Take a breather, folks. We have reached the 2025 WNBA All-Star break, which means it’s a great time to look back on how the defending champions, the New York Liberty, have fared this season.
The ride has reached the stratosphere for highs, and the Earth’s core of lows, but through it all, the Liberty are 14-6 and possess the #3 seed.
Let’s take a look at the good, the bad, and the ugly to create a clear picture of where New York stands in the W.
The Good
An Offseason Worth Millions
Champions can’t stay stagnant if they wish to continue their reign at the top.
The Liberty and GM Johnathan Kolb understood this fully, so they got to work bolstering their roster ahead of this year. They made a couple of smaller-name moves, such as bringing in Rebekah Gardner and reactivating Marine Johannes.
Johannes has given New York another three-point threat, bringing endless flair and style to the court. Gardner has been ferocious, energetic, shutdown defensively, and a great spot-up shooter (39.1% from three).
While those two were relatively quiet acquisitions, the major transaction New York made has been even more impressive. Natasha Cloud has found a home where she can be unapologetically herself, on and off the court.
Cloud has taken up point guard duties, allowing for players such as Sabrina Ionescu to have more offensive freedom. She’s currently 3rd in the league in assists per game at 6.1 while regularly taking elite guards out of games.
New York pushed all the right buttons in the offseason, and they’re reaping the benefits now.
Sabrina’s Scorching Hot Start
Sabrina Ionescu began the year as one of the top basketball players in the world.
Through the first 10 games, Ionescu averaged 19.5 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per contest. She accomplished this on a fairly efficient 45/33/95 from the field as well.
On top of all of this, Ionescu’s defense took a huge leap as well. Her 86.9 defensive rating through the aforementioned period is well below the 13-team league average of 102.2. What was once a huge weakness for her is now becoming a strength.
Ionescu’s red-hot start played a huge part in New York storming out to that rampant 9-0 start, and though she’s tapered off a little, they’ll be looking for her to continue that form after the break.
The Rise of Kennedy Burke
Kennedy Burke averaged 3.4 points per game a year ago. She barely saw the court and was an afterthought within the Liberty on their title run.
Today, the narrative could not be more different. Burke is now averaging 9.2 points per contest – a near six-point leap from last season.
Her efficiency has risen, too, as she now shoots 50% overall and 49.3% – yes, 49.3%! – from three-point range. The astounding leap has added yet another layer to the Liberty attack, and has rightfully gotten Burke in talks for Sixth Woman of the Year.
Burke said she would be working on her craft, and has she ever.
The Bad
Rebounding Woes
Not everything in New York is sunshine and rainbows.
The Liberty has a very serious rebounding issue, specifically when both attacking and defending the offensive boards. When it comes to attacking the boards, only one team grabs fewer offensive rebounds per game than the Liberty.
New York has only mustered 7.5 OREB per contest, only better than the 7.0 mark of the Seattle Storm. This is due to a multitude of circumstances, such as injuries and size depth as a result of injuries.
It’s something the Liberty must iron out to win more games.
It’s not just grabbing OREB’s, either. At a rate of 9.9 per game, no other team in the W allows more 2nd chances than New York.
Teams routinely clean up glass efficiently against New York, allowing for them to get second and third chance points. Just this past weekend, the Atlanta Dream grabbed 10 offensive rebounds against New York.
Games could turn against New York if they don’t patch this issue soon.
June: The Month of Mediocrity
Going into June, the Liberty were undefeated at 6-0 and looked unstoppable. They left the month of June with an 11-5 record and questions surrounding their ability to repeat.
What happened? The month started alright with wins over the Sky and Mystics and a 48-point humiliation of the Sun. Then, New York headed down to Gainbridge Fieldhouse and ran into a red-hot Caitlin Clark and the Fever. Indiana handed them their first loss of 2025, 102-88.
https://twitter.com/IndianaFever/status/1933996919686087092
At this point, Eurobasket was beginning, and the Liberty had lost Leonie Fiebich for the rest of the month. The impact of her loss was compounded by an injury to Jonquel Jones against the Mercury that sidelined her for the rest of the month as well.
With both of those players gone, New York was trying everything to fill the holes, but nothing seemed to help. They lost four of their last six to end the month, and their production on both sides dipped massively from their season averages.
The rebounding issues compounded with Jones out. More injuries piled in.
In all honesty, the Liberty are lucky to have gone 5-5 in June. The team looked out of sorts and nothing like their championship selves. Fortunately, it is all behind them now, and they can move forward.
The Ugly
A Mini-Injury Crisis
It’s not being talked about a lot, but the Liberty have had a bit of an injury bug this year.
The biggest name to go down was all-purpose big Jonquel Jones. Jones originally sprained her ankle during a game against the Mystics in June, but recovered rather quickly and returned to action against the Dream less than two weeks later.
Jones then reaggravated that ankle against Phoenix and hasn’t played since. Her presence has been dearly missed, and New York will be happy to have her back after the break.
However, she’s not the only one who’s missed time. Sabrina Ionescu suffered a neck injury earlier this month that caused her to miss a game that New York lost to Seattle.
She came back for the next game in Golden State against the Valkyries, but it was clear she was not herself at all. Ionescu also suffered a neck injury in the latter half of last season, so one has to wonder if this is a concerning trend or a weird coincidence.
Those two injuries, on top of scruff-ups for Natasha Cloud and Isabella Harrison, and Breanna Stewart recovering from a meniscus surgery early on in the year and it’s fair to say New York, at no point this season, has been 100% healthy.
This All-Star break forthcoming will be great news for them, as they look to heal up and get ready for a push towards a repeat.
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