The New York Liberty have played encouraging ball through one week, and not just because they’re 4-0. Let’s examine how.
The New York Liberty have notched every type of win on their way to a 4-0 start that’s confirmed they are still in the elite class of the WNBA. A late comeback to open the season, then a wire-to-wire runaway win, then an offensive masterclass that was over by halftime, and finally an ugly, low-scoring contest where the team simply kept pushing … all en route to a +20.0 net rating after one week of play.
This breakdown won’t rely on too many statistics since the sample size is so small, but also because we don’t need them to confirm how dominant the Liberty have been. That +20.0 net rating confirms what even a passing glance told us.
But we do have enough of a sample size to analyze the most important factors of New York’s hot start. So, what’s been so encouraging thus far?
Nyara Sabally is here
New York’s biggest concern entering this season was no mystery: depth.
This is certainly a concern of luxury, but by the end of last season, Head Coach Sandy Brondello had one reliable option off her bench. Marine Johannès is a dazzling talent and deservedly a fan favorite, but her memorable 14-point performance in Game One of the Finals was more than the ten points she scored in every other playoff game combined. Still, that’s more than Stef Dolson contributed, as her playing time fell to under five minutes a night in the playoffs. It was Kayla Thornton that continued to bring her toughness and energy to the court, and while she remains in the rotation this season, she is no longer the only card Brondello can play.
In just four games, third-year big Nyara Sabally has staked a place in the rotation, though it’s more like year two for Sabally, given that an ACL tear erased her true rookie season. She warned us in preseason that her knee — now further removed from surgery and a full WNBA off-season of hoops in Prague == is feeling strong.
“It’s obviously an ongoing process, just keeping that quad strong in the weight room every single day, but it’s definitely getting easier, which is nice,” said Sabally. “I’m seeing a lot of improvement.”
And so is her coach. When asked if Sabally has looked different so far, Brondello replied, “I’d agree with that. I mean, last year she was coming back from having a year out with surgery, and it takes time to get your body back where you want to be. She’s playing with a lot more confidence … I think her athleticism and her ability to switch onto the guard, but also get over to the rim and defend with a big body, it’s exciting.”
Case in point, here’s the German sticking with and blocking Kelsey Mitchell on a switch, then playing between two perfectly in pick-and-roll coverage…
She is just moving more explosively this season, whether vertically or changing direction. This difference and the confidence that’s come with it have translated offensively, to impressive plays sprinting the floor in transition, or finishing inside…
In the opener, Sabally played next to Jonquel Jones in a jumbo front-court, but has since been playing next to Breanna Stewart as more of a true 5. After Stewie’s production declined as last season progressed, likely fatiguing from the huge minutes she played before the All-Star break, Brondello stated she’d try not to “kill” her star early in 2024.
Perhaps Sabally’s ascendance into the rotation could help there, but in any lineup configuration, it’s a welcome sight for the Libs to see her hooping.
Building out the bench
“I hate to use buzzwords — I really, truly do — but it is all about versatility. I think you can see we’ve got many players that can slide up and slide down, and that’s what you want to do.”
That was General Manager Jonathan Kolb in training camp, discussing his vision for building a solid bench. It was about giving Brondello as many options as possible, the opportunity to build reserve units by trial-and-error, and boy has she grabbed hold of it.
Thornton is still Thornton, and Sabally’s aforementioned emergence is comforting, but there is still more work to do. The Liberty have played 55 unique 5-man lineups already, third in the WNBA. Who of Ivana Dojkić, Leonie Fiebich, and Kennedy Burke is going to step up and help Brondello form a consistent second or third unit?
My early bet is on Fiebich, who the Liberty are currently using as a 6’4” shooting guard. They’re running Sabrina Ionescu sets for the proven shooter, and having her guard players like Ariel Atkins, Caitlin Clark, and Kelsey Mitchell, where she’s had impressive moments of sliding her feet and using her length to cover ground…
As a late-arrival to training camp, New York’s other German has only had one or two real practices with her new team, and is clearly still settling into the offense. Fiebich has been a bit too passive on a few catch-and-shoot opportunities, but clearly fits the ethos of what the Liberty want from their reserves, mixing positional length and size with threatening off-ball offense.
But Dojkić and Burke have had their moments too. Dojkić’s decision-making has a been a bit up-and-down, it’s far too early to know if that will continue. For now, the 5’10” guard’s defense is keeping her on the court, despite a surprising DNP in New York’s last game (against the Croatian’s former team, no less). It’s been about defense for Burke too, maintaining New York’s principles on the court with some strong moments providing help at the rim, behind aggressive pick-and-roll coverage.
Burke has hit a couple catch-and-shoot threes and blended them with strong drives to the rim, which is really her selling point as a big wing/forward, but the question she must answer is the same one her competitors for that eighth-man role must answer too. Who is really going to bring the offense? Who is going to insulate Stewie/Jones/Sabrina with ancillary playmaking and 3-point shooting in staggered lineups?
Brondello is open to everything from guard-heavy units or Fiebich at the 2 and Sabally at the 4. Naturally, the Libs would prefer more length and defense, but there are no true liabilities on that end. Keep an eye out for lineups that Brondello goes to repeatedly as we get into the teeth of the season.
Sabrina getting downhill
Sabrina Ionescu tallied eight assists in two of the four games, making good on her promise to attack the paint more.
The Liberty rely on side-to-side ball movement and are unfathomably skilled at maintaining the advantage when they get it. A tough closeout against any one of New York’s starting five inevitably ends in a good look. Doubling the post against Jones or Stewie can’t be argued with, but rotations out of it have to be just about perfect.
As such, it’s about creating that initial advantage for New York, getting every ounce of downhill juice they can squeeze out of Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot. And while Vandersloot has made a point of taking threes when defenders go under screens against her, they’ll still sag off when she puts the ball on the deck. This adjustment in 2023 forced the ball into Ionescu’s hands more, and that’s continued into 2024. She doesn’t have to post gaudy double-doubles every game, but if she’s keeping her dribble alive and probing the paint like this…
Compare that second play to this action from the same quarter, where Ionescu doesn’t turn the corner on the high pick-and-roll, and New York’s deadly double-drags don’t go anywhere…
Her defender, though trailing on the screen, can recover. Aliyah Boston in drop coverage can easily slide over to her man rolling to the basket, and Temi Fagbenle on the weak-side doesn’t have to tag said roll. That chain effect means no defender is in a compromised position, especially not the ‘tagger’, a key to their cruel high-low game.
New York’s ball-handlers don’t need to handle 30 pick-and-rolls a game and constantly be splitting double-teams and the works. There just needs to be a consistent balance of pressure, not always relying on Jones and Stewie to create from above the arc.
And while Ionescu still has improvements to make as a primary ball-handler, she’s certainly showing growth early in the season.
Jonquel Jones is still an MVP
I don’t think Jonquel Jones will be the MVP this season. And I’m not interested in arguing her standing in a rich WNBA hierarchy in which she is neither the reigning Finals MVP nor regular season-MVP (nor, separately, the leading first-place vote-getter in that race).
But she’s on the level. Whatever level you wanna put her on, whatever level contains the best players in the world, Jones is there. Perhaps she faded into the background in the first half of 2023 when recovering from a foot injury while her superstar teammate carried a new-fangled roster to wins with incredible scoring outbursts.
But since the ‘23 All-Star break, Jones has been New York’s rock, the calming force when threes aren’t falling, when guards aren’t penetrating, when rapid ball-movement gets sloppy.
Her worst games still turn tides; New York’s defense can never break down into a layup-line with Jones waiting down low, and if defenses can cover all the perimeter shooters in sea foam, they often don’t have enough left to keep Jones off the glass. This is not unprecedented of course, a paint presence whose impact on both ends hardly wavers from game-to-game.
But Jones can do everything. She has the freedom to trap ball-screens in part because Stewie is waiting down low, but in late-clock situations, the Liberty will just switch her outright, and watching a woman of Jones’ size slide her feet like this and then run the break is almost sickening…
Then there’s the shot-making and perimeter play that turns New York’s high-low game into an unstoppable force. It will get its own article soon enough, but the bread-and-butter of New York’s offense in 2023 was this action between Jones and Breanna Stewart. This season, we’ve seen Brondello’s offense expand on this concept, but ultimately one big in the paint and one at the top-of-the-key. Simple actions like a pick-and-pop are putting defenses in a blender.
But the beauty is in its symmetry; each player is fully capable of operating from either spot. So, defenses have to game-plan for New York’s 6’6” paint-monster decimating closeouts on the perimeter, like this…
Jonquel operating from the top of the key like this is ridiculous. Double-drags where the first screener rolls to give JJ space on the pop, then taking advantage when her man has to tag the roller and recover: pic.twitter.com/DIk0CyZUWz
— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) May 15, 2024
Again, sickening! Perverse even! Like watching the supervillain get away with their crimes. Nobody should be allowed to do that. It’s not fair.
Yet, it inspires awe, even joy to watch Jones exactly because nobody should be allowed to do that. Not only is it unfair, it’s nearly incomprehensible.
Jones probably won’t win MVP in 2024. There are too many mouths to feed on this Liberty roster and a commitment to 5-out spacing principles that turns 30-and-12 nights into 20-and-8 nights for the betterment of the team. Getting to a simple post-up for Jones is the best Plan C in basketball, but it is often Plan C. Not that you’ll hear any complaining from the franchise center.
The New York Liberty are still major contenders for the franchise’s first WNBA title, and they’ve proved it in their 4-0 start. The bench is already upgraded with room to grow, the young players clearly took their offseason to add something to their games.
And Jonquel Jones is still on the roster.
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