{"id":228980,"date":"2025-10-16T12:19:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T12:19:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/228980\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T12:19:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T12:19:09","slug":"2025-26-wnba-offseason-guides-new-york-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/228980\/","title":{"rendered":"2025-26 WNBA Offseason Guides: New York Liberty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats newsletter. We\u2019re excited to announce a new partnership with Hudl<\/a>. Hudl\u2019s industry-leading tools – Sportscode, Instat, and Fastmodel – elevate the preparation, performance, and player development of WNBA and NCAA teams. We appreciate their support and look forward to working with them to help bring more insight about the women\u2019s game to you.<\/p>\n

Haven\u2019t subscribed to the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter yet?<\/p>\n

Previously published 2025-26 Offseason Guides:<\/p>\n

Chicago Sky<\/a>
Connecticut Sun<\/a>
Dallas Wings<\/a>
Washington Mystics<\/a>
Los Angeles Sparks<\/a>
Golden State Valkyries<\/a>
Seattle Storm<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>New York Liberty players Natasha Cloud (9), Rebekah Gardner (7), Leonie Fiebich (13), Sabrina Ionescu (20), and Jonquel Jones (35). Photo credit: Chris Poss<\/p>\n

2025 record: 27-17. 3rd in offensive rating, 6th in defensive rating. Finished 5th in the standings, lost to Phoenix 2-1 in the first round.<\/p>\n

2026 draft picks: New York don\u2019t have a first-round pick in the 2026 draft because it went to Connecticut as part of the Natasha Cloud trade, and don\u2019t have a second-round pick because they sent it to Chicago as part of the Rebekah Gardner deal. So their only current 2026 pick is their own third-rounder.<\/p>\n

Free agents: Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones (both uncoreable unrestricted free agents), Sabrina Ionescu, Natasha Cloud, Isabelle Harrison, Kennedy Burke, Emma Meesseman, Stephanie Talbot (all unrestricted free agents), Rebekah Gardner, Marine Johann\u00e8s (both reserved).<\/p>\n

Under contract: Nyara Sabally, Leonie Fiebich.<\/p>\n

2025 performance: It all started so well. For a significant chunk of the season the Liberty were the closest challengers to the Minnesota Lynx at the top of the standings, and everyone was anticipating the prospect of a Finals rematch. But eventually their litany of injuries and the resulting inconsistent lineups began to take their toll. Throughout their \u2018superteam\u2019 era the Liberty have been conservative nursing players through injuries, rightly believing that they had enough backup talent to keep winning anyway while players took all the time they needed to recover. It always felt like the target this year was to make it to the playoffs relatively healthy, and if that meant losing a couple of spots in the standings then they\u2019d live with it. If they needed to win on the road in the postseason to advance, a fully healthy Liberty roster would be good enough to do it. But all those changes damaged their chemistry, and they still weren\u2019t themselves despite the entire roster being available. Even after winning Game 1 on the road in Phoenix they dropped an absolute stinker at home in Game 2, and were sent home in the decider.<\/p>\n

It was the sort of season where lots of the players on New York\u2019s hyper-talented roster were pretty good, but most weren\u2019t at their absolute peak. Sabrina Ionescu had her usual high counting stats and made second-team All-WNBA but dropped below 30% from 3-point range. Breanna Stewart\u2019s struggles from outside continued and her rebounding rate was comfortably the lowest of her career, plus another injury disrupted her season. Jonquel Jones\u2019s shooting averages were high, but there were far too many games where she was barely involved and faded out of the action. Natasha Cloud was a useful addition on the perimeter but still didn\u2019t fully answer the question of what kind of guard would be the best option next to Ionescu. Even Emma Meesseman, a world-class talent and midseason addition that every team in the league was chasing, was fine \u2014 but far from game-changing. It was a year of almosts for New York that probably would\u2019ve been easily forgotten if they\u2019d come together for a playoff run at the end. But the journey made that difficult to pull off, and they became yet another reminder of how hard it is to repeat as champions in this league.<\/p>\n

Offseason finances<\/a>: The Liberty aren\u2019t immune from this section being the same as everyone else\u2019s this year \u2014 they have a couple of players on rookie-scale deals, and then lots of free agents and cap space. They\u2019re one of the teams that could be an interesting test case under a new cap structure, because if all their players suddenly decide they want to be paid every cent they\u2019d be worth on the open market, it becomes hard to hold together a \u2018superteam\u2019 roster. Players might be less willing to take a discount if they\u2019d have to give up $400,000 instead of $40,000 to open up meaningful space. On the other side of that coin, if we end up with a softer cap that has a mechanism to spend beyond the limit, Joe Tsai\u2019s money could help New York become even stronger than before. There are CBA rules far beyond the headline-grabbing stuff that could make a huge difference to roster-building in the future.<\/p>\n

Offseason priorities: In a surprise to many, the Liberty already announced that head coach Sandy Brondello\u2019s contract would not be renewed<\/a> for 2026. Taking the franchise to its first-ever championship last year might\u2019ve been expected to earn Brondello a grace period, but GM Jonathan Kolb decided to move on. It feels like Kolb might prefer a younger innovator that will work with him more collaboratively, rather than a veteran coach like Brondello who\u2019s always going to follow her own path. Of course that comes with risks, because those younger coaches are typically much less proven, but we\u2019ll have to wait and see whom they eventually hire.<\/p>\n

In terms of the roster, they\u2019ll presumably try to bring back most of their star-laden rotation. Stewart and Jones have both reached the limit of years played under core contracts, so assuming the rule continues to exist they\u2019ll probably core Ionescu. Should she want to leave, at least they\u2019d be able to demand significant compensation in return. Then it\u2019s over to Kolb to see what he can bring together. New York have become a popular destination under him so they\u2019ll inevitably be in the market for various stars, assuming the cap makes it plausible. Even though it never quite came together this year, this was still an exceptionally talented roster. If they can bring most of it back they probably will, just with new coaching and a tweak here or there. A little more youth might be nice, but they won\u2019t sacrifice talent to go younger. The target will once again be a championship unless things go very, very wrong when free agency opens.<\/p>\n

Future assets: Because of Kolb\u2019s international scouting and roster building, the list of players the Liberty have rights to beyond their end-of-season roster is enormous. They have the suspended rights to Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, Han Xu, Raquel Carrera, Annika Soltau and Seehia Ridard. They have reserved rights to Ivana Dojki\u0107. They have draft rights to Marine Fauthoux and Adja Kane. Unless the league changes the rules, they will have to renounce some of those rights because there\u2019s a limit of four per team that can be carried over to the next league year (hence why you often see rights being dropped on December 31). But several of those players could help add depth to a roster if they\u2019re healthy and available at some point. New York haven\u2019t made any deals yet that touched their 2027 draft picks, so they still have all of their own and no extras.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site<\/a>, our podcast<\/a>, and our social media accounts on Twitter<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Follow Richard on Bluesky<\/a> and X<\/a>.<\/p>\n