard fewer minutes in retaliation for making a trade request.

“Team didn’t want to move her when she requested a trade and didn’t want to move her at (the) trade deadline,” Jones wrote. “So now it’s starting to look and smell like she’s not getting mins (sic) because wanted out of Chicago. Instead of professional basketball looking real amateur because folks (sic) feelings were hurt.”

General manager Jeff Pagliocca denied any connection between Evans’ playing time and a request for a trade due to her role.

“There’s been no changes in the roster or in her role or minutes due to any of those conversations,” Pagliocca told the Tribune ahead of Thursday’s game against the Washington Mystics.

And Evans was unequivocal about whether she requested a trade at any point this season: “No.”

After she was removed from the starting lineup in June, Evans said she sat down for a long conversation with Pagliocca about her future with the team — including potential options to trade her to a team that would offer more playing time at the point guard role. Pagliocca said the Sky took a look at potential trade options around the league at that time, but that effort did not develop past conversations with other teams.

But although she never made a hard demand for a trade, the guard didn’t deny the clear frustration of losing her starting position and being moved out of a point guard role.

“Honestly for me as a player, it’s hard,” Evans said. “You can ask anybody in this league — when your role changes, it’s hard. You gotta adjust. You gotta kind of pick and choose. I just feel like this year’s been a roller coaster once again. I’m a human at the end of the day so it’s challenging, I’ll be honest, but I’m a professional. I know what I love to do. So I just have to take the good with the bad.”

Evans started the first 12 games of the season, finally assuming the role of starting point guard after coming off the bench for her first three seasons in Chicago. As starting point guard, Evans averaged 10.3 points and 3.8 assists per game while shooting 37.8% from behind the arc.

But after the Sky struggled to open games quickly — and as Chennedy Carter continued to provide a spark off the bench — Pagliocca and coach Teresa Weatherspoon began to examine a new rotation. The pair decided to move Evans out of the starting role after a June 14 loss to the Washington Mystics, elevating veteran guard Lindsay Allen into the point guard position.

Sluggish starts were a key factor for moving Carter and Allen into the starting lineup — and the improvement was immediate. The Sky were the second-lowest scoring first-quarter team in the opening 12 games of the season, averaging 18.4 points in the opening quarter. Since making the swap, the Sky have jumped to the fifth-best first-quarter scoring team in the league, averaging 21.5 points in the last 17 games.

But it came with a sacrifice for Evans, who has averaged only 12.5 minutes over the last 10 games. Her playing time dwindled further after the Sky acquired veteran Moriah Jefferson in a trade during the Olympic break, which pushed Evans out of the secondary point guard position and back off the ball.

Evans said it’s been difficult to establish a “rhythm and flow” due to this “choppy” playing time.

“I just got to be good when I’m out there,” Evans said. “Like, I really just got to be perfect.”

Weatherspoon has adjusted Evans’ role to a relatively simple expectation: score the ball.

“That doesn’t mean take terrible shots,” Evans said. “That doesn’t mean just go out there just trying to shoot, but it means be aggressive, look to score and then when you can’t, then things will open up.”

But this also means moving off the ball to play as the two guard, a transition that Evans has resisted for her entire professional career. And while she understands Weatherspoon’s desire for her scoring productivity to increase, Evans doesn’t believe that her scoring volume has to be separated from her production as a point guard.

“I’m a point guard,” Evans said. “Everyone knows that I can score the ball. I don’t know why that’s so hard to understand, that other point guards throughout this league can average 15-plus points, and it’s never a discussion. But because I’m small, it’s a problem that I can score the ball. So I truly don’t understand. I’ve been a point guard my whole life. I can play off the ball, of course, but my position has always been point guard.”

Weatherspoon and Pagliocca repeatedly praised Evans for her professionalism while handling her changing role. But Pagliocca noted that the next 11 games will be an important period for the Sky to assess Evans’ long-term fit with the roster — and did not commit to whether the team will extend a qualifying offer when the guard enters restricted free agency this winter.

And Evans echoed the same uncertainty about her future with the Sky.

“Everyone knows I love Chicago,” Evans said. “It’s like home to me. My parents are able to come to every game. So I would love to (stay) but you got to do what’s best for you and your career. Right now I’m here. I’m two feet in with the Chicago Sky. So that’s my main focus for the rest of the year.”