{"id":168587,"date":"2025-09-25T15:02:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/168587\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:02:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:02:08","slug":"new-york-liberty-gm-feels-team-needs-to-evolve-and-be-more-innovative-to-keep-up-with-wnba-trends-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/168587\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Liberty GM feels team needs to evolve and be more innovative to keep up with WNBA trends \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 New York general manager Jonathan Kolb decided to make a coaching change so the Liberty could evolve for the future and not live in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery serious thought and consideration was made to retaining Sandy (Brondello), but ultimately we determined that evolution and innovation is what is needed at this time,\u201d Kolb said Thursday morning to a group of reporters.<\/p>\n

The franchise announced Tuesday that Brondello\u2019s contract wouldn\u2019t be renewed for next season after the team exited in the first round of the playoffs. That came a year she led the team to the WNBA championship in 2024.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNew York Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello, left, and Natasha Cloud (9) cheer on Breanna Stewart, center, during the first half of Game 1 against the Phoenix Mercury in the first round of the WNBA basketball playoffs Sunday, Sept. 14, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo\/Darryl Webb)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really important, that I emphasize that this decision was in no way punitive, nor was it reactive, but it\u2019s instead rooted in being proactive,\u201d Kolb said. \u201cNor was this decision based solely on the results of this past season. I actually think Sandy did a good job, navigating this group through uncharted waters, through injuries and a lack of availability.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a 9-0 start, the team struggled with injuries to star players Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu this year. New York earned the No. 5 seed in the playoffs before losing to Phoenix in a decisive Game 3.<\/p>\n

The players outwardly support Brondello.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo anybody that kind of questions Sandy being here, this is a resilient group,\u201d Stewart said after the Game 3 loss to Phoenix last week. \u201cAnd she has our back and we have hers. The way that she continued to kind of deal with the cards she was dealt was incredible. It wasn\u2019t easy for anybody but she came in every day with a positive attitude and a mindset to put us in our best positions possible and best foot forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kolb said he did talk to the players about the move, but didn\u2019t want to share the conversations he had. Kolb did site the team\u2019s offensive numbers in many categories were similar to last season, but their league rankings dropped.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our organization has always taken pride in being innovative and looking forward and being future oriented and process based,\u201d Kolb said. \u201cFor us, we not only evaluate throughout the season our own team, but we also evaluate the league and with where this league is going. We felt very confident that we need to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now the next step is to find a new coach. Kolb didn\u2019t have a timetable for when he would hired a replacement. The league is potentially going into an offseason of instability with the current collective bargaining agreement running out at the end of next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to take as long as it takes to find the right person,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously we\u2019d love for that to be on the sooner end of things, but we\u2019re not going to rush anything. We need to nail this. Our players, if we\u2019re going to make a bold decision like this, our players deserve to get the best and so we\u2019ll take the time necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kolb said he spoke with the Liberty\u2019s \u201cBig Three\u201d of Stewart, Jones and Ionescu and they all want to return next season.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 New York general manager Jonathan Kolb decided to make a coaching change so the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-168587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}