{"id":612311,"date":"2026-04-29T01:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T01:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/612311\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T01:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T01:21:10","slug":"marine-johannes-happily-back-as-liberty-hope-to-unlock-her-full-potential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/612311\/","title":{"rendered":"Marine Johannes happily back as Liberty hope to ‘unlock her full potential’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday marked the official return of Marine Johann\u00e8s, who finally re-signed with the Liberty.<\/p>\n

The plan was always for Johann\u00e8s to be back with the Liberty this season. She was a reserved free agent, meaning New York had exclusive negotiating rights with the French guard.<\/p>\n

Finalizing her one-year, minimum contract (worth $277,500) was one of the last major boxes the Liberty needed to check off to finish free agency. Johann\u00e8s said her delayed signing was nothing more than her wanting to wait until she got to Brooklyn to make it official.<\/p>\n

Now that it\u2019s behind her, she\u2019s eager to integrate herself into New York\u2019s new motion offense, which should bode well for her.<\/p>\n

In a lot of ways, Tuesday felt like the first day of school for Johann\u00e8s. She came to Barclays Center with renewed excitement after a disappointing finish to last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really happy,\u201d Johann\u00e8s said after her first practice. \u201cIt\u2019s good to see everyone, it\u2019s kind of new actually, like new faces, so it\u2019s kind of different and yeah, I think I like it, the vibe was really good today. \u2026 Happy to be back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johann\u00e8s, who played for the Turkish club Galatasaray during the WNBA offseason, took some much-needed time off after the EuroLeague Women Finals ended April 19. She went home to France and spent time with her family.<\/p>\n

\"MarineThe Liberty\u2019s Marine Johannes handles the ball against the Mystic\u2019s Emily Engstler during a regular season matchup at Barclays Center in 2025. Michelle Farsi\/New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really important for me. I\u2019m glad they let me have the chance to go back home,\u201d Johann\u00e8s said. \u201cI was home for like three days for Christmas, so it was a long time, so I was happy to spend six days with them again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johann\u00e8s joins the Liberty feeling \u201ca little tired but nothing crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel healthy,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Liberty are glad to have Johann\u00e8s, aka the \u201cWizard,\u201d back in the mix.<\/p>\n

\"MarineThe Liberty\u2019s Marine Johannes handles the ball against the Sun\u2019s Bria Hartley during a regular season matchup at Barclays Center in 2025. Michelle Farsi\/New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201c[Johann\u00e8s] brings a unique blend of creativity and shot making to the floor and her feel for the game energizes both the team and the fanbases,\u201d GM Jonathan Kolb said. \u201cThe coaching staff is eager to help unlock her full potential in the WNBA this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last season was a tough year for Johann\u00e8s, who averaged a career-low 6.4 points on 39.7 percent shooting. She fell out of the rotation toward the end of the season heading into the playoffs and logged only 10 minutes in the entire first-round series against the Phoenix Mercury.<\/p>\n

Johann\u00e8s\u2019 skill set, though, could allow her to carve out a larger role within the Liberty this season.<\/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

\u201cWe think she\u2019s one of the best pick-and-roll players in the WNBA,\u201d coach Chris DeMarco said. \u201cThe way she sees the floor and for Marine specifically, it\u2019s about the consistency, and we do want to play in a lot of pick-and-roll, we do like her with \u2026 our other playmakers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just another component of her ability to shoot and her ability to play make,\u201d DeMarco continued. \u201cWe want to use her on the ball, we\u2019ll also use her as a screener.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeMarco did his best to try to set up Johann\u00e8s and French point guard Pauline Astier for success on their first day with the team. He sent them film and some practice plans. They also had preliminary conversations on what to expect.<\/p>\n

However, it\u2019s one thing to talk through expectations, but it\u2019s another to actually put them into practice. The Liberty tried to find that balance with Johann\u00e8s and Astier on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always have to feel it as a player,\u201d DeMarco said. \u201cA few times, we had her and Pauline watch those first two groups and then come in and try to execute the offense and then some of the defensive stuff, learning the new concepts and everything. It\u2019s a challenge, but they also just got done playing, so they have a good rhythm right now.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuesday marked the official return of Marine Johann\u00e8s, who finally re-signed with the Liberty. The plan was always…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[436,99,434],"class_list":["post-612311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-new-york-liberty","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612311","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=612311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}