WNBA: Could injury concerns sink the New York Liberty’s title defense?

When you finally get the (Ellie) the elephant off your back and win the franchise’s first championship, you can do what you want, when you want.

At least, that seems to be the attitude with which the New York Liberty approached the 2025 WNBA offseason. As other organizations executed a flurry of moves as soon as the league’s free agency window opened, the Liberty the were rather quiet, just signing a few players to training camp contracts, including Rebekah Gardner, who missed the entire 2024 season due to injury, and Isabelle Harrison, who spent last season with the Chicago Sky. All the while, Breanna Stewart’s return was assumed, even as the 2023 MVP, who has opted for one-year deals during her New York tenure, remained unsigned.

New York’s relative silence, however, did not signal inaction. The Liberty’s series of (eventual) offseason moves should have a loud impact as the team looks to defend its 2024 title. Yet at the same time, there are some reasons to sound alarms, with the champs preparing to navigate the 2025 season with some potentially escalating injury-related concerns.

Walk softly and make a big trade

On Mar. 16, the team consummated a long-speculated trade for Natasha Cloud, acquiring the point guard, who had been moved from the Phoenix Mercury to the Connecticut Sun earlier in the offseason, for the No. 7 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, as well as a 2026 first-round pick.

Soon after adding the floor general to replace the departed Courtney Vandersloot, who, relegated to a reserve role during the Liberty’s title run, returned to the Sky in search of a larger role, the Liberty not only finally signed Stewart, but also re-upped Marine Johannès, who skipped last season due to Olympic-year obligations with the French national team. Stewart, once again, signed a contract below her maximum, inking a one-year $208,400 deal that granted the Liberty the financial flexibility to make other moves while also preserving her personal contractual flexibility. Johannès, who will miss time to compete in EuroBasket Women with France, signed a training camp contract.

Draft night continued the Liberty’s quietude as, after trading away the No. 7 pick for Cloud, New York was left with only one selection in the 2025 WNBA Draft—the draft’s final pick. At No. 38, the Liberty nabbed Adja Kane. The 20-year-old 6-foot-3 French center will not join the team in 2025, as, in a draft night statement, general manager Jonathan Kolb indicated that Kane “will continue to develop overseas for the next few years with our support from afar.”

An injection of intensity and whimsy

Overall, even as the Liberty’s offseason did not feature much sound or fury, their moves, especially the addition of Cloud and return of Johannès, should have cacophonous effects on the court during the 2025 season.

Cloud plays with a competitive fire that contrasts with the often cooler on-court personas of the Liberty’s star core, injecting the team with an intensity and urgency that should be beneficial during a title defense. Although not always the most efficient or consistent offensive player, she is a proven riser in pressure situations, as the Liberty witnessed during the first round of the 2023 WNBA Playoffs when Cloud, then a Washington Mystic, nearly extended the series to a third game with a 33-point, nine-assist, six-rebound and four-steal performance. Defensively, there are no doubts, as she prides herself as one on the league’s best perimeter defenders, with three All-Defense honors to her name.

Johannès, of course, plays with a nonchalant boldness that awes, adding another, different emotion that should be a source of invigoration for the reigning champs. As the Barclays faithful know, she can change the momentum of a game with plays that seem effortless, epitomized by her one-legged 3-pointers. Despite the difficulty of her attempts, Johannès has never shot below 36.8 percent from deep during her three seasons with the Liberty.

Sound the alarms?

That said, the noise could increase in New York for negative reasons, as some concerning injury news also has emerged during the offseason.

Despite Stewart’s status as a league co-founder, Unrivaled was mostly unkind to the Liberty. A member of league-worst Phantom, Sabrina Ionescu appeared mostly healed from her the UCL injury she suffered in the WNBA Finals, which required surgery. However, the 41 percent she shot from the field and 36 percent she shot from 3 across nine games played were not up to her usually spectacular Sab standard.

As was revealed after Mist did not make the Unrivaled playoffs, Stewart was dealing with a right knee issue that resulted in her undergoing a minor scope on her right meniscus in March. Encouragingly, Stewart already has been spotted back on the court, suggesting she should be good to go when the season opens.

That certainly is not the case for Betnijah Laney-Hamilton. Suiting up for Laces for two Unrivaled games, Laney-Hamilton, who missed the closing stretch of the 2024 regular season after a right knee procedure, more seriously injured her left knee, requiring surgery “to repair an acute meniscus injury,” according to the team’s press release. With a recovery window of five to six months, Laney-Hamilton likely will miss the entire 2025 regular season.

Considering her eventual return to play process will demand significant re-conditioning, it’s questionable if she will be ready to resume a rotational role, much less a reliable one, in the playoffs. While the acquisition of Cloud and return of Johannès re-bolsters New York’s rotation, neither offers the physical, defensive-first play from the wing that, as Zack Ward wrote during the 2024 playoffs, makes the player who launched this era of Liberty basketball so valuable.

Knowing that injuries, unfortunately, are likely to accumulate during the league’s first-ever 44-game season, entering the season with injury-related questions and absences is concerning, even if New York, compared to most teams, has the overall talent to quiet such noise.