Liberty's Breanna Stewart to be designated as a core player, eliminating her free agency

The season is now history for the Liberty after the WNBA Finals didn’t end with the championship they sought in their superteam showdown with Las Vegas. So the business of the offseason is now an intriguing topic of conversation.

The Liberty’s two best players, Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones, were in line to be unrestricted free agents.

But general manager Jonathan Kolb said during Friday’s team exit interviews with the media that the plan is for Stewart to be designated as a core player, eliminating her free agency.

The 2023 WNBA MVP sounded fine with that. 

“It’s my first time being cored,” Stewart said. “I’m excited with what we’re doing here in New York and with the Liberty … The way we finished things up, it’s overshadowed by the disappointment in the loss, but as a whole, it’s been an extremely successful season. 

“From [the media] to everybody involved with the Liberty, to the fans, the outside general public, it’s been amazing to be a part of, and I’m looking forward to doing it for many years to come.”

Jones could be right alongside. The 6-6 center said she was “definitely trending toward coming back here.” She averaged 17 points, 11.5 rebounds and 2.4 blocks in the playoffs.

“I think she really shined in this postseason, arguably our best player, just her consistency, the effort she made defensively, on the glass, rim protection,' Kolb said. “She was incredible. So for us, it’s a player that we definitely want to retain.”

The Liberty brought in the Big 3 of Jones, Stewart and Courtney Vandersloot last offseason, then posted the winningest regular season in franchise history at 32-8 and finished two victories short of grabbing the crown versus the Aces. 

“We beat them three times [before the Finals] and were close to beating them in another one,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said of the 70-69 loss in the Game 4 finale. “It means that we’re right there. So it’s all the 1% that we need to do better. So it’s not like reinvent the whole wheel. I think we’re on the right track. I think we play the right way. We’ve just got to do it better for longer periods of time.

“You can’t win without talent in this league. That’s what we did. Now you have the talent, it’s putting all the right pieces together … Hopefully, we can run it back.”

But what else do they need to claim title No. 1? More athleticism in the backcourt?

“It’s definitely an area that we need to improve upon,” Kolb said.

Kolb mentioned improving off the bench by possibly adding “a wing or a ballhandler.”

“For the first time in a long time, we have stability in terms of our roster spots,” Kolb said. “I think our pillars are here. It’s looking at what we can tinker with. It’s going to come from the bench … Look at Stewie’s minutes this year, Sloot’s minutes this year — how we can save them a bit more during the season? We don’t want to run them into the ground.” 

Brondello sees other areas to improve.

“Defense is one of them,” she said. “You need a toughness.”

Sabrina Ionescu struggled at times on both ends during the Finals. But she said that she suffered a hip injury in the Game 4 semifinal clincher at Connecticut. There were consequences for the first two Finals games, and she didn’t feel well in another game.

“I had to get an injection before the games, just to be able to play those first two Vegas games,” Ionescu said. “Obviously, not ideal. But it was just kind of what happened. There’s no excuse, but I wasn’t really able to walk. The timing wasn’t great.”

The Liberty also weren’t feeling great about what Aces guard Kelsey Plum said about them after Game 4, that “they’re not a team” and “they don’t care about each other.” Plum apologized in a social media post Friday, but wrote that what she said was taken out of context. 

Brondello said the depiction was “not true.”

“She doesn’t know what goes on in our locker room and our huddles,” Jones said. “I think it’s easy to kick people when you’re down and they’re up. To me, it felt kind of classless.”