The first major event of the WNBA offseason is about to take place.
The Liberty, along with the other 11 WNBA teams, had to submit their list of the six protected players last week to the Valkyries.
While those lists aren’t supposed to be released, New York general manager Jonathan Kolb has a pretty obvious list of at least five players to protect. After all, Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Leonie Fiebich were the starting lineup who led the Liberty to the franchise’s first WNBA title in October.
From the Valkyries’ perspective, Sabally would be a premier pickup for their inaugural roster. She’s a young, versatile center who still hasn’t reached her full potential. Another added bonus is that Sabally is under a team-friendly contract through the 2026 season.The case for protecting Thornton would be that, even at 31 years old, she was one of only two Liberty players who played all 40 regular-season games. She also registered the team’s sixth-most minutes last season.
The case against protecting Johannès is that the Liberty might value another player over her, considering they won a title without her. Johannès sat out the 2024 WNBA season to focus on the Olympics. Whether she’ll play in 2025 has yet to be seen.From the Valkyries’ perspective, picking Johannès might be a risk considering her status for this season isn’t clear and there’s no guarantee she’ll play.
Sports Courtney Vandersloot New York Liberty
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