Analyzing Angel Reese's sophomore slump: Sky star historically inefficient as scorer, but hope isn't lost yet
Reese is shooting 31.1% from the field despite taking the majority of her shots in the paint
By
Jack Maloney
•
6 min read
Early in the Chicago Sky's loss to the reigning champion New York Liberty on May 22, Angel Reese carved out space below the basket and grabbed an offensive rebound. Over the next 12 seconds, Reese missed four putback attempts, two of which were blocked.
The clip went viral on social media for all the wrong reasons, and Reese finished the night with two points on 0-for-8 shooting.
That sequence was a particularly extreme example of Reese's continued struggles around the basket. Three weeks into her sophomore campaign, her efficiency -- not a strength of hers in 2024 -- has regressed.
During a fascinating and record-breaking rookie campaign, Reese, the No. 7 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, averaged 13.6 points and a league-leading 13.1 rebounds per game, but shot only 39.1% from the field despite taking the vast majority of her shots in the paint.
Heading into 2025, there were reasons to be optimistic about what a more experienced Reese could do. She had a strong showing in Unrivaled, where she shot 46.9% and was named Defensive Player of the Year, and the Sky's major offseason moves -- signing veteran point guard Courtney Vanderlsloot, adding Kia Nurse and Rebecca Allen as floor spacers and trading the No. 3 overall pick (Sonia Citron) for an experienced combo guard in Ariel Atkins -- were geared toward making life easier for Reese and her frontcourt partner, Kamilla Cardoso.
Through six games this season, Reese has not appeared any more comfortable as a scorer than the last time she was on a WNBA court. She is still leading the league in rebounding, averaging 12.3 per game, but she's scoring 10 points per game and shooting a dismal 31.1% from the field.
Here is a look at Reese's shot chart:
Reese's historically bad finishing
Once again, Reese is taking most of her shots at the rim, but she's failing to convert them at a historic rate. Of her 61 field goal attempts, 44 have come in the restricted area, and she's made just 31.8% of those looks.
Reese is taking a league-high 7.3 shot attempts in the restricted area per game. Of the 10 players averaging at least five such attempts, Reese has been the least accurate, and no one else is shooting below 53.7%.
WNBA players averaging at least five restricted area attempts in 2025
| Player | Team | FGA | FG% |
|---|---|---|---|
Angel Reese | Sky | 7.3 | 38.1 |
Kamilla Cardoso | Sky | 6.8 | 53.7 |
6.4 | 75.6 | ||
6.4 | 64.7 | ||
6.1 | 58.1 | ||
5.7 | 62.7 | ||
Mercury | 5.6 | 60.7 | |
5.4 | 67.3 | ||
Fever | 5.4 | 71.1 | |
Fever | 5.1 | 55.6 |
In the WNBA's previous 28 seasons, there were 205 instances of a player averaging at least five attempts in the restricted area for an entire season. Only five times did someone shoot under 50%, and no one was worse than 43.8%.
WNBA players to shoot under 50% on at least five restricted area attempts per game, all-time
| Player | Season | FGA | FG% |
|---|---|---|---|
Angel Reese | 2025 | 7.3 | 38.1 |
Angel Reese | 2024 | 8.4 | 47.0 |
Cheryl Ford | 2004 | 5.1 | 47.8 |
Tari Phillips | 2003 | 5.1 | 47.3 |
Svetlana Abrosimova | 2002 | 5.9 | 47.5 |
Dominique Canty | 1999 | 5.0 | 43.8 |
"I mean, at this point, [rebounding] is how I'm getting my points," Reese said prior to the Sky's win over the Dallas Wings on May 31. "So I've got to do whatever helps the team, and obviously, it seems, that's my role right now. So I'm just doing whatever it takes."
Reese is understandably not interested in discussing the topic in much detail. When she was asked specifically about her poor finishing, she declined to answer, according to Steve Greenberg of the Chicago Sun-Times.
Why can't Reese score around the basket?
When you watch Reese's film, the most obvious issue is her low release point, which is something she worked on during Unrivaled with three-time MVP Lisa Leslie.
"The biggest advice I have for you is gonna be how you shoot your layups -- period. Like, we're gonna fix that," Leslie told Reese on an episode of her podcast in February. "That's fixable for you."
Fever vs. Sky: Where to watch Angel Reese on CBS, preview, start time, TV channel, live stream
Jack Maloney
Early in this season, however, Reese has reverted to her old habits. Whether she's driving to the basket, posting up or gathering an offensive rebound, Reese frequently brings the ball down, sometimes to her hip and tries to go up from there.
As a result, Reese has had her shot blocked more times (18) than any other player in the league. When Reese does get a shot off cleanly, the ball has to travel a further distance to the basket than if she was releasing it up above her head, and often comes from a much worse angle.
There are other noticeable weaknesses for Reese, which are interconnected: being off-balance on her release, taking unnecessary dribbles and poor shot selection.
Often, Reese gets into great position, then takes a dribble that invites a crowd instead of going up quickly. And when the defense does converge upon her, she regularly forces the ball back up to the rim instead of kicking it out.
Not defined as a scorer, but does have to score
Reese's game has never been defined by scoring.
As a rookie, she set the single-season offensive rebound record and became the first player ever to grab 20-plus rebounds in three consecutive games. This season, she's on pace to break her own offensive rebounding record, and the Sky are first in offensive rebounding rate (41.8%) by a wide margin thanks in large part to Reese's work on the glass.
On the defensive end, there's a lot to like from Reese, particularly when she's on the ball. Her length and athleticism allow her to guard on the perimeter and switch effectively. She also has good hands, and is tied for 11th in the league in steals at 1.8 per game.
Reese does a lot of things on both sides of the ball that help a team win, but scoring isn't one of them. Since she has been drafted, though, she's been a focal point of the Sky's offense.
That has been in part by design -- early in the season Marsh has experimented with having Reese initiate the offense at times in an attempt to solve some of the spacing issues with her and Cardoso -- and in larger part through her own sheer will. Reese has generated just over a quarter of her offensive possessions herself by grabbing offensive rebounds.
Among the Sky's rotation players, Reese has the second-highest usage rate (21.0) this season, above leading scorer Atkins and fellow big Cardoso, who is Chicago's most efficient player. As long as that remains the case, the Sky need her to be more efficient.
A path forward
For now the team is willing to let Reese work through the rough start.
"It's been hard to get her some good, clean looks inside," Sky coach Tyler Marsh said on May 31. "I think some of it's just the shot's not falling. But it's nothing that we're too concerned about. We want her to keep being aggressive down there and taking advantage of opportunities to do so."
General manager Jeff Pagliocca has made significant investments in Reese and his "Skyscrapers" plan, which has faced criticism from the beginning and thus far yielded underwhelming results. The Sky went 13-27 in 2024, and are off to a 2-4 start this summer. In the 113 minutes Reese and Cardoso have played together this season, the Sky have a minus-17.2 net rating.
Pagliocca and Marsh won't be deterred by viral videos or memes, but eventually they'll need to see improvement. The longer Reese remains a historically bad finisher around the basket and someone you can ignore outside of the paint, the more difficult it's going to be to keep her on the floor.
