Time is fleeting. And moments and eras are even harder to decipher. Most of the time, the lines of demarcation are established long after the time has passed, meaning that when you are in it, you don’t realize when it’s over.
Perhaps, that’s where things currently stand for the New York Liberty. A team trying hard to hold on to a moment that’s already gone.
In 2023, they lost in the WNBA Finals, but in 2024, they reached their ultimate goal and brought a championship to New York.
However, 2025 was a disappointment.
The Liberty fizzled out in the opening round, losing to the Phoenix Mercury. Such defeats have consequences for teams with high standards, so the Liberty moved on from Sandy Brondello, releasing her after four years as head coach.
Now, Chris DeMarco is in charge, and he has the task of trying to get New York back to glory. The question is: What challenges stand in the way, and how can they be overcome?
Finding health and holding off Father Time will be key for the Liberty
One of the most important aspects of sports success often doesn’t get talked about? Health. Having key players available will have a huge impact on who wins it all.
Last year, the Lynx lost Napheesa Collier at the end of Game 3 against the Mercury in the semifinals and were eliminated in four games. The Fever lost Caitlin Clark early in the season, and she never came back. Both teams would’ve loved to have had their best players available, and perhaps their season would have gone the other way if they could’ve played.
We’ll never know, and that’s the harsh reality of competitive basketball.
While injuries can happen at any moment, being older doesn’t help. With age, it becomes that much harder to come back from injuries. Recovery times get exaggerated, and then when you do come back, how close are you to the version of yourself that’s expected?
Breanna Stewart is now 31 years old, and will turn 32 before the end of the 2026 season. She has plenty of miles on those legs as she enter her 10th season in the WNBA. Last year, she also had knee issues that plagued her during the regular season and postseason. While she gave a valiant effort in the playoffs, she was clearly not 100 percent. Can her body hold up this year?
Even younger players, however, are not immune from the vagaries of health and injury. Case in point, Sabrina Ionescu will miss the start of the season with an ankle injury.
While Ionescu avoiding a major injury is a sigh of relief for the Liberty, it does set the team back, as they are without their star guard at the beginning of a new season under a different head coach.
Other injuries can arise, with key players like Jonquel Jones and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton not exactly being spring chickens. New addition Satou Sabally not only has battled nagging injuries throughout her career, but she’s also coming off a severe concussion.
Monitoring minutes and hoping for health will be even more important for the Liberty than for other, younger teams.
Sabrina Ionescu needs to be an elite 3-point shooter again
While basketball is a team sport, stars run the show. They can overwhelm opponents and swing not just games, but entire playoff series. When a franchise has an A’ja Wilson or a Clark, it means they always have a chance at success.
Ionescu is a star in her own right. But recently, her 3-point shooting, once considered her strongest talent, has taken a downturn. In 2025, she took 7.1 3s per game, which was her lowest per-game output since 2022. On those shots, she converted on just 29 percent of them—her worst percentage from the depths of her career.
There needs to be an increase in volume and improved accuracy for Ionescu to be the best version of herself and the Liberty to have a legitimate shot at a title. It will take a combination of Ionescu being an aggressive shooter and DeMarco creating a system that encourages that from her to get this done.
Is this New York’s last, best championship chance?
Currently, the Aces are the champs, and teams like the Fever are soon going to join the top tier of the WNBA. It might be too early to say the window for the Liberty is closed, but again, if they don’t win it this year, that question will only be asked even louder.
They already made the extreme move of firing the coach they found so much success with, so this has to work. If not, then a complete rebuild will be what’s next in Brooklyn.
If the franchise wants to avoid that, then it’s time not just to rack up wins in the regular season, but also to find playoff success. Because, as we saw last season, it’s not enough to win; the requirement is to win it all.
Liberty fans, do you agree?
Is it title-or-bust, or do you believe that this team has a wider contention window? Are you confident that DeMarco can find the right formula to make it all work? Or, will it ultimately come down to the stars, their health and their performance in the biggest moments?
