This Sky needed this [Natasha] Cloud

She flows different.

In her own space, creating and existing in her own lane, playing the game of basketball and life on her terms and making sure neither the game or life ever plays her.

Natasha Cloud’s on-court introduction Wednesday was not the true indicator of what she will eventually mean to this Sky team. Let alone the organization. A team that features Cloud as the final piece to the puzzle may be able to eliminate attachment of the word “rebuild” from its existence.

The seven points and four rebounds in 18 minutes (with three turnovers) on Wednesday is not the indicator. The three-pointer that she hit with two seconds left to end the third quarter to pad the Sky’s lead from two to fives points, one the Valkyries’ announcer called “a monstrous shot,” is.

With no true training camp to bond with the other new players who were bonding with one another for the first time, it’s going to take a few games for Cloud’s flow to match theirs. Once there, belief being, she’ll become the “X, Y and Z” factor that define and shape the character of what this Sky team will become.

The one, in a less comparative way, to make us no longer miss Angel Reese the same way we no longer miss Justin Fields.

Her 30-day purgatory in free agency before she got here, straight ripped from the headlines: “Why Is Natasha Cloud Still a WNBA Free Agent?” (USA Today). “Unsigned Star Natasha Cloud Breaks Silence On Stressful WNBA Free Agency” (Yahoo Sports). “Natasha Cloud Has a WNBA Market Problem — not a political one” (High Post Hoops). “Natasha Cloud ‘Blackballing’ Drama Raises Alarm as Sue Bird Warns WNBA Risks Losing Its Identity” (College Sports Network).

Summed in perspective by Jonathan Giles for Ebony magazine on an Instagram post addressing the then comparison of Cloud as a modern-day Colin Kaepernick: “The WNBA says it’s built on advocacy. We say we love the idea of athletes having a platform and a voice. Well . . . [that’s] right up unti