The Chicago Sky’s promising season ends without a playoff berth. Now the hard part begins.

This wasn’t the way the Chicago Sky planned on ending the first season of a new era for the franchise.

The year began with a record-setting, paradigm-shifting wave of change for the WNBA. But by Thursday, there wasn’t much hope left.

Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/TNS

The stars had to align just so for the Sky to sneak into the playoffs — the Washington Mystics and Atlanta Dream had to lose their respective games against the Indiana Fever and New York Liberty while the Sky had to pull off a win in Connecticut against the Sun, who were eager to stamp their place as the No. 3 seed.

The Sky entered Connecticut halfway to surrender with Angel Reese (wrist), Kamilla Cardoso (shoulder), Chennedy Carter (foot) and Diamond DeShields (ankle) out with injuries. And the particulars of the 87-54 loss — the Sun amassing 25 points off turnovers, the Sky scoring only six points in the third quarter, Dana Evans leading the team with 14 points — quickly became irrelevant.

The Dream and Mystics pulled off upset victories, with Atlanta (15-25) earning the No. 8 seed after finishing a game better than Washington (14-26).

And the Sky (13-27) limped off after a season equally defined by hope and frustration.

“It wasn’t fair to anybody, what we went through,” forward Isabelle Harrison said after the loss.

The result was the final, dismal piece of a 3-13 skid after the Olympic break, a stretch dominated by the absences of stars Carter and Reese due to injury and illness. But for the Sky, this is only the end of the beginning.

The 2024 season signaled a fresh start for a franchise somehow still struggling to establish itself in the league three years after winning its first championship. New leadership behind coach Teresa Weatherspoon and general manager Jeff Pagliocca. New star power provided by rookies Cardoso and Reese. New investment in the form of a promised training facility and a slew of revenue records.

The payoff was not immediate. Not close. Despite dominating the boards and the defensive end of the court, Reese and Cardoso both struggled with efficiency as they worked through rookie growing pains. The Sky had trouble scoring and maintaining composure and staying healthy, providing a series of compounding challenges for Weatherspoon as a first-year coach. The final crash landing since the Olympic break highlighted every flaw in a roster that still isn’t deep or balanced enough to compete with the rest of the league.

But for the Sky, this season was never the final test — just an early run for a larger project. The front office already had begun to build for the future Thursday morning, signing veteran center Elizabeth Williams to a one-year extension. Williams was a force on defense until she suffered a knee injury that ended her season after nine games, an absence that coincided with the ascension of Cardoso into the starting lineup.

After maintaining a crucial leadership role on the sidelines of every practice and game this season, Williams clearly has bought in to providing that same presence as a backup center next year — despite having the potential to be a starter elsewhere. She is an important building block for the Sky as they wade into constructing a roster around Reese, Cardoso and the additional young talent they obtain in the 2025 draft.

With Thursday’s loss, the Sky secured a top-four lottery pick in the draft, which is expected to be another deep selection pool headlined by Connecticut star Paige Bueckers. The Sky have two top-10 picks, which positions them to build out a young core.

All of that sounds promising enough. But the shine of that potential dulls significantly in the shadow of a disappointing season. The Sky haven’t been this bad for a while. They hadn’t missed the playoffs since 2018.

So even with growth this season, the Sky exit 2024 in a state of uncertainty. They could be good. They could even — perhaps — be great. But for now, that potential remains unrealized as the front office faces one of the most important transitional periods in franchise history.