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One place the Liberty seem set is on the level guard place. Though Ionescu performed solely three video games earlier than an ankle damage ended her season, she shortly displayed the advanced offensive repertoire that turned her Oregon workforce right into a juggernaut, and her 33-point effort in opposition to the Dallas Wings served discover that her manufacturing interprets to the following stage. When Ionescu went down, Layshia Clarendon, a former All-Star, took over level guard duties and supplied veteran management. With Clarendon operating the offense, the Liberty proved they may play on the velocity Coach Walt Hopkins preaches, ending second within the league in tempo.
Ionescu’s return will give the Liberty much more choices. Her pick-and-roll abilities juiced the offense at Oregon, the place she collaborated with rolling bigs like Ruthy Hebard (now with the Chicago Sky) and Satou Sabally (now with Dallas).
It is straightforward to image the workforce round Ionescu taking type. Kia Nurse, whose season-long capturing hunch in 2020 got here after her breakthrough All-Star 2019 season, appears prone to return to type. The perimeter seems to be that Hopkins’s system generates must be extra fruitful with the sharpshooting of Rebecca Allen of Australia and Marine Johannes of France, each of whom opted out of the 2020 season over considerations about touring to the United States throughout the pandemic.
Bigs: Natasha Howard or Nneka Ogwumike?
The workforce’s main heart from final yr, Amanda Zahui B., is a free agent. Kiah Stokes, who just lately signed an extension with the Liberty, is environment friendly across the rim however struggled from 3-point vary for a workforce that gave everybody the inexperienced gentle to shoot from deep.
The market forward provides a number of methods to handle this deficiency, whereas doubtlessly pairing the youthful Ionescu with a veteran huge with championship expertise. Natasha Howard, who was a bench participant on Minnesota Lynx championship groups after which an important a part of the Seattle Storm title winners in 2018 and 2020, is a free agent. She shot 35 p.c from 3-point vary final yr, whereas feasting on inside defenders worn down from making an attempt to cease Breanna Stewart. But Howard was the fourth offensive possibility in Seattle, after Stewart, Sue Bird and Jewell Loyd, and she or he may resolve to affix the Liberty and turn out to be extra of a focus. She averaged solely 7.5 shot makes an attempt per recreation in 2020.
Then there’s Nneka Ogwumike, the longtime Los Angeles Sparks ahead. Like Howard, she is a free agent, and like Howard, she was comparatively low on the pecking order in Sparks Coach Derek Fisher’s offense final yr, averaging a career-low 9.3 shot makes an attempt per recreation. She’s additionally the president of the W.N.B.A. gamers’ union and, with a transfer to New York, would discover herself a subway experience away from its headquarters.
While Seattle and Los Angeles have given Howard and Ogwumike core designations, that solely ensures compensation for the groups ought to the gamers power their means out. That was how Charles and Diggins-Smith landed with new groups final season. A lineup of Ionescu and both Howard or Ogwumike, with the opposite returning Liberty gamers like Nurse and Allen, could be the framework for a real contender.
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