For a league that began with a team winning not one, not two, not three, but four championships in a row, repeats have been rare. After the Houston Comets launched the WNBA with four-consecutive championships from 1997 to 2000, the Los Angeles Sparks captured back-to-back titles in 2001 and 2002. It took until 2022 and 2023 for another team to repeat, with the Las Vegas Aces completing the feat.
Now, the defending champion New York Liberty, who bore close witness to the Aces’ back-to-back triumph, are attempting to become the fourth repeat champion in WNBA history.
Their quest is off to an inauspicious start, evidence of why it has been so hard for great WNBA teams, including the dynastic Minnesota Lynx of the 2010s, to consolidate a championship with another one in the following season. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton is expected to miss the entire regular season, while Breanna Stewart was limited to begin training camp after undergoing a knee scope in March. Then, the team will be without Leonie Fiebich, Nyara Sabally and Marine Johannès beginning in the mid-June, as the three will represent their national teams—Germany for Fiebich and Sabally; France for Joahnnès—in EuroBasket Women.
Navigating a 44-game season to make it to the first-ever best-of-seven WNBA Finals will challenge the champs. Yet, reasons for optimism remain. New York sports one of the league’s most talented teams—and it’s that talent, beginning with the starting five, that can take the Liberty back to the title.
We’ve already covered what Stewie can do to help see New York to another successful season. Here’s a benchmark the team’s other four projected starters should aim for. If the Liberty’s core approach these heights, the WNBA championship again will run through Brooklyn:
A JJ double-double
Jonquel Jones has MET the moment numerous times in her WNBA career, highlighted by last year’s Finals, when she earned Finals MVP.
Jones is at her best when she plays with force, ignoring the frustrations that come with what she perceives as an unfair whistle and applying all the talent in her 6-foot-6 frame to dominate. The surest sign that Jones is playing in such a manner is her rebounding numbers. She has the ability to own the glass. This season, going up against an increasing number of WNBA teams that are choosing to play smaller lineups, Jones should average double-digit boards for the first time since 2021, the season in which she was named league MVP. Combined with her scoring, JJ can be a double-double machine.
Tash toss the rock
Over the course of her nine-season WNBA career, Natasha Cloud has improved as a playmaker, developing into one of the league’s best distributors. She has averaged more than six assists per game the past four seasons, peaking at seven per game in 2022.
This season, Cloud arguably will be flanked by the most offensive talent she ever has been, even surpassing the 2019 title-winning Washington Mystics. That puts her in prime position to not only total the most assists in a single season in her career, but also lead the league in assists. Yes, that’s a lofty goal, with Caitlin Clark, who last season established a new single-season mark, piloting a high-powered offense with the Indiana Fever and former Liberty Courtney Vandersloot, the W’s all-time assist queen, back in charge of her own team with the Chicago Sky.
But, Cloud can do it, especially if her Phantom teammate re-embraces her 3-point bombing…
Sab the shooter
Cloud and Sabrina Ionescu did not find much success as Unrivaled teammates, as their club finished at the bottom of the standings. That experience shouldn’t decrease confidence in what they can do together when wearing seafoam.
Last season, with former starting point guard Vandersloot away from the team, Ionescu assumed more primary ball handling responsibilities for the Liberty. She also diversified her scoring repertoire, showing off an improved floater that made her a threat to score inside the arc.
However, Ionescu, and, in turn, the Liberty, are at their most deadly when Sab gets on a 3-point heater. With Cloud taking controls of the offense, Ionescu should lean back into the higher-volume, no-hesitation 3-point shooting that characterized her 2023 season, when she set the WNBA single-season record with 128 made 3-pointers. This season, with an extra four regular-season games on the schedule, she should shoot, literally, for a new record. What about 150 3s Sabrina?
Leo leads the league
Inserted into the starting lineup for an injured Laney-Hamilton down the stretch of the 2024 season and remaining there for a minimized Vandersloot in the playoffs, Leonie Fiebich unlocked the best version of the Liberty.
Already the league’s best team, they got even better when Fiebich, a “3-and-D” player par excellence, earned a more prominent role. Among high-minute players, she led the league in net rating, with the Liberty outscoring opponents by an average of 17 points when she was on the court. It’s a mark that is illustrative how Fiebich brings positives to the court—namely, almost 44 percent 3-point shooting and defensive versatility—without taking anything away. She amplifies, rather than minimizes, the talents of her star teammates.
If Fiebich again tops the W in net rating, it will be a near-guarantee that all is well in Liberty land.
