Turns out, even the mighty New York Liberty are not immune to the ups and downs of a WNBA season. After starting 9-0, they fell to 12-6, causing much concern for their hopes of not just a championship repeat, but advantageous seeding throughout the playoffs.
Since then, they won three straight games, even without Jonquel Jones, to ride into All-Star Weekend with the second-best record in the W, two games in the loss column behind the 20-4 Minnesota Lynx. Their starting backcourt took the good times even further, as Sabrina Ionescu won her second All-Star 3-Point Contest while Natasha Cloud won the Skills Challenge…
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It gets better. One day before the Liberty are scheduled to tip off the second half of their season, General Manager Jonathan Kolb, on his birthday no less, signed Stephanie Talbot and Emma Meesseman, the crown jewel of available free agents. Alexa Philippou of ESPN was first with the news…
For those unfamiliar with Meesseman’s game, let’s take a quick tour through her resumé. The 32-year-old won WNBA Finals MVP with the Washington Mystics in 2019, and has only opted to play in two WNBA seasons since then: 2020 and 2022, where she averaged a combined 13/5/4 stat line.
The Belgian big has not been resting since ‘22. Meesseman is currently the three-time defending EuroLeague MVP, and is coming off a EuroBasket MVP this June, when she led her Belgian squad to gold in the tournament, defeating a whole host of WNBA players in the process. Last summer, she led all players in scoring during the Olympics with 23.3 PPG, as Belgium finished fourth. In short: She good.
This is the player the New York Liberty have just added, pending her visa application process. And if all that wasn’t enough, Jonquel Jones will return on Tuesday night, when the Liberty take on the Indiana Fever at home.
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Meesseman will cut into Nyara Sabally’s minutes and occasionally play alongside her in the regular season, ensuring the Liberty are even deeper and more dominant than we previously thought possible. There are endless possibilities in adding yet another high-feel big to the roster, like a two-man game with Sabrina Ionescu while the other starters rest, or another version of high-low dominance with Jonquel Jones, and so on.
But the key to Meesseman’s addition — aside from keeping her off other contenders — is her potential to play alongside both Breanna Stewart and Jones. New York’s ideal starting five has only played 78 minutes together this season, per PBP Stats. Granted, they are destroying teams in that tiny sample size, but they also haven’t been available for most of their top competition.
In swapping out the injured Betnijah Laney-Hamilton for Natasha Cloud, the Liberty lost a bit of size as well as outside shooting. This hasn’t come back to bite them yet, as Cloud has been solid, but maybe it will.
Will New York be able to roll out a gigantic, monstrously skilled lineup of Ionescu and Leonie Fiebich alongside the three bigs? If Meesseman can be at her best next to Stewie and JJ, don’t know how you stop them. She is a savvy cutter and will quickly seal any mismatch she finds, so despite a low 3-point rate and a preference to spot-up inside the arc, she shouldn’t be a clunky fit off the ball…
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Meesseman is one of the best short mid-range scorers on the planet right now, and the Liberty will gladly trade some of Natasha Cloud’s 3-pointers for the Belgian’s floaters, hooks, and middies. This may put some pressure on the long-slumping Breanna Stewart to make some outside jumpers, but it’s a worthwhile tradeoff.
Defensively, it gets a little trickier. Thankfully, Stewie can cover the 30% of Earth that’s not covered in water, but the Liberty will inevitably be slower if Cloud comes off the court for Emma. Last season, their defensive identity revolved around switching, and that option dims a bit if Meesseman is sharing the court with Jones.
But my word, do the rich get richer. Perhaps Meesseman’s connections to Jones (teammates in Russia), Stewart (Turkey), Cloud (Mystics), and Rebekah Gardner (Sky) sealed the deal.
As for Stephanie Talbot, the Australian has been coached on the national stage by Sandy Brondello, and though she may just be a warm body until Meesseman gets her visa in order, she does fit the vision of length + shooting New York clearly values in bench contributors.
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The 31-year-old stands over six feet tall, and she’s also in a prolonged, two-year shooting slump from the outside, she’s still a career 35.2% 3-point shooter on decent volume. Playoff contributor? Not likely, but not out of the question either.
The New York Liberty are not the best team in the league if you subtract Jonquel Jones from the equation. Now that’s she’s back, they are once again the best team in the league, and in my opinion, were the title favorites before grabbing Emma Meesseman. After her signing, that’s indisputable.
Other Notes
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If Talbot is not just a temporary stand-in, Jaylyn Sherrod is at risk of getting waived once Meesseman’s visa is sorted. That would really stink for the feisty sophomore who is on her way to becoming a fan favorite in New York, but she’s likely done enough to prove herself a WNBA-caliber player, especially with the expansion era set to take hold.
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Ever since Breanna Stewart made fun of me for pointing out that Leonie Fiebich had yet to take more than six shots a game, Fiebich is taking nearly nine FGAs a game. Her role hasn’t changed much — on many, she’s just firing off the catch without hesitation — but most any shot Fiebich takes is a good one for New York’s offense. Whether or not she takes on more ball-handling responsibilities this season remains a question mark, but at the very least, her aggression shouldn’t go down with Jones back in the fold. They need her in attack mode.
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In 2023, nearly one-third of Sabrina Ionescu’s possessions came on spot-up opportunities or by using an off-ball screen. In 2025, that number is down to just 21.7%. Last season, Ionescu emerged as a bonafide primary ball-handler, partly out of necessity due to Courtney Vandersloot’s trying season and the arrival of Leonie Fiebich. But this season, next to Natasha Cloud, New York hasn’t been able to generate quite as many simple looks for Ionescu as possible. Will this be a fixable issue in the second half of the season? Is it an issue at all?
As previously mentioned, New York starts the second half of their season on Tuesday night, a home game against the Indiana Fever, who will once again be without Caitlin Clark. Tip-off is an hour later, at 8:00 p.m. ET.
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