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00:02The regular season is over for the New York Liberty, but we're still going with Liberty
00:07Lady. Dexter Henry, Madeline Kenney here with you, and we have made it, my friend, through
00:1344 days. All the travel you've done, not me, everywhere you've been, all the beautiful
00:19stories that you have written. Season's over, but we still got playoff basketball to go.
00:24Best season.
00:25Best season ever? For you?
00:27No, I'm saying playoffs is the best season.
00:28Oh, playoffs is the best season.
00:29It's the best time of year. It's like Christmas.
00:31Yes, I would agree. Playoffs are the best season. Now, the Liberty, they ended this season with
00:37back-to-back losses to the Atlanta Dream. We usually like to talk about teams going into
00:41the playoffs with momentum, positive momentum, that is. Liberty don't have that here. Is
00:46that a concern for you?
00:48Not exactly. I think there's other things I'm a little bit concerned about, and that's like
00:52Brianna Stewart and Jonquo Jones' injuries, which we will touch on later. But I think the
00:56biggest thing about these two games heading into it was the first game in particular, that's
01:03the one I want to talk about more, which I know we already talked about. But today's game
01:06kind of felt like a wash. As soon as Brianna Stewart was scratched with the lefty sword is
01:11or whatever. It felt like, are they tanking for Minnesota? Because Minnesota already clinched
01:17the top seed.
01:18Do you think they were?
01:21It's a very possibility.
01:23It's possible.
01:23But no, I actually do think Stewie was dealing with a knee issue.
01:27And they want to be cautious.
01:28And they want to be absolutely cautious at this time of the season. But it just feels
01:32like you want to be a team that's like peaking at the right time. And I can't say that this
01:36maybe this team that we saw in Minnesota and in Toronto, like that team looks really strong
01:43and really good. But the last two games against the Atlanta Dream just were kind of duds.
01:47Yeah, it really did. I do agree. The first game, probably more disappointing because you
01:51felt like they had a chance to win it and probably change their payoff, playoff seating.
01:54Now we know the Liberty, they are going to be the AC. They are going to play the Minnesota
01:58Leagues in the first round. We are going to get to that a little bit. I got to ask you
02:02when we look at this, now the season is over. Chris DiMarco finishes his first season, first
02:0744 games here in New York. How do you evaluate the job Chris DiMarco did in year one here in
02:13New York?
02:14I think that he had a tough job. I think he knew going into this that he was going to
02:18be
02:19challenged and, you know, expectations were obviously to win a championship. And he signed
02:23up for that. He signed up for the pressure that comes with being a head coach in New York
02:27and the expectations of a franchise like the Liberty who are so aggressive in their pursuit
02:32of winning championships. Obviously, they haven't been successful on the S yet. They've only won
02:37one, but that is the ultimate goal. And I think, you know, the cards that were dealt have complicated,
02:44you know, the first season with even the roster injury, like the injuries that they have had
02:49to deal with. Sabrina missed the start of the season. Satu Saboli missed the start of the season,
02:54but Nyjah didn't really work out. She wasn't the player that she was pre-injury, which is no fault
03:01to her own. It's just, it's kind of a tough reality. And then Satu gets the concussion. They hold out
03:06hope
03:07that she's going to return, ends up getting rolled out. You know, this team has really been carried
03:12by Brianna Stewart this season. Oh yeah. And so I think when we talk about Chris's first season,
03:18we got to talk about some of, you know, there's plenty of blame to go around. And I think we
03:22got
03:23to look at the roster and look at the players that he has and that depth that looks so strong,
03:27you know, coming into the season was maybe not as strong as we thought it was. And some of these
03:31injuries, you know, there was, there was talk about like, oh, Jonathan Cole injury proofed this
03:36roster and then adversity struck. And it turned out maybe that wasn't the case. And, you know,
03:42maybe then next year you need to get more athletic, you know, players and stuff like that. And so I
03:47think, I think there's, there's layers to all of this overall, I would give the first season,
03:53you know, an average, like maybe like a B minus. Yeah. Like a B like, you know, I think that
04:00there
04:01were lessons that were learned throughout the course of this season. And I think the biggest thing
04:05is like, he came to the WNBA with no background in women's basketball, obviously a lot of
04:12background in basketball in general, that was coaching a dynastic team or part of a dynasty and
04:18all of that. But I think it just, if anyone thought it was going to click year one, like
04:22seamlessly, uh, they don't know sports. No, but we, we always said that despite the championship
04:28expectations from the start of the year, we were like, this is going to be a process. Yeah. Now I
04:32think we thought it could be better for the Liberty towards the end of the season. I think
04:37we saw this like progression. Yeah. Cause they were 13 and six over their last 19 games after
04:42starting off 13 and 12 to the first 25. So we did see them improve better. Was it exactly where
04:47you want it to be? Probably not. It's a little bit sort of disappointing with the finish here
04:52against Atlanta. Sure. I can see all that. Okay. So you gave a B in terms of a grade for
04:57Christomarco. What about the Liberty season as a whole? When we look at this Liberty season
05:02and the players, what are you giving them the same grade that you're giving the coach?
05:06Or do you look at it differently because the players had such high expectations that including
05:11us, we thought this was a championship contender. We'll get to that later. But when you look at
05:16the expectations to what has happened and they have one more loss than they did last year,
05:21what grade would you give this Liberty team? I feel like if we were doing grades on players,
05:24we would have to go through like individually every single player because every player has had
05:29like good moments, bad moments, maybe even like some players have had really tough seasons. You
05:33know, Sabrina Unescu, for example, has really struggled this season. She has not looked at
05:37herself. She has dealt with injuries, obviously still dealing with a back issue. But, you know,
05:41I think overall, like the Liberty season, I would rate, you know, with first year Chris and
05:48players and the gelling and everything, I would rate it a C plus, you know, like, you know,
05:53they made the playoffs. They're probably not where they wanted to be position wise.
05:57Definitely not.
05:57They're a loss worse than a year ago. Obviously, there's way more parity in the WNBA this year.
06:04And it's way more competitive. And I think that's something that needs to be included when we talk
06:11about comparing last year's roster to this year's roster and like record. But yeah, I think I would
06:17go with like a solid C plus. Okay. You got Professor Maddie with the grades here. C plus
06:22there. Now you talked about Brianna Stewart not playing in the regular season finale and some
06:28concerns for her and John Quill Jones. Where are you? Where's the team with that for both of those
06:35players? And do you think they'll be ready for game one against Minnesota? Yeah, the Liberty were
06:39trying to like evoke this little concern regarding their availability. I mean, Chris DeMarco was non-committal
06:46about Brianna Stewart. He said that she was out for precautionary reasons today. But then
06:50he also didn't say when he was asked about her playoff status that he didn't say she was going
06:55to play or not going to play. That's kind of like hopefully she'll play. And with John Quill
06:59Jones, she stepped on a fan's foot in the third quarter of today's game, exited the game with
07:04an ankle injury. We didn't get a chance to talk to her postgame. Leo said that she was in good
07:10positive spirits and all right. And Leo said, we're good to we're going to be good to go or
07:16something along those lines. Sabrina Unescu said that she didn't think any of those injuries were
07:20that concerning. But you know, anytime your star player gets injured this close to the postseason,
07:28it is a concern. And I think, you know, knowing Stewie, she's going to play. I mean,
07:33she played on a sprained MCL last year. Like this is the time that you push your body to its
07:37limits.
07:38And I think you're also going to see that with John Quill Jones, too. So depending on the severity
07:42of his injuries, if they get the OK that you can play, they're going to play. Yeah, they're going
07:45to play. And you saw it, I think, in the final finale. Granted, no Stewie. You see how much
07:49we've been talking about it all year. This team needs Stewie. Stewie is the absolute backbone of this
07:54team and gets everything going because this was not a good showing for the Liberty with only 65
07:59points in the regular season finale. With that being said, Liberty 8 seed, we sat here the other day
08:05and I asked you, what matchup do you think could be good for them? You said, I think the
08:09Lynx could be a good first round matchup for them. They get the Lynx now. Do they have a realistic
08:14shot of upsetting the Lynx in your eyes? I think they do. And I think it's because,
08:18you know, yes, they played the Lynx really well this season. Olivia Miles is kind of banged up
08:23right now. We don't know the severity of that. Sounds like she's also being hung out for precautionary
08:27reasons based off of what Cheryl Reeve last said. But, you know, so there's something there.
08:33Coming off a bad loss in Indiana, they've lost, I think, four of the last five games,
08:37if I'm not mistaken. So the Lynx are on this, like, unsteady ground right now. And it's one
08:44of those things where they've been the best team all season. They've been the team to beat. And now
08:48they're on this, like, they have shown a little bit of vulnerability. And I think the Liberty are,
08:54you know, the type of team that are really ready to pounce on that. And I think there's a lot
08:58for
08:59this team to prove. Last year's first round exit did not sit well with anyone. And people were even
09:03talking about it today about they don't want to feel that feeling again. And Leonie Phoebe specifically
09:08said that she doesn't want to revisit that feeling of last year. So I think in knowing that,
09:15knowing that, you know, Leo was talking about there's the confidence of recently beating the
09:19Lynx. They beat them in a series in 2024. So I think the Liberty are coming into the postseason with
09:25a lot
09:25of confidence. And I think they, as Sabrina said, she loves this is their first round matchup.
09:32Listen, when a team has that, you like that confidence. I'm going to have to go out and show
09:36it. Postseason basketball, different than regular season basketball.
09:39And the 1-1-1 format makes things interesting.
09:41Yeah, you know, you know, we hated the 2-1 format. So the 1-1 format makes things interesting.
09:45We saw that last year with Liberty 1, Game 1 on the road in Phoenix. So this could be interesting.
09:50We're going to have more on that coming later this week.
09:53Hey, last thing before we get out of here, I kind of want to bring it back to where we
09:55were
09:56at the beginning of this season. Because at the start of this season, Maddie, we talked about
10:00this team. We said, oh, they are absolutely championship contenders. This is the standard.
10:04This is the goal. This is what they're aiming through. Now that we've been through 44 games
10:08and you look at the way this team is going into the postseason, they've lost two in a row.
10:13Are they still championship contenders in your eyes?
10:17No.
10:18You see, you see, you did that there when you just smiled a second. I knew that was like,
10:21I paused for a second because a team with Brianna Stewart always feels like they have
10:26a fighting chance just because of who she is. But I think if we look at the big picture
10:31of this season and there's been lots of ups and downs, but it just feels like it's just
10:38not been consistently there. It has not been like sustainable. There are good plays and
10:45like the way that they play and, you know, the defensive intensity and the being on your
10:52PDs and Qs and stuff. And then also offensively, like there's been a lot of stagnation at times.
10:58And I think they've been turnover prone at times even. And I think that it's just one of those
11:02things where this team just feels like it's maybe a piece away from being a contender.
11:09And granted, like we've talked about, there's been so much parity in this league. Like
11:13the Liberty have beaten every single team in the playoff picture, except for the Golden
11:17State Valkyries. And so I can say this now and they can go on some magical run. I mean,
11:22sometimes teams are teams of destiny. We just saw that in this summer. So.
11:28Yeah. So usually sometimes you'd like to see a little bit of a coming before you did mention
11:32the fact that they had been playing better before these two games. We saw that in Toronto.
11:36We saw that in Minnesota coming back after the people break. Maybe that's the real Liberty
11:40team that we've seen. We don't know. We've seen stranger things happen in sports.
11:44I'm with you on this. Yeah.
11:46This doesn't feel like a championship contention team, the way they played the season. It's
11:50just been too uneven for me, but we'll see. Do they have the championship medal and grit
11:54in them? They've got players who've done it before. When you have Stewie on your team,
11:59you're right. You always should have a shot on that, but we are going to have a lot more
12:04on the playoffs. Maddie and I will be doing a very special playoff preview for you before
12:09game one of the Liberty series against the Lynx, which will start on Sunday. And we'll see
12:14how all of that plays out. That is going to do it for both of us from here at the
12:18Barclays
12:19center. That is the wonderful Madeline Penny, our fantastic women sports reporter. I'm
12:23Dexter Henry. We'll catch you next time on another edition of Liberty Lately.
12:34And then we'll see you next time on another edition of Liberty Lately.
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