July 13, 2024
In back-to-back games, rookie Leonie Fiebich fulfills some of the Liberty’s offseason vision
With Betnijah Laney-Hamilton out, Fiebich rises to the challenge
NEW YORK — The New York Liberty’s first offensive possession against the Chicago Sky on Thursday night began a lot like previous Liberty possessions have ended when the defense follows the ball rather than its path.
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Liberty guard Courtney Vandersloot drove after receiving a handoff from forward Breanna Stewart, blew by Sky guard Lindsay Allen, and dribbled into the restricted area. Three Sky defenders collapsed on Vandersloot and center Jonquel Jones in the paint while the other two kept tabs on Stewart and guard Sabrina Ionescu on the weak side.
Vandersloot saw a wide-open shooter. Bounce pass, catch, shoot and a three to put the Liberty on the board.
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Conventional wisdom would say that the Sky collapsed and left Betnijah Laney-Hamilton spaced and wide open. That’s a typical shot that New York’s offense has created for its starting small forward since Stewart, Vandersloot and Jones got to town last year.
Except that it wasn’t Laney-Hamilton taking the shot. She was standing with teammates on the bench, dressed in a purple and white pinstripe skirt suit. The Liberty’s potent two-way wing was about to miss her second straight game and fifth overall with a puffy and swollen right knee.
So who was standing in the corner ready and willing to fire? Liberty rookie Leonie Fiebich, a 6’4 wing who started in Laney-Hamilton’s absence in two straight games on back-to-back days.
Fiebich finished with 13 points on 4-for-5 shooting from three, four rebounds and four assists in the Liberty’s 91-76 win over the Sky. That stat line closely resembles Laney-Hamilton’s season averages of 12.7 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game.
“Her ability to knock down threes and to move the ball, to make decisions with the ball, her assists, the skip pass,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said postgame about Fiebich. “And I think she has good poise in that, and in the last game we put her a little bit more in the pick-and-rolls as well. She’s got good versatility and she’s stepping up when we need it, but she plays whatever role the team needs.”
Sitting next to Brondello during the postgame press conference, Ionescu marveled that Fiebich had registered a plus-27 in the box score. That means that the Liberty had outscored Chicago by 27 points while Fiebich was on the floor. It’s impressive for a rookie.
But Nyara Sabally, Fiebich’s teammate on both the Liberty and the German national team, was not surprised because Fiebich has been playing professionally for so long.
“She’s been a pro for how many years? So now she’s just doing it on a bigger stage,” Sabally said. “She always plays the same; you always know what you’re gonna get from her. And it’s just the way she goes about games. She always gives it her best. She always works hard no matter what.
“So seeing her out there just makes me really proud, and it’s just really, really cool to see her [be] out there and play the way she plays. I mean, to me, she’s not really a rookie.”
For Fiebich, it isn’t just about matching what Laney-Hamilton does on offense. She’s also being asked to provide a similar output on defense. Brondello assigned Fiebich to guard Chennedy Carter, the Sky’s lightning-quick and often slashing point guard.
To prepare, Fiebich rewatched games and watched how Laney-Hamilton defended her matchups. A growth point for Fiebich this season has been trying to figure out how to defend without fouling. She’s found that American officials have different standards than refs in Europe, where she played almost her entire professional career until now.
“Just watching her and asking her a question here and there,” Fiebich said about Laney-Hamilton. “Asking a lot of questions when it comes to scouting because she knows the players. She knows their tendencies. She’s been in the league for a long time. So just asking and watching her.”
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After warmups and before tipoff, Fiebich met with Laney-Hamilton to refresh on how best to approach Carter. Postgame, Brondello thought Fiebich did the best that she could.
“I know Chennedy had 22 [points] tonight, but I thought we did a pretty good job on her overall,” Brondello said. “A lot of [the] time, it wasn’t really on Leo.”
The way Fiebich has been able to be a net positive on both ends during a back-to-back against the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday and Chicago on Thursday was indicative of how well she fits this Liberty roster. It also showed how the Liberty can win games with Laney-Hamilton out. Fiebich’s comfort, confidence and translatable skill set could help propel the Liberty to where they want to be in a few months.
Fiebich doesn’t have to be a carbon copy of Laney-Hamilton
Fiebich’s ability to rise to the challenge on two straight days doesn’t mean she accomplished and executed everything that Laney-Hamilton often is expected to. But that’s OK. That’s the beauty of the bench that general manager Jonathan Kolb constructed during the offseason.
The Liberty aren’t exactly the Noah’s arc of rosters that they were last year. Maybe the 2024 New York Liberty are more like a scale of balance. Think of what Libra in astrology is known to represent.
Fiebich, to no fault of her own, sometimes struggles defensively against the league’s stronger and most physical front courts in Connecticut and Chicago. And since New York often switches a lot defensively, wings are switched onto forwards. New York’s solution for that is another versatile wing, Kayla Thornton
Against both the Sun and the Sky, Thornton stepped up in moments when Fiebich was struggling. While Sabally noted that Fiebich isn’t a typical WNBA rookie, the 24-year-old has had growing pains, too.
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Fiebich got into foul trouble early on Wednesday while primarily guarding the physical and long DeWanna Bonner. Thornton relieved her, made prudent decisions on offense, and even drove past Sun star forward Alyssa Thomas and scored.
A day later, Thornton kept track of Carter’s backcourt partner Marina Mabrey while also coming up with clutch steals and momentum-shifting plays. Her innate toughness and motor provided an excellent foil to Chicago rookie star Angel Reese.
In the middle of the fourth quarter, Thornton chased down a ball that Jones would have wanted back. Carter had intercepted Jones’ pass intended for Ionescu on a backdoor cut and pushed the ball ahead to Allen. Thornton beat Allen to the ball and tipped it out of bounds, and her momentum carried her into the visiting team’s tunnel. She turned around, got a high-five from a fan and returned to the floor to a standing ovation from the crowd.
Three minutes later, it was Thornton again, grabbing the ball away from Reese on a rebound.
In addition to looking to Laney-Hamilton for inspiration, Fiebich looks to Thornton. “She’s amazing coming off the bench, being that spark on offense and defense, especially defensively,” Fiebich told reporters about Thornton. “I don’t want to play against her. She’s doing a great job and on some of the best players on the other team, and I just love to be on the court with her.”
How Fiebich could play a key role in the fall
Against both Connecticut and Chicago, Brondello deployed a lineup that featured Ionescu at the one, Fiebich at the two, Thornton at the three, and Stewart and Jones at the four and the five.
According to WNBA Stats, this lineup played 20 minutes over the two games and put up a net rating of 61.5, an offensive rating of 133.3 and a defensive rating of 71.8. That means this group outscored opponents by 61.5 points per 100 possessions while on the court together. Not to mention, it had a rebounding rate of 61.5%, the highest of any lineup Brondello played during the back-to-back.
These numbers are conspicuous, but they aren’t surprising. Besides Ionescu, all the players in this lineup have wingspans of at least 6’4. Also, these are players who command attention on the perimeter and can knock down threes. Though Stewart’s shooting splits are down this season, teams continue to guard the reigning MVP closely on the perimeter.
| Jonquel Jones | Breanna Stewart | Kayla Thornton | Leonie Fiebich | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Height | 6’6 | 6’4 | 6’1 | 6’4 |
| Wingspan | 6’9 1/4 | 6’10 3/4 | 6’4 | 6’4 |
In 2024, Liberty basketball is partly defined by two-way players, and in particular their two-way wings making two-way plays. That’s exactly what ensued when the Liberty deployed this lineup.
For example, with 2:59 left in the second quarter, Thornton used her quickness and length to get in front of Sky power forward Isabelle Harrison, deflect Mabrey’s pass, and keep it alive for Stewart to find Fiebich for a transition three at the other end.
As Lucas Kaplan points out for Swish Theory, the Liberty can overpower opponents with size, but not in the obvious ways teams with traditional centers like the Sky’s Kamilla Cardoso, Los Angeles’ Li Yueru or Dallas’ Teaira McCowan do. Fiebich is included in this.
“She’s probably the tallest guard in the league,” Sabally said about Fiebich on Thursday. “So just her length. She did a really good job on Carter today. I mean, guarding Carter is extremely hard, and I feel like she did a really good job with her length kind of disrupting that.
“And then [Thornton] is a big body, too. So it’s just always really important to have that size, not just at a center position but throughout, and that really helps us in our matchups.”
Fiebich having to guard Carter demonstrates the typical tradeoff between size and speed that New York will have to contend with throughout the season and into the playoffs. Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon noted before playing the Liberty for the first time this season that the Liberty are much bigger, but the two-time defending champions are a lot quicker.
Las Vegas might have the best player on the floor in forward A’ja Wilson, and guards Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum are both playing at All-WNBA levels at the moment. But New York has more shooting, rebounding, passing and defensive intangibles on the roster that complement its own three-headed monster of Jones, Ionescu and Stewart.
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While there are still questions about whether reserve guard Ivana Dojkić will be given substantial opportunities to help the Liberty this season, the trust in Fiebich has proved that the New York coaching staff understands the value of its bench, even if it’s not being used in the way I predicted it could be in February.
Fiebich’s ability to adapt quickly to Brondello’s cerebral style of play on both ends of the floor, coupled with her confidence at 24 years old, could play a huge role in whether Liberty are the last team standing in mid-October.
Written by Jackie Powell
Jackie Powell covers the New York Liberty and runs social media and engagement strategy for The Next. She also has covered women's basketball for Bleacher Report and her work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Harper's Bazaar and SLAM. She also self identifies as a Lady Gaga stan, is a connoisseur of pop music and is a mental health advocate.
