Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello entered the 2024 season with multiple points of emphasis to ensure her team is prepared for another WNBA Finals run. One of them is keeping her star players fresh by limiting heavy minutes throughout the regular season.
A transition period for a revamped bench unit has forced Brondello to rely heavily on her stars throughout the early part of the season. And a longer status report as of late has shortened the number of available players for the team. That issue revealed itself in the team’s last two home games against the Los Angeles Sparks. In both wins, the team had just eight available players.
DNPs by Betnijah Laney-Hamilton (knee), Nyara Sabally (back) and Courtney Vandersloot (personal reasons, conditioning) have further worsened the load for key players on the Liberty, who have three players ranking in the top-20 of minutes played entering Saturday’s game against the Sparks.
That issue continued in Saturday’s win, with stars Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu playing more minutes than Brondello might’ve wanted in a game the Liberty entered as 14.5-point favorites. The head coach acknowledged postgame that “there is some fatigue and I wish I could give them a few more minutes of not playing.”
“Probably not as good as I would like because when I look at other teams I’m like ‘We all just play eight players don’t we,’” Brondello said pregame when asked how she feels with her stars’ workload through the first 16 games of the season. “It’s how it is. We believe in our bench. Every team faces adversity. We’re facing adversity.”
Brondello’s lofty goal of limiting her stars’ minutes hasn’t gone as planned. Stewart entered Saturday with the sixth-highest minutes per game average (34.1), which is the most time per game logged since her 2016 rookie season in Seattle.
Ionescu was 15th with 33.2 minutes played per game while Laney-Hamilton ranked right behind her with 33.1. Only three other teams deploy three players ranked in the top-20 of minutes per game: Las Vegas Aces, Dallas Wings and Seattle Storm.
The stars that’ll be on the floor for Sunday’s back-to-back in Atlanta are likely slated for heavy minutes again. But Ionescu, who has gotten no more than six minutes of rest in the last six games, said the workload isn’t a concern.
“I think we’re fine,” she said after recording 24 points, nine assists and six rebounds Saturday. She credited Brondello’s “intense” training camp to prepare the team for tough stretches during the regular season.
“I’m not really tired,” Ionescu added. “I’m saying that now. We’ll see after tomorrow.”
Stewart, Ionescu and Jones all played at least 32 minutes Saturday.
“Not really,” Jones responded postgame when asked if she’s concerned about her workload. “We trust our training staff to make sure our bodies are right…
“Right now we just got to be professionals and make sure we’re doing everything we need to recover and get back on the court and put our best foot forward.”
Stewart stayed on the floor until the final buzzer and finished with a game-high 33 points in 36 minutes.
Stewart’s minutes average entering Saturday is the same she finished with in her 2023 MVP season. But Ionescu (31.5) and Laney-Hamilton (30.0) have both seen increases from the 2023 season. Jones’ minutes has spiked, too. She logged 25.0 while coming back from a foot injury in 2023 to now playing 30.6 with her backup Sabally unavailable.
On Saturday, Stewart (34.3), Ionescu (33.3) and Jones (30.7) all saw their average minutes rise once again.
The starters’ heavy load of minutes, however, aren’t an indictment on the new bench unit, which was assembled to ease that issue. Ivana Dojkic failed to replicate her 12-point outing off the bench Thursday but dished four assists and a steal in Saturday’s win.
“I think Ivana — we’ve always liked Ivana but now we got an opportunity to get her in,” Brondello said. “We saw some good things with her as well.”
Leonie Fiebich stuffed the stat sheet in her second-consecutive start with Laney-Hamilton out. She recorded seven points, seven boards, five assists and a steal Saturday. And her growing confidence in a new system is a bright sign for the second unit after Laney-Hamilton returns to the starting lineup.
Tired legs haven’t been an issue yet, with more than half of the season still in front of the Liberty. But a dense schedule follows after the Olympic break and Brondello would like her plays to have fresh legs entering the postseason.
“When you have great players I suppose you lean on them a fair bit, especially if you want to win,” Brondello said.
