The celebrations are over. The Liberty have concluded their months-long victory lap that started with a trip down the Canyon of Heroes and ended among the world’s biggest pop-culture superstars at the Met Gala.
Those were the rewards for the Liberty finally winning their first WNBA championship in franchise history — the league’s last original organization to do so.
But all that doesn’t matter anymore. It’s a new season and the first test comes in the form of reigning unanimous MVP A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces on Saturday afternoon.
Talk about a tough landing spot.
“It’s important for us to come out and throw the first punch as a message to the league, right? Again, that target is on our back as the New York Liberty, as the returning finalists, the winners of last year,” said newcomer Natasha Cloud, who arrived in the offseason via trade. “So we’re excited for that. I feel like this team is prepared for all the s–t that’s going to come. But we’re focused. We’re so focused on us.”
Cloud wasn’t on the title-winning 2024 squad, but she’s now established herself as the vocal, veteran leader for a team hoping to become the fourth WNBA franchise to win back-to-back championships.
And she’ll learn very quickly about the new team she sought out this offseason. More importantly, she’ll learn what messages the rest of the league will send to the Liberty while defending the throne.
After Saturday’s playoff rematch against the Aces, the Liberty will get a four-day break and hit the road to face an improved Chicago Sky team that got Courtney Vandersloot back, doubled down on defense with the additions of Ariel Atkins and ex-Liberty Rebecca Allen, and deploys improved young frontcourt featuring Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso.
Then two days later, Sandy Brondello’s squad will head to Indiana to face Caitlin Clark’s new-look Fever team. Early Coach of the Year candidate Stephanie White is now leading a team that projects to have better defense, rapid pace and arguably the most dynamic young duo the WNBA has to offer.
“We have Chicago, Indiana [and Vegas] in these first three games. So I think they really would test for us. And that’s what it’s about,” Brondello said of the first trio of games in this 44-game season, the most in WNBA history.
“We want to win, but we’re not going to be able to be at our best. So hopefully it’s we play well enough to win. We got to keep learning by doing, which is finally getting our whole team together. So we still have the stuff to work out, but I’m confident in what we do, in the chemistry that we built from last year and and the players we brought in are complementary to what we had last year and how we want to play.”
One glaring question that’ll ring during those games: how much will the Liberty miss Betnijah Laney-Hamilton?
The veteran that was part of the Liberty’s core will miss the entire 2025 season due to a knee injury, leaving the squad without a starter who averaged 9.5 point per game on 45% shooting that also guarded the opposing team’s best perimeter option on some nights.
Her absence can’t be overstated given the league’s need for willing defenders for transformational talent on opposing contending teams.
But the reacclimation of Leonie Fiebich — back from her Spanish league commitment — and addition of Cloud should give the Liberty enough defensive presence to not fall too far from last year’s third-place ranking in defensive rating and opponent’s points per game.
“We have all we need,” said guard Sabrina Ionescu.
Known defender Rebekah Gardner is back in WNBA action as well after missing the 2024 season due to an Achilles injury. She’s slated to be a contributor for Brondello when defense is needed on the court.
“I feel like I had to do a lot of mental work because the Achilles is like the spine of your foot, so anytime you walk or anything, it’s like you’re thinking about it,” Gardner told the Daily News. “But I did a lot of mental work and I feel like I conquered that and now it’s just about getting my flow back playing wise.”
On the offensive side of the ball, Brondello has repeatedly emphasized two strategies for success in the 2025 season: positionless basketball and five-out offense.
The goal of that style of offense is to isolate defenses in larger spaces and forcing them to make tough decisions against an offensive-loaded team equipped to shoot, pass and drive exceptionally well.
More importantly, the team wants to quickly turn defensive stops into quick, easy points like they did in 2024. They ranked first in fastbreak points per game last season (12.5). The same style was on display in last week’s preseason loss to the Connecticut Sun, but it wasn’t as sharp as it needed to be, per Breanna Stewart.
“I thought that we were definitely getting out and running a little bit more. But the biggest thing that’s gonna start that is the rebounding,” she said. “We have to rebound to be able to get out and get in transition and fill lanes. But I think the one of the things that I enjoy most is the way that the ball is moving in those two [preseason] games, but also in practice.”
Brondello’s emphasis on positionless basketball makes sense considering she deploys bigs that can handle the ball (Jonquel Jones and Stewart), smaller players that can handle forwards on both ends of the floor (Cloud, Kennedy Burke, Fiebich and Gardner) and guards that can play on and off the ball (Ionescu and Marine Johannes).
It remains to be seen how smoothly players can adapt to the strategy as the season progresses. The good news is that it’s a philosophy that they welcome.
“We have post players that could spread out, hit that three or even bring the ball up the court,” Burke told The News. “So I feel like that’s gonna be really dangerous for other teams. And the fact that we’re able to implement that with this team, it’s gonna be a lot of fun for us. But, like I said, it’s gonna be tough for other teams to guard us.
“When she said it I was like ‘Oh this is right up my alley.’ All my life I’ve been playing on through four, one through five so I’m excited to do that at the best level of basketball.”
The playoffs are a certainty for Brondello’s 2025 team. But all of the moving pieces schematically are the differences between repeating and an early postseason exit.
It’s time to play ball. And the goal is clear. So clear that the Liberty players — new and old — understood it as soon as training camp started.
The journey for back-to-back titles begins now.
“I think everybody knows,” Stewart said of this year’s goal. “If you’re here, you know what we’re trying to do. We’re not just trying to do anything else except win. And at the same time, knowing that that doesn’t happen overnight, taking it one game at a time, like not looking ahead to October, but staying here in in May.”
