What’s really going on with struggling New York Liberty? How worried should we be?

Jonquel Jones is too good to replace, but does that mean there are no problems in sea foam land?

The New York Liberty have lost six of nine games, most recently a nine-point-but-not-really-that-close defeat to the Seattle Storm on Sunday afternoon. What happened? Well, they scored six points in the third quarter.

Postgame, Sandy Brondello said: “For me, it’s not the offense, it’s the defense.”

I have to respectfully disagree there, but the Liberty have gone from 9-0 to 12-6 because they’ve lost many different games. The one saving grace is that they’ve been exclusively versus good, maybe even great teams.

But in road games against the Phoenix Mercury and Indiana Fever, they gave up triple-digits due to soft perimeter defense, getting punished every time they left a 3-point shooter open. Atlanta was a schedule loss. They haven’t been able to score against the Storm.

This has been the most challenging stretch of regular-season ball in the New York Liberty’s Superteam Era. In June, I emphasized just how impactful the temporary losses of Leonei Fiebich (now back from EuroBasket) and Jonquel Jones (out through the All-Star break) were, and how their absences muted many worries. We knew months ago that this wasn’t a championship team without Fiebich and Jones, right?

The players agree. Natasha Cloud and Sabrina Ionescu nearly reached their breaking points on Sunday, after independently fielding a million more versions of the same question — what’s wrong with you guys?? — that has one obvious answer…

“Because we’ve been down three starters in the last Seattle game, and then two starters for all these entire games,” said Ionescu. “Like these are huge pieces of offenses, and there’s no way around it. You know, you can say that it doesn’t affect the team, or you know, ‘the next man up,’ but at the end of the day, we’re missing our finals MVP. We’re missing Leo for all these games. It’s hard.”

Though Leo has finally returned, Ionescu’s point stands, and they’ve only lost to good teams. But the Liberty have to be better. This can all be true. So here are some collected thoughts on the 12-6 Liberty, and what’s really going on with the team right now.

There’s no replacing Jonquel Jones

I don’t think more casual New York Liberty have grasped it until now. Sabrina Ionescu has a signature shoe, Breanna Stewart is Breanna Stewart, and both will start in the All-Star Game this season. Sure, Jonquel Jones won Finals MVP, but it was the same year Jaylen Brown won it over Jayson Tatum, you know?

Nah. She makes the whole thing work, and has since 2023…

That the Liberty are playing like a .500 team without her, losing to good teams but surviving against lesser competition, shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Versatility has become, essentially, an empty cliché in basketball-speak, but allow me to make an exception for Jones. Defensively, she can play any coverage while being one of the strongest players in the league, shoring up the defensive glass and combining forces with Stewie to create an all-time great paint defense.

Jones is the reason New York can match up well with the Las Vegas Aces and the Minnesota Lynx. She credibly guard A’ja Wilson and Napheesa Collier, allowing Stewie to wreak havoc everywhere else. Against the Indiana Fever on May 24, she switched late-game ball-screens against Caitlin Clark and gave her hell on an island. There’s also the transition boost…

It’s the same story on offense — there is no easy coverage for her. She’s shooting over 38% from deep on the Liberty, on real volume. She’s adept rolling the basket. Defenses can’t play drop coverage when she sets a screen, because she’ll either pop out to the arc or catch it with downhill momentum, meaning instant death for her defender.

Get cute, and this happens…

Right now, the Liberty miss her because defenses are free to play much more aggressive coverages. They switch because they don’t have to worry about Jonquel finding a mismatch down low, or willingly trap and put their defense in rotation for the same reason.

Switching has always been New York’s bug-a-boo as an offense, even with JJ on the court. But to start this season, they seemingly finally struck the right balance of featuring her inside and utilizing her talent on the perimeter. Defenses didn’t know what to do.

They do now. Seattle effectively switched plenty of actions on Sunday, and the ball often died in New York’s hands. Having to bail their teammates out consistently, Stewie and Sabrina took 36 of the team’s 68 shot attempts. They weren’t playing selfishly, but were often left with no other choice.

(That’s a nice telltale sign for how New York’s offense is flowing. If those two are responsible for over half of the Liberty’s shot attempts, it’s probably not going well.)

Her defensive impact doesn’t need much explaining. But to understand what the Liberty are missing on offense without Jones, ask yourself this question: Where are the easy layups coming from?

Jonquel Jones has an MVP. She has a Finals MVP. And yet, she’s clearly underrated as one of the very best players in the league.

We can be honest: A couple games a month, she just doesn’t show up. Jones will look disengaged and stumble into, like, a 9/6/2 line, depressing her averages and end-of-season award cases. Over a 44-game season, she’s not a real MVP candidate. And she is allowed to have these off nights considering Stewie, who’s never taken a possession off in her life, is around to pick up the slack.

But in the 80% of games where she brings it, she’s in that top-tier of the league with A’ja Wilson and Napheesa Collier, full stop. That’s who Liberty are missing right now. They are a historically great team with here, and merely a good team without her. There’s no replacing that.

Bad timing for Leonie Fiebich

The Liberty were counting on Leonie Fiebich to take an offensive leap in her sophomore season. Starting in the second of 2024, Brondello has constantly talked about involving her in more actions, particularly as a secondary creator coming off dribble-handoffs or even initiating some pick-and-roll possessions.

It doesn’t look like it’s happening in 2025. Fiebich arrived in New York just days before the season opener, then left to compete in EuroBasket for three weeks. Over 11 games this season, she’s averaging 6 points, and hasn’t taken more than six field-goal attempts in a game once. This is not what the Liberty envisioned.

It was a glaring problem on Sunday afternoon. With Stewie and Sabrina overtaxed, Fiebich had just two shot attempts until the closing minutes of the third quarter, and passed up multiple open looks much to the dismay of the crowd a likely seething Brondello.

She sat to the bench, then hit a contested three immediately upon returning. Shoot the ball!!

Fiebich finished with more turnovers (5) than shots (4) for probably the first time in her life. Everybody is entitled to a rough game here and there, and some of her turnovers were uncharacteristically silly.

“Leo doesn’t usually play like that,” is all that Brondello needed to say postgame.

But she’s sporting a 10% usage rate this season, which is hardly higher than what you, the reader, would put up if Brondello threw you out there. We can’t even talk about her coming off dribble-handoffs or isolating favorable switches if she’s going to pass up open 3-pointers.

Without Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, who often excelled as a post-up option against smaller guards and a secondary ball-handler who could shoot it from three, the Liberty were banking on a jump from Fiebich. Without Jonquel Jones, they really need it. And they might not get it.

Nyara Sabally’s disappointing season

Kennedy Burke, bless her, is starting for the New York Liberty as Jonquel Jones pulls off increasingly cool outfits on the bench.

That should tell you all you need to know about Nyara Sabally’s season, to date. After bursting onto the scene in the 2024 WNBA Finals, Sabally seemed poised to fulfill her destiny as a truly valuable pro. New York protected her in the expansion draft over Kayla Thornton, and it made sense at the time, even though Sabally had no pathway to starting minutes. At the very least, they had a great trade asset on their hands.

Fast-forward to July, and her star has dimmed considerably, getting justifiably benched for Isabelle Harrison lately and still dealing with knee issues. It might just never happen for her on a consistent basis.

Earlier this season, Sabally received a PRP injection for her balky right knee, which caused her to miss six straight games. She was perpetually listed as day-to-day, but it turned into a near three-week absence.

The 2022 first-round pick showed some flashes upon returning, but has since fallen off as concerns about her knee have again popped up. Sandy Brondello told reporters on Sunday that she had been a non-participant in practices throughout the week, and that she had been questionable for Thursday’s victory over the Los Angeles Sparks.

(Sabally wasn’t listed as questionable on the Liberty’s public injury report, but Brondello confirmed that internally, they considered the possibility of a late scratch.)

Her knee is not right, and whether it’s just injury-related or a lack of offensive finesse and defensive awareness (or most likely a combination of both), she’s been unable to seize a tremendous opportunity with Jonquel Jones on the shelf.

At this point, Nyara Sabally is playing her age-25 season and since being drafted in ‘22, has put together about four strong weeks of play. But hey, one of those weeks came during the freaking WNBA Finals, and banners hang forever.

Other notes

• What is Natasha Cloud doing when Sabrina Ionescu is handling the ball? This was the obvious question New York would face this season, as they replaced the injured Betnijah Laney-Hamilton with a more dynamic driver and passer in Cloud, also a worse shooter. We don’t have an answer yet, though.
• It’s fascinating to see Ionescu transition from a combo-guard in 2023 to a fully ball-dominant initiator with a nearly 30% usage rate in 2025. For all of her incredible hand-eye and anticipation gifts, she doesn’t create a ton of space with a live dribble. She doesn’t feast in isolation. This will always leave her prone to these 5-of-20 shooting stretches we’ve seen from her, though this is now simply a feature of New York’s offense.

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The New York Liberty are 12-6, now the three-seed and just one game away from losing home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. There is a LONG way to go until we worry about that, but the Libs will need to stack a couple wins before Jonquel Jones returns. Their win on the road against the Golden State Valkyries in a 50/50 contest feels huge, a week later.

Their next game is scheduled to tip off on Tuesday evening at 8:00 p.m. against the Las Vegas Aces. It’s a big one for both teams, should be fun.