Spirits are high at training camp for the WNBA’s newest superteam. The team is flush with talent both old and new, ready to set out on a quest to bring home the first championship in franchise history.
But while the team will speak openly about hoping to march toward a championship, it also realizes that training camp can cover only the first steps of that journey.
“We want to win, we know that we want to win. We’ve got all these great players,” head coach Sandy Brondello said at Monday’s media day at Barclays Center. “Winning a championship, that’s the ultimate goal but as [GM Jonathan Kolb] said, like for me, we don’t win championships in the preseason. We don’t win them in the start of the season. We win them at the end.
“So win the day. We have to come to work and get better today and that’s building the foundation in the right way [and] not missing steps because that’s when it really comes back to haunt you.”
The Liberty entered the championship conversation after acquiring 2018 MVP Breanna Stewart and 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones this offseason. Four-time All-Star Courtney Vandersloot also signed with the team to go alongside Sabrina Ionescu and veteran Stefanie Dolson.
The marquee newcomers — Stewart, Jones and Vandersloot — didn’t practice Monday and haven’t had much action on the practice floor since training camp began around the league on April 30.
But that hasn’t deterred the squad from hitting the road running and getting a great start to camp.
“Overall its been a great camp,” assistant coach Olaf Lange said. “Day one was probably the best first day in my training camp career. It was amazing, we had some early chemistry that was not expected and disappeared… which is normal.
“But when you see these flashes, then you know what’s there to come and we’re looking ahead [to] a great year so we hope,” he added.
Lange mentioning this current camp having his best start to training camp is high praise, considering the assistant has been a part of championship teams in the past.
The assistant was on the Chicago Sky staff — coaching Vandersloot and Dolson — that won the WNBA championship in 2021. Lange has also won a total of 12 championships as a coach competing in the FIBA EuroLeague, Russian Women’s Basketball Premier League and the German League.
But before the team starts its journey to winning — or even get to the regular season — roster cuts have to be made.
WNBA teams are allowed up to 12 players per roster. The Liberty brought 16 players into camp, with some already realistically penciled in to start the season.
Brondello will soon have to cut players that potentially are deserving to make the roster, an issue that isn’t foreign to the WNBA.
Washington Mystics guard Natasha Cloud tweeted out the need for more teams to accommodate players that deserve to be on a roster.
“We need more teams.” Cloud wrote on Twitter. “These players deserve to be on a roster. It really kills me.”
Liberty forward Kayla Thornton echoed Cloud’s sentiments during Monday’s media day.
“Yeah it’s kind of difficult. You know, there’s only 12 spots. There’s only 144 of us,” Thornton said. “But there’s so much great talent and, you know, when you have to come down to those decisions of who you want to cut, it’s kinda hard. So I do agree that we should expand and stuff like that.
“Just because you’re cut don’t mean that you’re not good.”