August 5, 2025
Locked On Women’s Basketball: Does Sabrina Ionescu have 2025 WNBA MVP case with New York Liberty?
Howard Megdal and Jackie Powell talk Sabrina Ionescu's offensive and defensive improvements, and more
On today’s episode of Locked On Women’s Basketball, host Howard Megdal and The Next’s New York Liberty beat reporter Jackie Powell discuss the case for Sabrina Ionescu to win the 2025 WNBA MVP award. They also recap recent roster moves across the WNBA, including an instant reaction to today’s trade bringing Brittney Sykes to the Seattle Storm.
Continue reading with a subscription to The Next
Get unlimited access to women’s basketball coverage and help support our hardworking staff of writers, editors, and photographers by subscribing today.
Already a member?
Login
First, they discussed Ionescu’s offensive flexibility, and how she’s improved areas of her game beyond her staple three-point shooting:
“She’s spoken to reporters about this,” Powell said. “She knew that she needed to improve the rest of her game, and she specifically focused on her mid range, which is interesting, because, as we know, the Liberty they very much so play to the percentages. You know, they’re all about easy shots at the rim versus shots beyond the arc. But I think for Sabrina, it’s always been about, can she be a creator? Because people know that she’s been a really good pick and roll guard, and so I think for her, she wants to become someone who, when her team needs a bucket or something, and there’s a bit of a crunch, that she could be a go to.”
“Becoming Caitlin Clark” is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
“The fact that her gravitational pull is going to make shots easier for her teammates,” Powell continued. “I mean, you and I have spoken a lot about how when Jonquel Jones was out, it was much more difficult for Breanna Stewart to find efficiency. And as we know, because Jonquel Jones was out, Breanna Stewart’s bandwidth was stretched out, and as a result, she’s going to be out for around a month with this bone bruise to make sure that she’s fresh for the postseason. And so, the same sort of goes for Sabrina Ionescu, or actually, the same goes for Jonquel Jones, and now Emma Meesseman, where if Sabrina Ionescu is picking up a trap two to the ball, JJ and Emma are going to be in space, and they’re going to have the room to to score, to make things happen.”
Then, they talked about how specifically her defense has evolved, and is continuing to improve:
“I think Sabrina’s defense has drastically improved,” Powell said. “But I do think that when she’s at her moments of most fatigue, that’s sometimes when she returns back to what she was, if that makes sense … when she is focused, she is much better than she was last year, … especially when she first entered the league, and 2021 and 2022, both those years not the most healthy, but I think it reminds me of how Skylar Diggins … became a much better defender in the WNBA, and there was a common thread between the two of them, and that is head coach Sandy Brondello.”
“Part of it to me is the fact that she is so drastically improved defensively,” Megdal said. “She’s become a better player than I thought was a reasonable expectation for her ceiling coming into the league. And I say that as somebody … [who] thought she was a franchise changer. I thought she had the chance to be the best player, potentially, on a championship team. It wasn’t like I came in thinking, ‘ah, she gonna be a role player,’ but … I thought the best you could hope for was somebody who wasn’t going to be so problematic defensively that you had to sub her out of critical points, and she is worlds away from that. It also, again, how good does she have to be defensively when Emma Meeseman is going to be on the floor full time, when Breanna Stewart is back, Jonquel Jones is there as well, and Leonie Fiebich, who is just an amazing defensive player at this point in her career, you put all that together, and she just has to be good, right? Like Natasha Cloud is really good on ball defending, but you don’t necessarily need her for a closing lineup because of Sabrina’s improvement at that end. So where I think it matters most, Sabrina’s improvements, is right now. This next month, where the New York Liberty are without Brianna Stewart.”
Want even more women’s sports in your inbox?
Subscribe now to The IX Sports and receive our daily women’s sports newsletter covering soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, hockey and gymnastics from our incredible team of writers. That includes Basketball Wednesday from founder and editor Howard Megdal.
Readers of The IX Basketball now save 50% on their subscription to The IX.
Tune in to hear more from Megdal and Powell on how Meesseman is fitting into the Liberty’s roster, and what we can expect from the Liberty when Breanna Stewart returns to the court later in the season. Make sure to subscribe to the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast to keep learning about women’s college basketball, the WNBA, basketball history and much more!
Also, check out Megdal and Powell’s instant reaction to the blockbuster trade bringing the Brittney Sykes from the Washington Mystics to the Seattle Storm:
Monumental Sports and Entertainment, the group that owns the Washington Mystics, holds a minority stake in The Next. The Next’s editorial operations are entirely independent of Monumental and all other business partners.
