WNBA: Capped with a title, the Liberty’s season was a sterling success

For much of Game 5 of the WNBA Finals, it seemed as if the New York Liberty’s season review would include a quite painful “What went wrong?” section, as the Liberty, the No. 1 seed playing on their home court in the championship-deciding game, appeared headed toward another ignominious Finals ending, with Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu combining for a 5-for-34 stinker as New York’s Finals record fell to 0-6.

Fortunately for the Liberty faithful, first among them being Big Ellie, New York found a way to scratch out the win (although Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve may dispute that wording). Finals MVP Jonquel Jones was the difference maker. Nyara Sabally emerged as an unexpected hero. And Stewart made the foul shots that mattered the most.

It was ugly. But finally, it was theirs. One of the WNBA’s original eight captured the championship it long has craved.

That result demands a celebration of New York’s season, followed by a look ahead to their chances of repeating in 2025:

What went right for the Liberty?

Sab’s super season

Sabrina Ionescu’s Game 5 left a sour impression of the fifth-year guard’s season, when she finished 1-for-19 and scored just five points. Without her Game 3 game-winner, her entire Finals also would have been a series to forget, as she averaged 12.4 points while shooting less than 30 percent from the field and below 25 percent from 3. Yikes!

However, Ionescu’s larger body of work indicated the continued evolution and maturation of her game. Weaponized as a 3-point bomber in 2023, she rounded out her game in 2024, scoring more effectively inside the arc. Her floater, in particular, emerged as an effective off-speed pitch. She was especially fantastic before the Olympic Break, when she was scoring almost 20 points per game.

Her subpar Finals also is offset by her stellar semifinals. Without Ionescu’s excellence, the Liberty might not have made it to the championship stage. Against the Las Vegas Aces, she averaged 17.8 points per game on better than 48 percent shooting from the field and exactly 48 percent from 3.

Fiebich’s perfect fit

In her season-long coverage of the Liberty, Chelsea Leite emphasized that New York’s bench was a work in progress. While the starting group benefitted from the cohesion established over the course of last season, the bench featured a number of new faces tasked with finding ways to elevate their All-Star teammates.

From that group, Leonie Fiebich steadily emerged, first becoming a leading Sixth Player of the Year candidate and then, come the postseason, a perfect fifth starter. After playing just over 10 minutes per game in May, she soon became a rotation regular for head coach Sandy Brondello, tallying more than 20 minutes per game through the rest of the season. After the Olympic break, when she started a number of games for an injured Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, she really found her groove, playing 23.3 minutes per game and averaging 8.1 points per contest on 58.7 percent shooting. She also made more than 52 percent of her 3.1 3-point attempts per game.

She, in short, was the rookie who didn’t play like a rookie, providing efficient offense and top-tier defense as a burgeoning star in her role. Fiebich’s breakout moment came in her first career playoff game, when she dropped a career-high 21 points, boosted by a 4-for-4 performance from the 3, as the Liberty rolled to a Game 1 first-round win.

Fiebich also stands as an enviable value for a top-heavy team. The 24-year-old German is on a bargain contract, under team control for the next three seasons with a salary that will top out at $85,745 in 2027.

Persevered to prevail

To win a championship, things usually have to go perfect. But, that wasn’t the case for the Liberty.

Courtney Vandersloot missed nine games due to her mother’s illness and eventual passing. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton underwent a midseason knee procedure that caused her to miss 12 total games. Breanna Stewart’s 3-point shot abandoned her for much of the regular season. Then, there was their Game 1 collapse in the Finals. It was an episode that could have caused ghosts from the franchises’ past Finals failures to swirl, inflicting players with doubts about their ability to get the job done.

No, the Liberty did not face an avalanche of adversity. But when it did arise, they rose to the occasion, showing that not only were they the WNBA’s best team quantitatively, based on stats and such, but also qualitatively, as they had cultivated the character necessary to claim the championship.

What’s next for New York?

Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Sloot still in NYC?

Although the same Liberty squad might not be back in 2025, one that is similar enough should be.

Stewart is an unrestricted free agent, but there is no indication that she intends to depart her home-state team. As she made clear during the Finals, she plans to sign one-year contracts until the WNBA’s next CBA is finalized in order to maximize her earning power. Before Game 3, Stewart said:

I am under a one-year, and I’m going to sign another one-year. Just so I can continue to have that kind of flexibility going forward. It’s kind of hard to tell, because you don’t know obviously if we opt in or opt out, but with the potential from the new TV deal—how does everything play into effect.

The rest of the Liberty’s core is under contract for next season, except Vandersloot. It was a trying season for the point guard off the court. As noted above, she missed much of the month of June due to the death of her mother. On the court, her impact has demonstrably decreased, resulting in Brondello choosing to remove her from the starting lineup and use her as a reserve throughout the Liberty’s playoff run. In Game 5 of the Finals, Vandersloot saw just three minutes of playing time.

As she’ll be 36 before the 2025 season beings, it wouldn’t be surprising if she chose to retire. Alternatively, she could choose to join a new team with more opportunity. Or quite possibly, she’s happy to continue to play a reduced role on the Liberty, accepting a lower salary to accommodate the team’s finances. The ball is in Court’s court, as much as the team’s, when it comes to her future in seafoam. If Vandersloot does move on, the Liberty likely will have a hard time finding another primary ball handler of commensurate quality.

Return of Marine and more?

The Liberty still retain reserved player rights to Marine Johannès, at least for now. If the team chooses not to protect her in the expansion draft, the flair-filled French guard could be selected by the Golden State Valkyries. But, if she is protected by New York or Golden State opts not to draft the soon-to-be 30-year-old whose primary loyalty lies with the French national team, her return would be a boon to New York, providing off-the-bench offensive self-creation that team only inconsistently enjoyed in 2024, and would be especially lacking in 2025 if Vandersloot does not return.

New York also has the rights to Han Xu, as her contract expired when it was under suspended status because she had left the team to fulfill obligations with the Chinese national team. The 6-foot-11 center, who will turn 25 before the end of the month, mostly has been a novelty in her WNBA career. However, her size, touch and still latent potential would intrigue any team, including the defending champs.

While questions surround the prospect of Johannès or Han joining the Liberty in 2025, Rebekah Gardner appears set to be part of next season’s squad. During the 2024 offseason, New York savvily sent a pair of future second-round picks to the Chicago Sky for Gardner’s rights, even though she had recently torn her Achilles while playing in Spain and would miss the entire 2024 season. Now, the Liberty are in position to sign the reserved free agent to a team-friendly contract, equipping them another long, defense-first contributor. (That she recently visited Good Morning America and The Tonight Show with the team suggests their commitment to her.)