{"id":242962,"date":"2025-10-22T07:26:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/242962\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T07:26:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T07:26:08","slug":"liberty-forwards-uncertain-future-poses-difficult-choice-for-three-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/242962\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty forward\u2019s uncertain future poses difficult choice for three teams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"5z\">Last year\u2019s expansion draft cost the New York Liberty dearly. Kayla Thornton had been an integral part of the Liberty\u2019s championship team and showed her true potential during her All-Star season with the Valkyries. Once the CBA is sorted out, the Liberty will have to navigate another expansion draft for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire. While the rules for the next expansion draft are still unclear, the Liberty will undoubtedly have to make some difficult decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"62\">The Liberty will surely want to hold on to Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, Leonie Fiebich, and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, whose <a href=\"https:\/\/highposthoops.com\/liberty-s-biggest-offseason-addition-may-already-be-hiding-in-plain-sight\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">absence was painfully obvious<\/a> during the 2025 season. The rest of the roster may undergo some serious changes, though, and the front office will have to make some difficult decisions about Nyara Sabally\u2019s future with the team.\u00a0On the <a href=\"https:\/\/m.youtube.com\/watch?v=03ceSYjW9_k&amp;t=2545s\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">latest episode of No Offseason<\/a>, The Athletic\u2019s Ben Pickman noted that he \u201cwouldn\u2019t bank necessarily on her coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"65\">Sabally was the Liberty\u2019s first-round pick in 2022 and showed great potential at times. However, her young career has been defined by injuries. She never played more than 33 games in a season. She is also one of only two players younger than 27 on the Liberty\u2019s current roster since they cut Jaylyn Sherrod to <a href=\"https:\/\/highposthoops.com\/liberty-emma-meesseman-signing-wnba-finals-favorite\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">sign Emma Meesseman<\/a>. So, the Liberty will have to decide what they value more: young talent or availability? If the Liberty choose not to protect Sabally in the expansion draft, it will present the Tempo and Fire with a similar choice: should they pursue young talent, even if it comes with a risk, or select players they know can contribute consistently?<\/p>\n<p>Nyara Sabally could be an interesting addition to an expansion team<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6b\">Sabally played a big role in the Liberty\u2019s 2024 championship run. She recorded 13 points, 7 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 block in only 17 minutes on the court in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals when Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu struggled immensely. That game encapsulated Sabally\u2019s potential.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6e\">A bigger role on an expansion team with less pressure to win than the Liberty could be enough to see Sabally put together games like that regularly. That potential plus her experience of playing for a championship team despite only entering her fourth season should make her an intriguing prospect for the Tempo and Fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-secondary my-f-1\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6h\">There is a lot more to consider, though. Sabally\u2019s injury history creates a risk that expansion teams have to consider. She may not be available enough to be a focal point of a team\u2019s offense. That is usually a red flag to teams trying to build a winning roster and a risk worth taking for teams just hoping to accumulate young talent. The Tempo and\/or Fire may very well fall into the latter category.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last year\u2019s expansion draft cost the New York Liberty dearly. Kayla Thornton had been an integral part of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-242962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}