Since the New York Liberty’s last matchup with the Washington Mystics, a lot has happened. In Game Two of their first-round playoff series on September 19, the Libs prevailed against a fiercely physical, fearless, and physically tough Mystics squad to move on to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Subsequently, Washington’s star players Elena Delle Donne and Natasha Cloud, respectively, announced an indefinite hiatus from basketball and signed as free agents with the Phoenix Mercury. The squad that, during the previous postseason, New York Head Coach Sandy Brondello frequently referred to as “not a 7-seed” She brought up the injuries sustained during the regular season, which hurt Washington’s record and made it seem like a non-starting seven-seed.
Brittany Sykes is still around and amazing, and Aaliyah Edwards, the incoming #6 overall choice, is a captivating possibility. In the off-season, Washington even signed former Lib big man Stef Dolson! The Mystics are undoubtedly rebuilding, though, to the extent that general manager Mike Thibault felt compelled to inform season ticket holders in writing, “We’ve decided we need a fresh start and usher in a new era of Mystics basketball.”
Although they haven’t undergone such significant adjustments, the Liberty are no longer experiencing the high from last autumn. They would go on to lose the harsh WNBA Finals in four games to the Las Vegas Aces, who were all the more happy to be without three important players due to injury as they celebrated like there was no tomorrow in the depths of the Barclays Centre. Breanna Stewart’s setbacks against the Mystics turned out to be a bad indicator of her postseason performance rather than a fluke.
GM Jonathan Kolb made significant additions to the NY bench over the off-season, but since many of them arrived late for training camp, we haven’t seen them in action yet. Even so, the squad is hoping that increased depth would allow them to get closer to the Aces and prevent the Eastern Conference from catching up to them. This is the setting for the New York Liberty’s season opening. They start 2024 with the same objective as 2023, maybe even more driven.