Don’t fear about who the backup Liberty level guard can be. As a result of the Liberty are outfitted with a number of “positionless” gamers that may fill the function for the entire season.
That’s the message head coach Sandy Brondello has been projecting via the primary week and a half of coaching camp.
She emphasised that once more Wednesday.
“We got versatility. We play more positionless. [Breanna Stewart] could be the point guard. Doesn’t matter,” Brondello stated after Wednesday’s eighth coaching camp follow. “So we don’t put them in a box there.”
Coming into coaching camp, the backup guard spot — behind presumptive starter Natasha Cloud — seemed to be a place a number of Liberty gamers may’ve discovered an avenue for minutes throughout the common season.
A pair ball-handlers on the 2024 Liberty crew — Courtney Vandersloot and Ivana Dojkić — are longer with the crew.
French guard Marine Johannes crammed that function for the Liberty again in 2023 — she missed your entire 2024 WNBA whereas abroad — and projected to be the primary guard off the bench for that spot in 2025 along with her dedication to the franchise for its title-defending marketing campaign. However Johannes is confirmed to depart the crew for the summer time to satisfy French duties within the EuroBasket event, which can be hosted in 4 European nations from June 18-29.
Nobody entered coaching camp as a lock to fill that backup function for the Liberty. And the one projected to play a bulk of the minutes on the spot is ready to overlook probably a handful of video games.
In order that prospect brings up the query of which guard may discover a path for minutes following coaching camp. However that’s not a priority for Brondello. She intends for all her gamers to “feel comfortable with the ball in their hands. Play on the ball, play off the ball.”
Apart from Sabrina Ionescu, Cloud and Johannes, veteran Rebekah Gardner and second-year gamers Jaylyn Sherrod and Marquesha Davis are in-house choices on the guard place.
On Wednesday, the pinnacle coach particularly talked about the enhancements from her youthful guards.
“Jaylyn has gotten better. Shooting the three much better,” the pinnacle coach stated about Sherrod, who shot 33% from deep in simply 3.7 minutes per recreation (10 appearances principally in rubbish time) final season.
“I think Q playing in China, she’s gotten better, more consistent. [She] can shoot the three now, which is something we asked her to work on.”
Contemplating Brondello’s willingness to have forwards slot into the ball-handling function and enhancements from the kids, the pinnacle coach believes she has every thing she wants for the backup spot.
“Don’t get stuck in a box,” she stated. “You’re not just a one, two, three, four or five. You’re a basketball player so play accordingly to what you bring to the team.”
STEWIE WON’T PLAY IN PRESEASON OPENER
Stewart, who participated in her second full coaching camp follow Wednesday, received’t play in Friday’s preseason opener in opposition to the Connecticut Solar.
“We’re building her up. It’s Day 2,” Brondello stated Wednesday. “So we don’t want to force her where we can.”
Brondello expects Stewart to play in Monday’s preseason recreation in opposition to the Toyota Antelopes of the Ladies’s Japan Basketball League. It’ll be her first recreation motion since present process minor knee surgical procedure in March.
Stewart isn’t anticipated to be on a minutes restriction for the beginning of the common season, per Brondello.
JJ AT THE MET GALA
Getting back from her excused day without work Tuesday, Jonquel Jones spoke about her first time attending the Met Gala on Monday evening. Jones, together with Ionescu, Stewart and crew proprietor Clara Wu Tsai, have been the primary members of the Liberty group to be invited to the occasion. Their appearances capped one of many final celebrations of final 12 months’s championship season earlier than embarking on the 2025 marketing campaign.
“I think it means we’re breaking more into that space in terms of notoriety and that the game is growing,” Jones stated. “I’m pleased that I’m within the WNBA on this period the place we are able to type of be part of issues which are so cool…
“Just [getting] that recognition and know that as female basketball players, we’re able to enter those spaces that we’ve seen our male counterparts enter before.”
Jones stated preparation for the gala started at 9 a.m. and concluded about eight hours afterwards.
“My favorite was part was obviously my hair,” stated Jones, who had her hair beforehand retwisted then put right into a excessive ponytail outfitted with jewels and wire. She added that preparation that took about two hours.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 05: Jonquel Q Jones attends the 2025 Met Gala Celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at Metropolitan Museum of Artwork on Could 05, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Picture by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Photographs)
“It didn’t take as long as people thought it took. And then also, I just felt like it added a cool factor, and kind of helped me stand out amongst everybody that was here.”
Jones’ general outfit got here to life with assist from two Black trend icons: stylist Courtney Mays and designer Sergio Hudson. Oftentimes Black event-goers are confronted with the impediment of not having designers/stylists that appear like them and perceive the right aesthetics, make-up, and so on.
That wasn’t a difficulty for Jones on Monday.
“I think our organization just did a really good job of just putting me in a position to be successful,” she stated. “I just felt like a better version of myself. And you always want to do that when you put on a nice fit.”
