Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb built this roster to withstand adversity after an injury-marred 2025.
We’ve got you covered on the Liberty beat Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Madeline Kenney about all things Liberty and WNBA.
The Liberty are planning to be without at least four players for Friday’s season opener against the Connecticut Sun.
Sabrina Ionescu (left foot), Satou Sabally (cyst) and Rebecca Allen (left leg) have already been ruled out.
And Leonie Fiebich and Raquel Carrera aren’t expected to join the Liberty until later this month when they wrap up their season with Spanish club Valencia Basket.
The Liberty are expected to sign at least one player to a hardship contract before the opener, a source told The Post.
The early-season adversity is far from ideal, especially considering how last season went.
Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Ionescu appeared in just 15 games together in 2025.
But Stewart didn’t want to dwell on the negative.
“I’d rather have the challenge early,” she said after Thursday’s practice. “We’re working through some things, but we have enough on the court at all times and just focus on getting healthy. The beginning of the season is going to be like, hopefully it won’t be bumpy, but there’s going to be ebbs and flows throughout it, and for us to kind of continue to build and work through that so that we don’t have to do it all season, that would be great.”
Ionescu is sidelined for at least two weeks — and set to miss four games — after hurting her left foot in Sunday’s preseason finale.
Meanwhile, Allen and Sabally’s timelines are in flux.
The Liberty also want to take a cautious approach to Betnijah Laney-Hamilton’s workload considering she missed all of last season because of knee surgery.
Coach Chris DeMarco said the team is still assessing whether any players will be on minutes restriction.
“We’ll meet as a staff and decide what rotations look like and try to get the minutes down the best we can,” he said. “And we have players that we like, they’re still available to play.”
Fortunately for New York, the start of its schedule is fairly low-key.
It’ll be their second game against Connecticut in five days, having just played them in the preseason.
“It helps having seen a team already,” DeMarco said. “But it was also preseason and rotations were probably different for them and us.”
New York then heads to D.C. to play the Mystics on Sunday before going West to play the newly added Portland Fire twice in three days.
Covering the Liberty like never before Sign up for Madeline Kenney's Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.
The Liberty will have a week of practice between their second game at Portland on Thursday and their May 21 game against the Golden State Valkyries.
The Liberty learned their lesson from a year ago, ensuring that this roster is much more injury-proof.
“We built the roster with depth in mind and understanding that we might have players coming later,” DeMarco said. “The players who are already here are ready to go.”
Rebekah Gardner is also confident in the team’s depth.
“The great thing about being on the New York Liberty is that players 1 through 12 can be starters on any team,” she said. “So I feel even if we’re missing two or three players that we still have great players to step in and step up and take those roles.”
