NY Liberty Mid-Season Review

By Azarr Johnson

Photo Credit: ESPN

As we get ready to start off the second half of the season, the NY Liberty sit in the middle of the division at 8-11, fourth place in the conference and ninth overall among all the other teams. This position is not bad at all considering what the Liberty were facing going into the season, coming off a seven win season last year, we knew that their were going to be some ups and downs, as the Liberty attempt to get back into playoff mode. Part of their success of moving past last years win total was the ownership change, which instead of letting go of head coach Katie Smith, they kept the second year head coach and got 100% behind her and help build a team to win for the future and upgrade from last season. So far the team that Smith wanted to and expressed about building last season is showing signs of success as draft pick Asia Durr is developing along well, when the season first started, their were some early struggles, but since then she has developed into the productive rookie that everybody expected her to be coming out of the draft.

The resigning of Tina Charles and putting pieces like Tanisha Wright, Kia Nurse, Brittany Boyd, Bria Hartley, Amanda Zahui B and Rashanda Gray around her as players that can step up and either take over a game or assist Charles in taking over a game has changed things a lot this season. They have had a four game streak, which never happened last season and they are beating the teams they are supposed to beat and some teams that they are not expected to beat like L.A. and Las Vegas. The downs of the first half of the season is that their second round pick Han Xu has not seen much of the floor yet and even though they have beaten LA and Vegas once already, they have lost to these teams badly on their floor also. Also the top teams in their conference like Conn and Washington, they struggle against also, which is no surprise, as Coach Smith stated in their last home game, on a scale of one to ten, they are playing at 5.

They are winning games, but they are not doing enough to win consistently, like the top team in league and that’s what is operating them from the rest. With coach Smiths roster back at full strength and a much needed break, their should be more wins on the horizon and hopefully a playoff birth, only time will tell stay tune!