{"id":608341,"date":"2026-04-27T00:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T00:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/608341\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T00:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T00:27:10","slug":"gm-jonathan-kolb-preaching-patience-despite-bolstered-liberty-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/608341\/","title":{"rendered":"GM Jonathan Kolb preaching patience despite bolstered Liberty roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Liberty are trying their best to temper expectations \u2014 at least early on.<\/p>\n

It makes sense.<\/p>\n

New York has a new head coach in Chris DeMarco, with an almost entirely new support staff. He\u2019s overhauling the offense<\/a> that struggled a year ago and establishing new defensive principles while several key players remain absent as they finish their overseas commitments.<\/p>\n

All this has general manager Jonathan Kolb hedging his bets for now.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to take time and I think it\u2019s just about being patient with the process,\u201d Kolb said Sunday. \u201cBut again, we know what we\u2019re here to do. We know what our goals are, which is a championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

But patience is hard to buy with a roster as star-studded as the Liberty\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Five key members of New York\u2019s title-winning team in 2024 are back, including Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Leonie Fiebich. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton said she\u2019s healthier<\/a> than she was during that championship run.<\/p>\n

In free agency, the Liberty jumped on the opportunity to add another All-Star, Satou Sabally, to the mix.<\/a><\/p>\n

The roster \u2014 arguably the league\u2019s best on paper \u2014 features everything a coach could want. There\u2019s depth at each position, which should help whenever injuries hit. The Liberty have length, size and versatility.<\/p>\n

\"AJonathan Kolb, General Manager of the New York Liberty, looks on before a WNBA game between the New York Liberty and the Connecticut Sun on August 3, 2025, at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no reason New York shouldn\u2019t be contending for the title this fall.<\/p>\n

But right now? The Liberty are in the early stages of putting the machine together.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very talented,\u201d Kolb said. \u201cTalent can win games but what we want is connection. We want our players to be connected on the floor and that\u2019s gonna take time to build, when you have a new system, and I think you may have heard commentary about the system and players maybe not second-guessing as much as in the past, we want to get to a point where that is second nature for them. They are playing together, connected.\u201d<\/p>\n

A year ago, at his preseason news conference, Kolb talked about his long-term vision for the Liberty. He discussed wanting to make the Liberty into an \u201ciconic\u201d franchise, one that\u2019s a perennial title contender.<\/p>\n

But this year, Kolb is focused on the present and putting total trust in DeMarco even if it means waiting for delayed gratification.<\/p>\n

\"NewLiberty players huddle during the second half of a preseason WNBA game against the Indiana Fever at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Saturday, April 25, 2026. Heather Khalifa for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing for Chris is he really doesn\u2019t want to skip steps with instruction and so it\u2019s making sure that our players are mastering certain things before we move on [or] we stack things on top of that,\u201d Kolb said. \u201cBecause I think what happens is the deck can get really cluttered and you could become a master of none and so for us, it was just being really intentional and I think you\u2019ve seen the word simplicity, you\u2019ve seen the words clarity, this is what we talked about.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCovering the Liberty like never before\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Madeline Kenney’s Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then honestly, that this is his and his staff\u2019s show. I want them to be empowered and thrive and they\u2019re really good at what they do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, the Liberty opened the season with a franchise-best 9-0 start. Injuries struck and the team floundered and struggled to find its footing. New York was bounced from the playoffs in the first round.<\/p>\n

Is that the floor for this year\u2019s team?<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe,\u201d Kolb said. \u201cI think it\u2019s a talented group, but I do think that it has a very high ceiling and we\u2019re really excited about reaching that ceiling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Liberty are trying their best to temper expectations \u2014 at least early on. It makes sense. New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[436,99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-608341","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-new-york-liberty","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608341","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=608341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}