{"id":619802,"date":"2026-05-02T19:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T19:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619802\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T19:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T19:40:08","slug":"elite-passer-pauline-astier-impressing-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/619802\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Elite’ passer Pauline Astier impressing Liberty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pauline Astier just touched down in Brooklyn and the guard is already making an impact for the Liberty<\/a> in training camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited. Today was her second day, and she probably stood out the most out of anybody,\u201d Sabrina Ionescu said Friday.<\/p>\n

The 5-10 undrafted rookie arrived in New York after a Euroleague season with USK Praha. The 24-year-old averaged 10.2 points and 5.6 assists with the Czech club.<\/p>\n

Now she\u2019s a member of the Liberty, a franchise entering a new era under head coach Chris DeMarco and looking to get back to the WNBA Finals for the third time in four seasons.<\/p>\n

Astier said her decision to give the WNBA a shot came after seeing other European players opt to play in the states. The French guard spoke with other WNBA teams during free agency, but eventually picked New York, citing the team\u2019s winning environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen New York came I was like \u2018Oh this is really a big deal and something really big for me,’\u201d said Astier, who joins fellow French Liberty hoopers Marine Johannes and Marine Fauthoux in Brooklyn. Astier also spent time playing overseas with Kristen Mann, the Liberty\u2019s current player development coach.<\/p>\n

Astier, however, said Friday she didn\u2019t speak with Johannes about potentially joining the Liberty in free agency.<\/p>\n

While Astier noted she wants to make her impact on defense, she will bring offensive skills to the team as well. The guard has a knack of driving past the point of attack for her own shot or a drive-and-kick opportunity for her teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s something I really like to do. So, yeah, try to create,\u201d said Astier, who Ionescu described as an \u201celite passer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those abilities would make Astier a key contributor in DeMarco\u2019s offense, which is designed to be more structured and feature plenty of floor spacing<\/a> \u2014 areas the team struggled with last season under Sandy Brondello.<\/p>\n

So far, she\u2019s been clicking with new teammates while learning DeMarco\u2019s system.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I would say her ability to adapt. Obviously, her IQ has to be really high for her to get it [DeMarco\u2019s offense] this quickly,\u201d Ionescu said. \u201cSome of us have been doing this for a week and a half and still don\u2019t know where to go. And she came in two days, and it\u2019s like directing, understands where to go, calling the offense.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m really excited. Sky\u2019s the limit for her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pauline Astier just touched down in Brooklyn and the guard is already making an impact for the Liberty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[13970,263938,3675,99,434],"class_list":["post-619802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-liberty","tag-pauline-astier","tag-sabrina-ionescu","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619802","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=619802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}