Allen was a bust this year even in the few games she played. Brondello can dump Whitcomb and bring in a PG somehow via a trade(Onyenwere/Willoughby/Shook mix for either of Veronica Burton, Aari McDonald, or a wing). Hope Sabally is healthy to play, her rebounding would've been greatly needed this season. Johannes is a must to bring back next year.
PG: ***/Dangerfield SG: Ionescu/Johannes SF: Laney/Allen/Willoughby? PF: Howard/Kone C: Dolson/Han/Sabally ***either via trade, free agency or draft
Don't think Stewart leaves Seattle. I'd imagine Seattle cores her. But the outside chance she wants to come to New York, trade the #6 pick, Rebecca Allen, Dolson and their 2024 1st rounder. Bring Howard off the bench and it may get NY to get a free agent PG.
Don't think Stewart leaves Seattle. I'd imagine Seattle cores her. But the outside chance she wants to come to New York, trade the #6 pick, Rebecca Allen, Dolson and their 2024 1st rounder. Bring Howard off the bench and it may get NY to get a free agent PG.
So nothing to trade then. Brondello loves her Aussies, so I guess Allen sticks. We'd probably have cap space issues, so I wonder if someone under contract would need to get traded(Allen, Dolson)? No way Whitcomb could come back then.
The team was almost certainly never gonna win the title in 2022 anyway. Let’s get that shit out of the way. That said, let’s also say that going from 8th to 7th ain’t gonna cut it in the Improvement Department. Not good enough.
So, where to begin? Here: This team basically still has five (5) true wing players, and I’m tired of all of them. Out of Allen, Richards, Onyenwere, Willoughby, and Laney – I trust not a damn one. Honestly, if the team got rid of them via conventional means – cuts, trades, salary dumps – I’d actually be happy, let alone not care. I’m not even a true-blue Liberty fan, but I’m sick of this shit. It’s been three years now of having too damn many of them – beyond time to give up on at least three of them, my goodness. If you aren’t good enough to contribute and/or stay healthy enough to contribute, you aren’t helping the team. Nothing against the people – none of them are locker room problems, which makes things harder. But this is a business. You should only get so many chances before it’s simply time to succeed. This team isn’t rebuilding anymore. It needs talented, dependable players if it cares about winning a title. Period.
AFAIC, the core of the team is Ionescu, Howard, Dolson (she really shouldn’t be starting nor would she on a championship contender [nor did she in 2021], but she did hold down the fort & undeniably stabilized the center position for the team this year), Han, and Johannès – if the latter two want to Prioritize the Liberty, that is. (Hey, maybe they will – particularly Johannès.) And no, I did not forget to put in Laney – more on her below.
And I say don’t re-sign Dangerfield unless she’s good with a TCC, and don’t re-sign Whitcomb unless she accepts a non-guaranteed lowball deal (certainly below six figures).
*Takes off my Storm hat for a sec.* Go all in on Stewart. If that fails, go all in on whoever’s below Stewart on the totem pole, more or less regardless of position. Vandersloot. Mabrey. BJones. Stevens. GWilliams. Hell, if you want Nneka but have to take Chiney too to get her, consider it. Go all in on the healthy, available top talent. If several players get seriously interested – that’s when an Allen or even Laney trade (dump?) comes into play. That’s why I wouldn’t definitively put Laney in my core group. If it comes down to wanting to sign Stewart and Vandersloot but the salary cap gets in the way, I think any of y’all wouldn’t mind dispelling Laney to get the job done if that’s what it took. I don’t trust her knee(s), and maybe never will. Again, there’d be multiple other SF options on this team let alone on the market to replace her.
Besides figuring out the SF group, it’s back to being all about getting the best posts and point guards. A good 5 or 4/5, and a good 1. This team has the assets and the selling points to get everything addressed. I just hope it has the creativity and the smarts, cuz that’s really what it’s gonna take. You don’t necessarily need to do lots, but you need to do enough – which, imo, could very well be “lots.”
Also, regarding whether or not the team should trade for Diggins should she want to come over, I thought about it, and (absolutely nobody asked, but) my answer is yes. Here’s why.
I don’t question that Skylar Diggins wants to win, and win it all. I think gave up on Phoenix this year (or whatever, whatever) precisely because she knew she wasn’t gonna win it all. I think she’s entered Tina Charles mode, in a sense. She will screw her have-nots over in order to join the haves. And if she’s helping the Liberty pile up the wins, she’s not gonna give up on them.
That said: She would have to fit in with the team, particularly Ionescu. Can’t necessarily have two alphas – though Ionescu imo is different than, say, Taurasi. But I think that’s where Brondello comes in, having worked with all these star guards now. Brondello can bridge that gap and get them on the same page both on & off the court imo.
To acquire her: Both Diggins and Laney will be making over $200k next year and have one year left on their respective contracts. If the deal is Diggins for Laney + either their 2023 1RP or Sabally + even the rights to a Kone or a Carrera (or a Shook), I say yes. And this assumes you can’t substitute the 2022 or 2023 1RP for Onyenwere or Willoughby – otherwise, duh! Anyway, like I said, I’d approve of that deal, primarily because you are still left with enough cap space to sign someone like Breanna Stewart. But actually, if the team signs Stewart, it improbably could make Howard expendable, in which a straight-up Howard-Diggins trade gets the job done afaic. (A big if within a big if, but I can see it.)
Still, Phoenix needs young talent if Diggins demands out. New York doesn’t need raw talent anymore – it needs established talent – and the team has pieces it can give up to get that talent at a premium position. The move is a risk, to be sure. But particularly if you give up Laney, it’s a risk that I honestly like and would definitely take.
My prescription: Go all in to get Stewart. However, she may not think the WNBA pays enough anyway and goes overseas, or she may want to prove she can win it all in Seattle w/o Bird. So Liberty can't plan around that.
As for Wings - you need 2 and I'd keep Laney and Onyenwere. If they don't trust Laney's health (which is the only reason to trade her) then they have to get a replacement. In that case Allen is already a protected contract so they might as well keep her. I'd say dump Willoughby no matter what (if you don't trust Laney to be healthy, Willoughby is an even worse risk -33 games in 3 seasons.) Richards might be ok, if she play either 2 or 3. I don't know what wing there is in a trade scenario that's better and healthier. I don't think Laney for SDS works because Phoenix already has a wing that's injured a lot (DD) and maybe Cunningham. But it's worth a try. Liberty do have a good draft pick which might interest the Mercury.
Get a real 5 - go for McCowan in FA or whoever else is out there.
Anyway, I give up. Kolb has his work cut out for him. This was a tough season with all of the injuries, late arrivals, etc. It seemed more like a pick up team just playing whoever was around so it's hard to build continuity with that. That said, the last few weeks of the season saw the Liberty go from what was it 9% chance of making the playoffs to actually making them, and they took the Sky to 3 games, so that's quite an accomplishment.
SDS is not the person you want. She has made it clear she's about herself, first, second and forever, and has no feelings for her teammates or fans.
In certain situations, this might work -- you're out to win a title this season, say -- but New York needs to build a culture as well as build its roster.
Sabrina is best as a combo guard, and has trouble offensively and defensively against elite quickness. But there's not that much elite quickness in the league, so managing matchups can free her up for most of any game. Of course, you have to have a lead guard as an alternative, and Dangerfield just isn't good enough, especially defensively, to play that role on a contender.
So for me, finding a young point guard is job one -- well, after throwing everything available at Breanna Stewart (free tickets for her NY family and friends, in fact maybe a whole luxury box plus transportation; endorsement deals; whatever it takes).
Dolson is OK as a glue player but the rest of the Liberty roster (the non-scoring wings) has to be better if you want to play her.
I do like Han but there must be a reason Sandy doesn't play her more. Johannes is a wild card -- so athletic but is best used outside of a structured offense, which is an issue. And she has to make those long threes off the dribble to be consistently valuable.
On the contrary, we’ve seen an “everybody get theirs” configuration on certain teams over the years – the Aces comes to mind.
I just want talent on this team first and foremost, because that’s the starting point for winning a title. Wheeler and Canada are fine, but IMO they’ll never be the type of starting PGs who can really lead & impact their team on their way to a title. Talent wins.
Speaking of talent, I don’t think Tina Charles would come back to the Liberty. If they fired Kolb though, there goes the GM who “fired” her by trading her away to Washington, seemingly opening the door for her to return if she feels the team is in contention mode.
Outside of Stewart, I'm not sure who else Kolb went after in free agency. Dolson was choice #2 and hasn't panned out. Was it him getting Johannes and Han to come over again? If both of them didn't come over, Liberty would have been in the lottery. Let's see what he does in this off-season and if he's able to bring in another piece to get them further in 2023.
As for Charles, I think she returns to Seattle as long as Stewart does. Seattle will have a good amount of cap space, so maybe they bring back Canada or go after another PG(Wheeler, Hiedeman).
If Stewart goes to NY though and Charles wants to follow her back home – and will sign for cheap like she did this season – y’all better let her onto that mf roster lol. Charles will still be downright bloodthirsty for her first title at that point, IMO.
Dolson stayed healthy and more or less was a steady contributor. She wouldn’t be a dump, to be sure. That said, I don’t know what trading away her in the final year of her deal would net you. I really think y’all ought to keep her, but you bring her in off the bench and find someone to take her starting job – namely Stewart, but it could also be a BJones or Stevens.
Dolson came off the bench with Chicago. But I don't see a need for Dolson, Han AND Sabally next year. Sabally's rebounding would have been a tremendous upside for the Liberty this season. Sabally can swing at the 4/5 spot. I also think Han is better off away from the basket. But Han and Dolson on the court together was a bad combo the few times it happened this year.
Seems like the Liberty are about where they were last year - they need a better PG and a better Center or at least a really good (or preferably great) PF. I could see some salary dumping to facilitate adding Stewart and SDS as a path to the finals. There are questions about SDS, but she did play well in Phoenix under Sandy's coaching w/o any major issues as I recall. Her absence for "personal reasons" raises a question but if one had all the facts, judgments about her might be different.
There was speculation during free agency last year that once Brondello got hired by the Liberty that Griner would follow her there. Might be a slight option if Griner gets released and wants to play next year. Imagine DT jumping ship in Phoenix to play in NY?