Sky coach/GM James Wade has a distinct memory of Marina Mabrey from his days coaching Ekaterinburg in Russia.
His team, a powerhouse at the time, was undefeated with a matchup against a winless team. By all measures, it should have been a cakewalk. Mabrey made sure it was anything but.
“She had just got off a plane the night before,” Wade said. “She kicked our butts. That was our first loss and we weren’t supposed to lose to that team. She’s been that type of explosive player when she gets going.”
Wade’s new backcourt addition arrives at camp Thursday fresh off an Italian league championship win in which she scored 37 points and was named the Finals MVP.
The Sky travel to Dallas for their first preseason game of the year Friday at 7 p.m. Wade said Wednesday that Mabrey won’t travel with the team after making the trip to Chicago from Italy. She will complete a physical and begin working with Sky staff.
Wade said he had Mabrey marked as a player of interest since coaching against her overseas. This offseason the Sky acquired Mabrey, a restricted free agent, in a four-team trade and signed her to a three-year deal.
Three days into training camp, the identity Wade is establishing with his new roster is beginning to come into focus. Defense is an emphasis and after signing a slew of players that Wade characterized as having a chip on their shoulder, his team is not lacking the willpower to execute on that end of the floor.
Wednesday afternoon, the Sky finished practice with a familiar defensive drill. Wade put 35 seconds on the clock and tasked each unit to get 35 seconds worth of stops. If they gave up a basket, the clock started back at the top. The Sky’s second group on the floor got the clock down to two seconds before giving up a layup.
The purpose of the drill, Wade said, is for his players to learn to save themselves.
“If you don’t get stops you stay on the floor,” Wade said. “It puts pressure on you to get stops and get a rebound. It rewards all of the little things that we love.”
On Wednesday the league announced a number of rule changes that will be implemented for the upcoming season, including a highly anticipated coach’s challenge.
Each team will have one challenge per game, which includes overtime, regardless of whether it’s successful. The challenge can be used to review three events: a foul called on their team, an out-of-bounds violation or a goaltending/basket interference violation.
To initiate the challenge a team must immediately call a full timeout and the coach needs to twirl their index finger in the direction of the referees and verbally acknowledge the call being challenged.
“Emre [Vatansever] is probably going to be the person that tells me to use it or not ... Tonya [Edwards] is going to make sure I don’t use it,” Wade said of his assistant coaches.
Other rule changes include a heightened penalty for defensive players committing transition take fouls, a modification to the resumption of play procedures and updates to bench conduct.
A notable aspect of the change to bench conduct is the requirement that players on the bench are not permitted to remain standing at or away from their bench during the game for an extended period of time. The updates don’t indicate what constitutes a “prolonged period.” Coaches are prohibited from attempting to distract opponents.
“I don’t have any thoughts,” Wade said. “I’m focused on players right now.”