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00:03welcome back to another edition of Liberty lately is your guy Dexter Henry alongside my good friend
00:09Madeline Kenny she is out in LA as we are talking before the start of a interesting 13 game stretch
00:15for the Liberty Maddie how are you doing um you could just tell me tired because you came from
00:20WNBA all-star and now you're in LA for this three-game road trip how you doing you know I'm
00:25actually not tired because I have been going to bed at like 9 30 10 every night for the last
00:31like
00:32two nights or so so I'm good once I've been going to the gym I'm doing a little factory reset
00:37after
00:37all-star weekend to feel better got coffee we're good to go I'm impressed I don't know the last
00:43time I got in bed around nine or ten that that would be nice I don't know when that's happening
00:48anytime maybe it's gonna happen tonight you know what no it's not because I'm gonna watch the
00:51Liberty game I mean I say that but I'm also on the west coast so like true 10 o'clock
00:56here is what
00:571 a.m. home yes that's true so if you're still on east coast time this 1 a.m. that's
01:01sometimes when
01:02I'm going to bed but nobody cares about our bedtimes uh people care about this critical 13 game stretch
01:08and Liberty is starting that it starts in LA against the Sparks game you'll be at tonight so they
01:14start this crucial 13 game stretch before the FIBA world cup break um they have a 15 and 12 record
01:19they're sitting seventh in the standings in the W the they entered the all-star break with
01:23consecutive one-point victories we talked about the last time we got together after they had lost
01:27four straight but both of those wins that we talked about last time they required significant
01:32comebacks so do you think those victories restored confidence with this team or did it temporarily
01:37cover up the same problems that we've been talking about that produced that four game losing streak
01:41before I think it restored confidence because a lot of the problems that have been persistent
01:47persisting throughout the course of the season a lot of more self-inflicted um and I think
01:52it restored confidence just to remind them like that they who they are they are they can gut out
01:58these like gritty wins they can you know fend off a late rally they can rally themselves and be
02:04successful at it because so many times we had seen them overcome these massive deficits only to like
02:09fall short in the end um and so I think it definitely restored confidence and you didn't want the
02:15like negativity looming over a four or five days break right like you didn't want that feeling of
02:22dread almost you know of we're we're in the thick of it and you know we don't really have any
02:29answers
02:29and now we have to just sit with this loss and just that's all I can think about kind of
02:33thing
02:33so I think it was really important for them to kind of like turn that corner and now it's just
02:37about
02:37continuing to build off of it and as Brianna Stewart told me like they're not out of the mud yet
02:42there's still a lot of things that they got to work on and address and I think that that's why
02:46this this next chunk of the season before the world cup break this is going to be paramount to
02:51gearing up for the playoffs yeah you wrote about this too right and it's got this 13 game stretch
02:56that they're on now before the feeble world cup break and you talked about them turning it around
03:00and so now this stretch that they have if we just get out of 13 games for a second maddie
03:05we just look
03:06at they're gonna face the sparks uh as we record here tonight after we record this the aces so
03:12another test against the aces they've got the mercury and that's three games in five days so
03:17we talked about not being tired no rest for the weary when you look at this trip do they need
03:21to go
03:22at least two and one for this trip to feel successful or are you looking at more of the
03:28quality of their performance in these games is that more important than the record right now for this
03:32team i think i think both right because you know if you play like at a high quality you should
03:40win
03:40the game you know um and so i think yeah two two one is feels feels comfortable i mean shoot
03:46why not
03:46go for the sweep and go 3-0 to start the road trip and just like set the tone strong
03:51you know what i
03:52mean um you know the sparks are a team that are definitely beatable especially with kelsey plum out
03:57um she's not gonna play tonight last time they were here they blew a 17 point uh lead in the
04:03second half the liberty did and the sparks obviously won on that neca uh buzzer beater at the end which
04:09was incredible cinema um not if you're a liberty fan but it was just as a basketball fan you kind
04:15of
04:15it was one of those like moments that you're like wow that was that was crazy um and the aces
04:21are a team
04:21obviously that the liberty have beat they for whatever reason that's a great matchup for new york
04:26um even without saw two it'll be interesting to see if leone fibich is back by then she is on
04:31this
04:31road trip she's not playing tonight against the sparks uh chris did not have a timeline for her
04:36return when i asked him about it but you know again she's somebody that hopefully they'll get
04:41back sooner or later i think it's a good sign she's on this trip that she'll play at some point
04:45out west um and then the phoenix mercury that's a team that's kind of i don't want to say turning
04:51in the corner because they're they they have not had a good that first chunk of the season was not
04:57great for them but you know there's a lot of talent on that roster and so it's a team that
05:02you don't
05:03want to get punked by yeah still a team that's got kalia copper still has elissa thomas um you still
05:08have to respect that and they feel like they were trying to find themselves for most of this season
05:12speaking of finding themselves jonquil jones the 2026 wmba all-star mvp uh she spoke
05:20at the mvp uh excuse me the all-star media availability in chicago and she said that she
05:27considers herself one of the five best players in the world what do you think top five basketball
05:33from jj could actually look like during this stretch that we're talking about and should the liberty
05:38begin running even more of their offense through her and i'll let people know maddie and i we've
05:42had some conversations about jj and her play off camera and we both love her talent obviously but
05:49i love the mindset of her talking about the fact that she believes she's a top five player
05:53in the world and she obviously has the talent she's won a lot of things in this league but
05:57what does that look like to you maddie her being a top five player in this world
06:02just to give a little bit of context about how i got that quote was i did ask her you
06:06know she's in
06:07this room full of all stars does she view herself as one of the best players in the world and
06:11she
06:11said absolutely like she hi of course she sees herself as like one of the best players and then
06:16i asked her to rank herself and at first she wasn't going to but then she kind of said why
06:21not top five
06:22and when i i told brianna that uh brianna her eyes got really big but but like you gotta love
06:29that
06:29confidence you gotta love that like little dash of maybe even i wrote about like delusion that all these
06:35athletes have and they need to have to be able to perform at this high level that is not shade
06:39by
06:40any means and i think that jj being a top what that would look like is just a her motor
06:50being on
06:50before for a full 40 minutes taking no plays off it's a it's a tall ask you know she is
06:57a post player
06:57that is a physically demanding position um getting inside the liberty need to have they don't really
07:03have a lot of um like post-entry passers that really excel at that so trying to be more intentional
07:10maybe in in finding jj in when she has the mismatches and stuff so they can exploit the defenses
07:16um you know i think her being kind of like a little bit of the offensive hub could be really
07:21beneficial for liberty and we've seen that at various points um and then i think like just yeah
07:26as brianna stewart challenged jj just be a double double machine every night like jj needs to come in
07:32with the intention of getting a double double she needs to clean up the glass she needs to um you
07:38know if if there is a miss like get the second chance opportunity type of type of thing like
07:43they just need that level of aggression and commitment um from jj and i don't mean commitment
07:49as if like she's non-committal at times i just think it's like a tall it all goes back to
07:54motor and just
07:55you know having to dig deep when you're tired and when you're pissed off about the officiating
08:01and and whatever else is happening in the game and just letting it short-term memory goldfish type
08:08memory like not letting it impact you um which was she she had done yeah well like in the last
08:14two
08:14games yeah and any of these stretch even back a little bit further than that's like four or five
08:17games she's actually played pretty well she's had close to those double double numbers you want to see
08:22that with her i'd like to see her get some more post touches don't want to limit her to that
08:25but
08:25i would like to see some more post touches from her in this offense i do think you make a
08:30great point
08:31um did liberty sometimes do not have the best players to get those post entry passes to her but
08:36the thing we also know about jj and why you talked about her being an offensive hub she is a
08:40very to my
08:41opinion underrated passer and so she's got the ball whether it's at the three-point line top of the
08:46key she can find cutters really really well um she plays well off in the pick and roll so
08:50yeah i'd like to see jj play more like the top five player that she absolutely should believe
08:56that she is towards the end of the season now a player that ended the first half really strongly
09:01you and i talked about is sabrina nescue she had 21 points uh against dallas 29 against sky and those
09:07comeback victories um nine points in the final minute of chicago comeback that was amazing do you
09:12look at her like she's finally turned a corner physically and rhythmically or do you still think she
09:18needs to prove that she can produce consistently rather than in short explosive stretches like
09:24we've seen very recently from her i don't think sabrina nescue really needs to prove anything um i think
09:30it was only a matter of time before she was going to finally like string together several solid
09:34performances and the thing with sabrina is you kind of understand that she can be a little streaky at
09:40times but that you just have to live with it because when she is you know exceptional like she was
09:45in that
09:45final minute against the sky or even overtime in dallas when she just absolutely took over the game
09:51like though you know that she has in any instance has the opportunity to just like go inferno on
09:59whoever is in her path and so i i was never really worried about sabrina um i and if i
10:06said i was worried
10:07then maybe i was overreacting a little bit because i just think that yeah i was gonna say i'm like
10:12you're gonna like pull a clip clip and be like maddie kenny i was worried no um but i think
10:17i think
10:17sabrina she look i mean she's she's one of the best shooters in the game um she's really it's just
10:26it was just a matter of time and i think like now it's pick up where you left off continue
10:31to lead this
10:32team and because i think some of the burden of winning needs to be taken off of brianna stewart's
10:37shoulders because a lot of this first chunk of the season and i say chunk because it's more than
10:41halfway at this point but a lot of that first half of the season of sorts there was too much
10:48of
10:48relying on brianna stewart to to save the team to be the hero and you have three all-stars you
10:55know
10:55that that all can pick up the slack and you have plenty of role players who can get can play
11:02these big
11:02roles um and and help alleviate some of the pressure that is on their shoulders to carry this team and
11:09so
11:09i think that again this roster it's being tested because of the injuries um but there is balance
11:17there it just sometimes gets off balanced and there needs to be a better way of leveling the scales so
11:24if that makes sense that makes it that makes a ton of sense and you mentioned the injuries and we've
11:29kind of talked about this a lot but we we've talked sometimes how the injuries have impacted the
11:33offense but there's been an impact on the defensive side too right manny because the liberty have been
11:39without their two longest and i would say most versatile wing defenders in leone febic and satu
11:44saboli and we've talked about how the liberty have played defense right we've seen them play a lot
11:49of zone this season do you think the liberty should maybe continue to try to switch more which you've
11:55seen a little bit lately is it playing more conservatively conservatively is it blitzing elite guards when
12:01they're going against them or do you think they should lean more heavily on the zone defense that
12:04we've seen from them for a good chunk of the season yeah i think it's going to be a lot
12:10of like
12:10mosh posh type defensive coverages of mixing stuff just because you're trying to figure out like what
12:16works for that specific game or matchup um i mean look like losing satu and leone you're you you mentioned
12:23the length but it's also like the size and stuff and they they really are what makes this defense so
12:29switchable and so when i talk to like rebecca allen and rebecca gardner two players that have
12:34been really asked to step up especially on the defensive end um you know how do you handle elite
12:41opposing guards and in trying to slow them and and knock them out of rhythm um and sometimes you do
12:47have to just live with a bucket getter getting a bucket um but it's just applying that pressure and
12:52just making sure they feel you and both of them in so many ways said that they think they're playing
12:57good defense it just it comes down to playing good team defense like constantly communicating
13:02making sure that you are aware of a player's tendencies um and all of those types of sort
13:08of things and i think like defensively this team does some really good stuff like it feels like
13:13you know they might the first 18 or so seconds of a shot clock they're like they're doing playing
13:19really good defense and then it's like that one little lapse that's just like the domino
13:23that leads into maybe an open layup or or a wide open look and so um i think yeah lose
13:33not having
13:34i think when you bring leone feebish back whenever that does happen that will alleviate some of the
13:41concerns on defense um but again you're still going to be asking beck gardner beck allen when you do
13:49come in when you do get those minutes to to try to do your best to just like weather the
13:54storm
13:54while starters aren't there that's the role of reserves anyways you know yeah no no it is and
14:00look we've talked a lot about how they've missed feebish and i think you and i both have talked
14:05ad nauseum about her value to this team you said you asked chris demarco about you know when she's
14:11coming back so right now there's no established return date and then you know if you look at it in
14:15terms of an international perspective her availability for germany in the september world
14:19cup that could also be affected here too depending on when she comes back so considering what we
14:24believe is her real strong importance to new york should the liberty prioritize getting her back
14:30during this 13 game sprint towards the world cup or do they want to play this cautiously and you know
14:37risk a setback you know regardless of the standings do they want to try to not have an injury and
14:42just
14:42say hey let's just get her right whether it's before the world cup or after the world cup how
14:47do you think they might play this with feebish's health i think there's like a balance to this
14:53right like you're obviously gonna be cautious you're not gonna put a player out there before
14:57they're ready to put out there but leone feebish also wants to play you know like she needs to be
15:02saved from herself in a lot of ways but i do think the fact that she was doing an individual
15:06workout
15:07in la and is with the team is a very promising sign that she will be back sooner rather than
15:12later
15:13i'm i'm more optimistic about leone feebish coming back um and and i do think that she will
15:19return within like i i wouldn't be surprised if we see her i guess is what i'm trying to say
15:25on this
15:25west coast trip saw two i'm optimistic she'll be back at some point um you know maybe like it
15:34i don't know when i can't say when but again like for her knowing how concussions are and how
15:41challenging that is like that is something that you you it's a head injury like you have to be
15:48extremely cautious with it you have to be patient with it and the hard things about concussions is
15:53they are so non-linear there's not like uh oh i checked off this box we're moving on to the
15:58next
15:58one sometimes you think you checked off a box or two and then all of a sudden you're back at
16:03square
16:03one and that's that has to be such a frustrating process one other thing that people want to know
16:09about and you know this maddie but nagelani hamilton um she was available did have dnps in the
16:16final three games before the break and this is the major question i've been seeing this from fans
16:22everywhere that people want to know is she currently outside of rotation because of her performance
16:26and fitness and or fitness or does her absence suggest which a lot of fans have been bringing
16:32up to me when i'm at games does this suggest that something larger could be developing before the
16:37august 2nd trade deadline where she could be moved what are you hearing about benajalani hamilton
16:43yeah i think it's it's the latter in the sense that you know i believe i've already reported that
16:51she had been involved in trade talks early on annie costable of the athletic reported today that
16:56those talks have started to heat up again as we get as we near the august 2nd deadline um when
17:03i
17:03talked to people earlier in the season and like in that you know a month ago about benajia they told
17:08me
17:08that the asking price was too high for a player that is on an expiring contract and is going to
17:16be an
17:16unrestricted free agent um and so i think it it's it's a really tricky spot that the liberty find
17:22themselves in um and benajia too like you just hope both sides can find peace at the end of all
17:28of this
17:28because on one hand you have a player like benajia who's playing for her next contract who
17:33could really use the reps and the live action to establish herself yet the liberty need to win
17:41and but i would also argue for some of those games when they were on that losing streak and she
17:46didn't
17:46play or whatever that you know chris would say like oh you can't play everybody but you know if
17:51you're down significantly it does feel to some degree like right sometimes you just kind of like
17:57look for that spark and benajia you know she has been a step slow for a lot of this return
18:03um she
18:05on both ends this ends but she's also had these flashes of like good moments and so it just kind
18:10of feels like you know why not experiment why not try to get that jolt um if she is available
18:18and if you're not trying to protect her because you might use her as a trade asset which we see
18:24happen in the nba all the time so i think that's kind of the balance and again i just um
18:32yeah yeah we'll we'll see august 2nd trade deadline sunday we'll see what happens there it's going to
18:37be very interesting we'll see if she plays at all on this west coast trip real quick here maddie
18:42because we got to get out the studio when we get to the end of this three-game trip this
18:46west coast
18:46road trip what do you think should matter the most for the liberty is looking at is it their record
18:50is
18:50they're seeing their them play better defense avoiding slow starts late game execution you know
18:56in the performance of these of the three stars here what are you looking at as the thing that's
19:01going to matter the most when we get to the end of this trip let me go like what i
19:06don't what i'm
19:07not concerned about i'm not concerned about the big three because we know what we're getting out of
19:10them um i it's more so like on all of the other pieces around them like the supporting cast and
19:17how they're able to uh step up i think like that's something and we and they've they've been doing a
19:22solid job as of late so i'm not worried about that record i'm not entirely worried about it right now
19:29um just because they're sitting i believe like four games out of ninth place so they're sitting in a
19:37they're pretty comfortable at seven right now which obviously you'd want to be a higher seed
19:41for home court advantage but if the season ended today i'm pretty sure they would play
19:45the aces which this sounds crazy to say is not the worst matchup for the liberty um and so i'm
19:55not
19:55worried about that i think it just i think it does come down to late game execution and slow starts
20:03but also like slow starts the second half i think third quarters have started to kind of be that
20:08you know it was earlier in the season it was like more the second quarter that the liberty were
20:11stumbling in and now it seems like that third quarter is starting to be an achilles heel again
20:15for them and so again i just think like you got to set the tone in the first quarter like
20:21the first
20:22few minutes and you got to set the tone of the second half in the first few minutes of that
20:25third
20:26quarter and so i think those are two things that you really want to see and then the late game
20:30execution um if you do find yourself in a close game you you gotta like close out games essentially
20:37is what i'm trying to say and the liberty haven't always been um great at that there's been some
20:44finger pointing at the officiating um but i think you also at some point have to look in the mirror
20:49and
20:49ask yourself why the game was that close in those moments where a call swung it the other way or
20:55whatever so i i think in short it's the slow starts to the first and third and late game
21:02execution those are like the three things that you really gotta lock in on i feel like i like it
21:08we'll
21:08see if the liberty can lock in on that for this road trip three game road trip la vegas and
21:15then
21:15phoenix maddie will be with you with all the coverage and still getting a whole lot of sleep
21:20uh hopefully on this west coast road trip that's going to do it for this edition of liberty lately
21:25maddie thank you uh i will see you next week when we continue more things and everybody
21:29subscribe stay tuned we'll be back with you with more liberty lately