The Liberty did most of this offseason’s heavy lifting before the WNBA Draft.
Last month’s trade for veteran point guard Natasha Cloud cost them a pair of first-round picks, including the No. 7 overall selection in Monday night’s draft at The Shed in Midtown Manhattan.
The defending WNBA champions had already traded away this year’s second-round pick, too, in the 2024 deal that brought back guard Rebekah Gardner.
That left the Liberty with one pick — the 38th and final selection — in Monday’s draft, which they used to take French center Adja Kane.
Kane, a 20-year-old developmental prospect, plays for Landerneau Bretagne Basket in France’s LFB. The 6-3 center is averaging 4.9 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game.
“As an organization, we pride ourselves on embracing the global nature of the game and are proactive in assembling a deep group of international talent,” Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb said in a statement after taking Kane in the third round.
“We had a unique opportunity tonight to select Adja Kane, a talented young player from a strong program in France, who will continue to develop overseas for the next few years with our support from afar.”
Before they traded it to the Connecticut Sun for Cloud, the Liberty held this year’s No. 7 selection thanks to a pick swap with the Phoenix Mercury, which they had agreed to in a four-team trade in 2023. The Sun used that pick Monday to draft forward Aneesah Morrow out of LSU.
Cloud, meanwhile, remains the Liberty’s biggest offseason addition. The 33-year-old guard averaged 11.5 points and 6.9 assists per game last season with the Sun and was named to the WNBA’s All-Defensive Second Team.
She joins a Liberty lineup that includes returning starters Sabrina Ionescu, Leonie Fiebich, Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones. That core led the Liberty to the first championship in the franchise’s 28-year history.
But the Liberty will look different in 2025-26.
They lost forward Kayla Thornton, one of two Liberty players to appear in all 40 games last season, to the Golden State Valkyries in the WNBA expansion draft.
Point guard Courtney Vandersloot left for the Chicago Sky. Vandersloot, 36, started 70 games in her two seasons with the Liberty before coming off the bench during last year’s playoff run.
And starting forward Betnijah Laney-Hamilton is set to miss five to six months after undergoing knee surgery last month, putting her season in jeopardy.
Those departures could mean an increased role for forward Kennedy Burke, who averaged 12.1 minutes per game last year, primarily off of the bench. Marine Johannes, who spent last season in France due to prioritization rules, is set to return to the Liberty this year as well.
Gardner, meanwhile, did not play last season as she recovered from an Achilles tear, which she suffered a few weeks before the Liberty acquired her from the Chicago Sky. Gardner, 34, averaged 8.3 points per game in two seasons with Chicago.
