The Liberty’s latest struggles explained: Communication, confidence and crashing the glass

“I was here and watched practice yesterday, and I thought it was a really good practice,” she told reporters on Tuesday. “We had lots of energy…and then that just carried over to today. We had pace. Everybody put their bodies on the line, so it was just good to be back.”

During her absence, the Liberty went 2-5, and their defensive rating league-wide dropped from first to third overall. Their offensive rating took a slight dip as well, falling from first to second.

At practice on Wednesday at Barclays Center, the whiteboard read “switching groups” with two lists of players underneath it. Work on both ends was done in the Liberty’s last two practices since being back in New York, but the defense was what faltered more during their 10-day road trip, when they only picked up two wins out of four total games.

The Liberty’s recent struggles have coincided with some pretty significant absences as Fiebich left for EuroBasket on June 11 and Jonquel Jones re-tweaked her right ankle on June 19 against the Mercury. Matters were made even worse when Sabrina Ionescu missed New York’s 89-79 loss to the Storm with a sore neck and didn’t shoot or move well off-ball in the following games against the Valkyries, Mercury and the Dream.

In a sense, the Liberty were without three starters during their road trip and only had two practices to try to iron out kinks with different bench players like Nyara Sabally, Marine Johannès, Kennedy Burke, and Rebekah Gardner stepping into larger roles without much preparation.

Your business can reach over 3 million women’s sports fans every single month!

Here at The Next and The IX, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women’s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, reach out to our team at BAlarie@theixsports.com to discuss ways to work together.

The aura around the team following the losses has included different schools of thought. There’s a hunger and frustration to get back out on the floor and get back into the win column, but also there’s a sense of calm that their main aspirations aren’t unattainable just because they now sit third in the standings and didn’t compete in the Commissioner’s Cup final on Tuesday night.

“It’s definitely been tough,” Ionescu said at practice on Wednesday. “But I think everyone kind of sees big picture, and isn’t really panicking. I think it’s just that understanding of we need people to step up. We need people to continue to try and make up for the players that aren’t here, and those are really big shoes to fill, and so we just need to continue to chip away.”

Since the roster-building style of Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb is predicated on depth and having two players for nearly every role on the roster, the Liberty’s recent struggles came as a bit of a surprise. However, a lot of what Jones and Fiebich bring on both sides of the floor remains under the radar and difficult to glean in simple game stats, and it was a lot of those more minute details that Jones and Fiebich bring that were missing from New York’s play.

Defensive struggles predicated on role changes

What popped out for the Liberty defensively during this stretch has been over-helping on ball screens and a lack of communication, resulting in more mistakes. Assistant coach and defensive coordinator Olaf Lange explained it to The Next as “issues converging.”

This comes as a result of both Jones and Fiebich being absent from the defense, but why? Jones’ defensive ability isn’t just from what she can do physically, but it’s also from her communication skills, both verbal and nonverbal as the team’s rim protector that often aids teammates in knowing what they can and cannot do on a defensive possession, particularly in ball screens.

“When I’m in the actions, but I try to make sure that, like, if [Natasha Cloud] is up there pressing and she’s doing that, then for the entirety of the game that she’s hearing me behind her, not having to worry about looking over her shoulder if someone’s going to come up and screen her and she’s going to get hit without someone talking to her,” Jones said on Tuesday explaining her communication style. “So, whether that’s me calling and saying, ‘you’re by yourself, or screen left screen right,’ I’m trying to talk to those guards that are up there, and then in those actions.”

Fiebich is the calming presence on the perimeter. She’s the Liberty’s best perimeter and point of attack defender, and she often helps others when other players make mistakes. But beyond Jones and Fiebich missing in action, why were there such struggles, especially with two-way players coming off the bench?

Want even more women’s sports in your inbox?

Subscribe now to our sister publication The IX and receive our independent women’s sports newsletter six days a week. Learn more about your favorite athletes and teams around the world competing in soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, hockey and gymnastics from our incredible team of writers.

Readers of The Next now save 50% on their subscription to The IX.

Lange attributed this to confidence levels and he was able to analyze the team’s defensive performance and defensive body language in moments when Jones and Fiebich were on the floor and in moments when they weren’t.

“We’re looking back and some of the games we had, and we see [Fiebich] and [Jones] and then everybody’s just way more confident. Always composed. We do what we do, and all of a sudden, we miss those pieces, and people trying to make up. And it gets a little more on the frantic side.”

In particular, this explains why Nyara Sabally has struggled during this stretch, starting as the Liberty’s center, meanwhile she’s not the rim protector that Jones is. Also, Lange explained to The Next that Sabally is still trying to find her footing after not playing for almost three weeks.

“She’s just working herself back, and you see her, she does what she can, but she’s not in herself at 100%,” he said. “And then the chemistry will lack on both ends.” 

Offensive issues were about transition and spacing

The Liberty’s offensive struggles can be connected to their issues on defense, especially if the team is taking the ball out of the net and struggling to acquire defensive rebounds on an opponent’s misses. When Jones spoke with reporters on Tuesday, she explained that New York’s boxing out could use some improvement. With a much more spaced out modern offense, the Liberty are often “turning and looking for the basketball” instead of crashing the glass.

New York cannot play out their transition offense, which was lethal to start the season, if they don’t focus on acquiring possessions off the glass. Liberty assistant coach and offensive specialist Sonia Raman noticed that the team’s opportunities in transition decreased as the road trip continued. Players were moving much more slowly, and as a result, advantages in the open floor weren’t created as often.

On offensive possessions in particular against the Mercury and then the Dream, New York struggled with being in their spots and spacing around where the main on-ball action was happening. When a ball handler would penetrate, players weren’t in advantageous spots to receive the ball and move the defense. While Cloud successfully got downhill after games prior, hesitating with the ball in her hands, there weren’t many opportunities for her to drive-and-kick.

“I think sometimes we’re trying to get out, and we are sometimes ahead of the ball, and we have players trailing, and so we’re getting into our action really early, but they have five players back, and there’s not as much opportunity for them for kick outs as we’re waiting,” Raman told The Next. “So we’ve just been talking about slowing down a little bit, like we want to get out and run in transition, but then if that break opportunity isn’t there, slow down a little bit, and people get to their spots.”

Tune in to Locked On Women’s Basketball

Here at The Next, in addition to the 24/7/365 written content our staff provides, we also host the daily Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast. Join us Monday through Saturday each week as we discuss all things WNBA, collegiate basketball, basketball history and much more. Listen wherever you find podcasts or watch on YouTube.

Listen now!

Raman doesn’t have an issue with open shots early in the shot clock, which was something the Liberty did often during the road trip. But what she does take issue with is if those early shots aren’t open. If a defense is set, then the New York needs to move the ball and have the defense react to second and third-side actions.

From watching the team on the sideline during this road trip, Jones also believes that better communication needs to happen on offense, especially when the players getting more reps off the bench have, by default, less chemistry with some of the starters.

“I know we have people in the system that haven’t played in the system before that are now in big roles, and it’s really tough to kind of understand exactly what’s expected of you in actions, where there are two, three different things that you can do,” she said. “And so sometimes you can kind of see them get into like, a mode of just, like, overthinking everything, and then you’re not really doing anything at all.”

Jones has taken it upon herself to talk to some of her teammates about how they can better communicate with some of the players that are now getting much more reps, so they don’t look like fish out of water.

Leonie Fiebich’s return comes at opportune time

While Jones remains out and will be for at least two more weeks, Fiebich will return to play on Thursday against the Sparks at home. The team already had a pep in their step by just having her back practicing on Wednesday. Ionescu noted that the team feels “more like” themselves after only having her back for a single practice.

“People kind of get back to being in their comfort zone, knowing their role, what they have to do, the minutes they’re going to play,” Ionescu said.

The on-off numbers since Fiebich left for EuroBasket have only gotten more striking. Without her on the floor, the Liberty’s net rating is now -1.25, a whole 20 points below what it was right before their 10-day road trip began. But like Jones, Fiebich’s value is tied to how she communicates and gives confidence to her teammates. That’s exactly what Fiebich expects out of herself in her return to the floor on Thursday night.

“Defending, being physical, knocking down my shot, making good decisions, not making mistakes,” she said. “That’s what I always do.”