to sign Liberty guard Marine Fauthoux<\/a> to a multiyear deal in a corresponding move Thursday. The New York Post was first to report the Liberty\u2019s plans to sign Fauthoux.<\/p>\nThe second-longest-tenured Liberty player behind guard Sabrina Ionescu, Laney-Hamilton signed with the Liberty as a free agent in 2021 after being named the WNBA\u2019s 2020 Most Improved Player. The forward was key to the franchise\u2019s establishment as a contender, playing a pivotal role in the Liberty\u2019s 2024 championship run. She missed all of last season while recovering from surgery to repair a meniscus in her left knee.<\/p>\n
When Laney-Hamilton returned to action for the Liberty this season, her role quickly diminished. She was a healthy scratch for eight consecutive games before she was waived. The Liberty will have to pay the full value of her contract if she is not claimed off waivers.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb thanked Laney-Hamilton for her contributions to the franchise.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re incredibly grateful for her professionalism, leadership, and the commitment she brought to the New York Liberty every day,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n
Laney-Hamilton\u2019s name was floated in trade talks at the start of the season, but Kolb\u2019s asking price was ultimately too high. Her reduced role decreased her trade value, and she wasn\u2019t moved at the deadline. A team must have the full $400,000 in cap space to claim her off waivers. If Laney-Hamilton clears waivers, she becomes a free agent and can negotiate the contract terms.<\/p>\n
Fauthoux played her 11th game for the Liberty in Wednesday night\u2019s win over the Seattle Storm. Developmental players are eligible to play in only 12 regular-season games and cannot appear in the postseason.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s been important to this team,\u201d Liberty coach Chris DeMarco said of Fauthoux. \u201cShe gives us a different look. We really like her and we\u2019re playing well right now, so we\u2019re going to keep going to her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Liberty have waived forward Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, the team announced Thursday. According to a source familiar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,8915,10,11452],"class_list":["post-315767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-new-york-news","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}