The Liberty’s final game before the season starts later this week isn’t the last.
Instead, Sunday’s preseason finale against the Connecticut Sun is a testing ground for the Liberty. It’s an opportunity for Chris DeMarco to experiment with lineup combinations and gauge how well the team has embraced the fundamentals of the new offensive system. He will look for chemistry, rhythm and improvement in the team’s first preseason game.
New York’s star-studded roster is good enough to win some games on talent alone. But DeMarco has been adamant since training camp opened two weeks ago that the team can’t skip steps.
A team introducing a new offensive flow and strengthening its defensive systems should be a slow build, not a sprint.
DeMarco takes a direct and layered approach to introducing new concepts and making changes. He prioritizes composition over freestyle.
He wants the Liberty to focus on establishing good habits right now rather than creating highlights.
“It’s important that we build this thing right,” DeMarco said Friday, “and everything we do is in October.”
The Liberty’s first preseason game on April 25 was full of mistakes.
It was clear that timing and positioning remained a work in progress. The team played 22 games.
When reviewing the film, Sabrina Ionescu said that the team did the right actions less than 30 percent of the time.
The coaches weren’t mad or disappointed with the low execution. It is expected given the drastic changes the team has made in previous seasons.
Ionescu said: “It is building from the last one we had. “The first one, it was four days I was learning about a new case and it was difficult and everyone was not in shape… This is normal. Until everyone starts learning where they need to go, it’s all part of the learning process, so I think our next game is the first one, to get that number more than the last game, but to continue to build and to slow down and gradually we won’t have to think about all that.”
Adding to the complexity of the situation is that Liberty is not yet fully empowered.
Marine Johannès and Pauline Astier have joined the squad in recent days, but the Liberty are still without Leonie Fiebich and Raquel Carrera, who are expected to stay with their Spanish club Valencia until the end of the season later this month.
Others, including Rebecca Allen, Satou Sabally and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, have been few participants in practice, at times, as they ramp up to the season.
Sunday’s game doesn’t need to be perfect, but the Liberty need to show they’re improving as Friday’s season opener approaches.
Are they learning the right thing? Is the space compatible? Are protective switches automatic rather than delayed? Do they communicate well? Do they bring good things together rather than doing them in isolated places?
“It’s really about reducing our spaces when we drive, what our migration is going to look like, we’re going to remodel,” DeMarco said. “This team has a lot to learn about the new employees so we can find out what works together to grow together.”
DeMarco plans to add complexity to the team’s offense as the season progresses. But right now, the goal is to make the simple things second nature so that when it comes time for the playbook to grow, players don’t think too much and just roll.
Ionescu said the coaching staff did a good job of getting things down to a granular level. They explain the thought of every action and movement, which Ionescu believes is useful.
“There are times when your job is to do something that has nothing to do with football, and as a player, if you understand, like, ‘I’m doing this because it creates a shot for my teammates,’ you better do it as much as you can because you have to do it for the team,” he said. “And there’s a reason for everything no matter what we do… I feel like as a player, when you know all that, it’s almost like you understand the importance of doing it and the speed at which you have to do it.”
