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

In a matter of months, the Gary native has fallen from starting point guard to deep rotational player, barely getting off the bench for more than six minutes in the team’s previous two losses before playing 24 minutes Wednesday.

Evans has kept her feelings close to the vest throughout the season, but frustration bubbled over Monday when her longtime marketing manager, Gregory Jones II, accused the Sky in a series of social media posts of playing Evans less 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.”

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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 before Wednesday’s 74-70 loss to the Washington Mystics.

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

But she amended her comment Thursday morning with a social media post.

“Yesterday during pre game media, I was caught off guard with the trade request question,” Evans wrote. “I initiated trade talks a couple months ago. But after Olympic break, I said I would go ahead & finish the season strong with Chicago.”

The statement aligned with her full explanation of her current status before Wednesday’s game. 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 point guard.

Pagliocca said the Sky looked at those options at the time, but nothing developed beyond conversations with other teams.

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

“Honestly, for me as a player, it’s hard,” she said. “You can ask anybody in this league — when your role changes, it’s hard. You’ve got to adjust. You’ve got to kind of pick and choose.

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“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 this season, finally assuming the first-team point guard role after coming off the bench for her first three seasons in Chicago. She averaged 10.3 points and 3.8 assists as a starter and shot 37.8% on 3-pointers.

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. They decided to move Evans out of the starting role after a June 14 loss to the Mystics and elevate veteran guard Lindsay Allen.

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

But it came with a sacrifice for Evans, who had averaged only 12.5 minutes over the previous 10 games before Wednesday. 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 has been difficult to establish a “rhythm and flow” due to this “choppy” playing time.

“I’ve just got to be good when I’m out there,” she said. “Like, I’ve 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 that also means moving off the ball to play shooting guard, a transition 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 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 last 10 games will be an important period for the Sky to assess Evans’ long-term fit with the roster — and he didn’t commit to whether the team will extend a qualifying offer when Evans enters restricted free agency this winter.

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

“Everyone knows I love Chicago,” she said. “It’s like home to me. My parents are able to come to every game. So I would love to (stay), but you’ve 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.”