{"id":780601,"date":"2026-05-07T22:35:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T22:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/780601\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T22:35:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T22:35:14","slug":"liberty-to-begin-2026-wnba-season-with-short-rotation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/780601\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty to begin 2026 WNBA season with short rotation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The start of the Liberty<\/a>\u2018s season is here.<\/p>\n

And so are the challenges for head coach Chris DeMarco.<\/p>\n

The Liberty could enter Friday\u2019s season opener \u2014 and upcoming games in the near future \u2014 with just seven players available due to injuries and overseas commitment.<\/p>\n

On the mend are Sabrina Ionescu (ankle)<\/a>, Rebecca Allen (left leg)<\/a> and Satou Sabally (cyst), all ruled out for Friday.<\/p>\n

Sabally\u2019s latest cyst designation comes after the ex-Mercury star missed all preseason games with what the team called \u201creconditioning.\u201d Allen also had her \u201creconditioning\u201d status changed in Thursday evening\u2019s injury report.<\/p>\n

Marine Fauthoux, the Liberty\u2019s lone development player as of Thursday night, is still bouncing back from a new injury. Whenever Fauthoux is ready to go, the team has the option of activating her for up to 12 games without roster or cap impact.<\/p>\n

Leonie Fiebich and Raquel Carrera currently aren\u2019t with the team as they fulfill Spanish Euroleague duties with Valencia.<\/p>\n

The restraints are DeMarco\u2019s first real issue as a WNBA head coach.<\/p>\n

But his players are still embracing the obstacles.<\/p>\n

\u201cListen, I\u2019d rather have the challenge early,\u201d said team leader Breanna Stewart. \u201cYou know what I mean? For us to know that we\u2019re 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 \u2014 hopefully, it won\u2019t be bumpy, but there\u2019s 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\u2019t have to do it all season. That would be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luckily for the Liberty, there are six off days scheduled after the fourth game of the season (May 14 at Portland Fire).<\/p>\n

Stewart is embracing the \u201cchallenge\u201d head on, and the optimism comes after a season of injuries that ravaged the team\u2019s title defense.<\/p>\n

The 2025 title defense under previous head coach Sandy Brondello came with lengthy absences to the Big 3 throughout the 44-game regular season: Stewart and Jonquel Jones missed 13 games apiece, and Ionescu sat out six.<\/p>\n

Two of the three are back for the season opener, but their miles may vary.<\/p>\n

DeMarco said Thursday he\u2019ll \u201cmeet with his staff and decide\u201d on how many minutes Stewart, 31, will play. He also didn\u2019t disclose if Betnijah Laney-Hamilton \u2014 or any other Liberty hooper \u2014 would be on a minutes restriction.<\/p>\n

Laney-Hamilton would be a likely candidate for a minutes restriction as she is playing in her first WNBA regular season minutes since sitting out the entirety of last season recovering from a meniscus injury.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we\u2019ll monitor it,\u201d DeMarco said of her veteran guard\u2019s minutes.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s initial starting lineup will be impacted with two voids \u2014 Ionescu and Sabally \u2014 left to fill.<\/p>\n

Look for Pauline Astier<\/a> to play starter minutes with a starting guard spot now open.<\/p>\n

In Thursday\u2019s practice open for media view, a lineup of Astier, Laney-Hamilton, Stewart, Jones and Marine Johannes played five-on-five against the team\u2019s practice squad.<\/p>\n

DeMarco, however, dismissed the idea of that rotation being a preview of what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot really. [We\u2019re] mixing & matching. Obviously shorthanded today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If that lineup does get some playing time, Stewart likes the dynamic it brings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019ll put stress on [the] other team\u2026 where we have five scorers on the floor at all times,\u201d the two-time MVP said of what the lineup brings. \u201cAlso just a little bit of newness from Pauline. Hopefully she can kind of show her international game a little bit more in her WNBA debut, which is really exciting for her. And then defensively, we want to be active. We want to be fast and get the ball back as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rebekah Gardner and Han Xu are slated for playing time regardless of their long-term roles. Per Gardner, the structure of New York\u2019s roster sets the team up for success despite the lengthy injury report.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great thing about being on the New York Liberty is that players one through 12 can be starters on any team,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I feel like even if we\u2019re missing two or three players, that we still have great players to step in and step up and take those roles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The start of the Liberty\u2018s season is here. And so are the challenges for head coach Chris DeMarco.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":780602,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[5336,190432,4548,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-780601","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-breanna-stewart","9":"tag-chris-demarco","10":"tag-liberty","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116535684460267377","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780601"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780601\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}