00:02welcome back to another edition of liberty lately dexter henry here interesting friday
00:08for the new york liberty as they introduced their big acquisition of the off season
00:13satsu saboli made her appearance first time to the media got a chance to hear from her all the
00:19media did i was not in attendance today but luckily to have somebody in usually madeline
00:25kenny joins me on here but i have a good friend joining me who was in attendance at the training
00:30center across the street from the barclay center it's my guy miles ehrlich who does a fantastic job
00:34of covering the liberty for a wind sider miles what's going on man how you doing i'm good dex
00:40happy to get going this has been a kind of hectic off season but now the uh the finish lines
00:45around
00:45the corner and we can finally get things started i know we're actually going to be able to talk
00:49about training camp and then see pre-season basketball and then basketball that actually
00:54counts i'm i'm really excited for this liberty season um i know that you are too but miles you
00:58were at the press conference today where the media heard from satsu sabli they also heard from head
01:04coach chris de marco what were the major takeaways for you that you heard from both satsu and coach
01:10de marco here at this presser so they're both new to this organization i think that that's something
01:15that we saw parallels in what they told the media because while they're really excited to be joining
01:20a team with this franchise and championship pedigree they are they are newcomers and
01:27they both are coming from situations where their roles are going to be very different and i think
01:33that with satsu specifically she obviously has a lot of familiarity with this roster her sister
01:39niara played here and won a championship here and is no longer here but she said she spoke to her
01:43a lot
01:43and got to experience a lot of new york through her as a fan when she was here in the
01:492024 finals
01:50watching the liberty and watching niara win and she played with sabrina in college she played with
01:55um brianna stewart overseas she played with leone fiewicz in germany on the national team so she knows a lot
02:03of these pieces already so this this fit is not as alien as it would be for a lot of
02:07stars coming in
02:08and she's ready to win and i think that that's what we're what what the fit we're looking for most
02:13is in terms of there are a lot of mouths to feed this is an embarrassment of riches that this
02:18team
02:18has and a lot of very talented players and i think that that chemistry will help her and as for
02:23chris
02:23demarco he's had kind of a hectic whirlwind of an offseason this has been one of the strangest
02:28wmba offseasons we've ever seen so for him it's just bringing he was emphasizing how important it was to
02:35get his coaching staff right and people from all corners of basketball because everything is kind
02:40of so new and um he's just excited to get running now and has a lot of different options yeah
02:46i'm
02:47sure that he's as excited as we are just to get everything running now you mentioned fit right and
02:52i think that's people's biggest question around this satsu saboli signing right you think that this
02:58this will fit well how how seamlessly do you think it will be for her fit offensively one and then
03:04defensively because this is a team that's going to have a lot of length particularly in the front
03:08court and i guess my second part of this question is how dangerous do you think this new if i'm
03:14gonna
03:14this is a nickname i'm just tossing it out there fantastic four if we want to call it for the
03:19liberty
03:19how dangerous do you think this fantastic four can be if satsu sabli fits very seamlessly into this
03:26team both offensively and defensively yeah well i love the nickname but i was actually going to go in
03:30a different direction here a little bit because i think there are two players that are returning
03:34to this lineup in 2026 that will make the difference and it's satsu sabli and it's benajalini
03:39hapleton and something that i think we saw with the liberty last year is they lost a little bit of
03:45that that grit and that toughness and that that late clock shot making that was such a a staple of
03:52the championship team and benajia was always the bucket you can go too late and i think that the same
03:57is true for satsu she's someone who can go and get a bucket and there were times last year that
04:01there
04:01was a an unselfishness even though there was all the talent in the world and uh bringing in those
04:07two players into this lineup this year is going to be huge in terms of what the liberty could do
04:11on
04:11that offensive side of the floor then defensively you've got so much length and we know that jonathan
04:16cold historically has loved length on this roster and now you're going to have satsu or stewie or however
04:22you want to line it up at the three with jj up front either benajia or leo once she's back
04:27from from
04:29overseas she gets a late start and then sabrina at the one it's just a lot of size and a
04:33lot of
04:33length and a lot of switchability so this is very much modern wmba basketball yeah it really is and
04:39we heard that was at two off seasons ago jonathan cope talked so much about that about how he wanted
04:43to make this team you know longer better defensively more switchable and we've seen the evolution of that
04:49with this roster over the last couple of years and so miles i guess in totality when you look at
04:54this
04:54liberty off season so far what do you make of what the liberty have done in terms of reshaping their
05:02roster or setting their roster up for this 2026 season a season where i think a lot of people are
05:07expecting them to be the favorites to take the title here in the w i would say even if it
05:11was status quo
05:12even if you were just bringing back all the talent we've seen across the w in this last week or
05:17so that
05:18that is not a given so they did a really great job of just maintaining what they had and now
05:22adding a
05:23three-time all-star in sati sadly yes you're gonna have to figure out how to make it all work
05:27but
05:27that's a great problem to have i think this is a a huge success of a really condensed and tight
05:33off
05:33season that maintains them with their championship window and makes them you know one of the favorites
05:39to have a chance to win it all again so they've got to be very happy with where they're sitting
05:44before anything before we start playing and before anything counts yeah they've got to be happy liberty
05:49fans are excited we're just excited to get back to covering some w basketball good day today to see
05:54satu sadly introduced there chris demarco speaking as well that is miles early check him out does a
06:00fantastic job covering the liberty for winsider it's been a while since i've seen you my friend i
06:04appreciate you joining me on liberty lately and i will see you in person soon yeah i'll see you soon
06:08feel better dex thanks man
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