WNBA power rankings: Are the Liberty ready to flex their dominance? (2024)

In the midst of the most highly touted WNBA rookie class in recent memory, or perhaps league history, I’ve been a bit negligent on spotlighting the veterans in 2024. Rather than focus on the WNBA’s newest entrants, let’s take a look at the opposite side of the coin as we head into the midseason break: the 40 players in the league who are at least 30 years old.

First, one caveat: This group excludes players who are already All-Stars or Olympians. A quick hat tip to DeWanna Bonner, Chelsea Gray, Brittney Griner, Dearica Hamby, Jonquel Jones, Jewell Loyd, Kayla McBride, Nneka Ogwumike, Diana Taurasi and Alyssa Thomas. They’ve already received recognition. With that in mind, here is my All-30-and-Older team.

At point guard, Natasha Cloud. In her first season in Phoenix, Cloud is posting the best 2-point percentage of her career, along with her highest assists, blocks and steals per game. The 32-year-old guard is the fulcrum of the Mercury’s unique defensive approach, as she guards the point of attack and the post, and she allows Phoenix to play without a traditional power forward because she can defend fours. When the Mercury missed three starters against the Sparks last week, Cloud stepped in as the No. 1 offensive option, scoring a career-high 31 points, including the game-winning layup with 35 seconds to play. She’s doing it all for Phoenix, which needed reinvention.

On the road down two starters? Next man up.

MERC WIN, BABY! pic.twitter.com/8foVIbzWco

— Phoenix Mercury (@PhoenixMercury) July 8, 2024

Speaking of reinvention, next up is Courtney Williams, who has proved that her one-year foray with the point guard role in Chicago wasn’t a fluke. After working as a primary bucket-getter for the first seven years of her career, Williams is now an elite playmaker in Minnesota — ranked third in the WNBA in assist percentage behind Thomas and Caitlin Clark. Despite her turn as lead guard, the 30-year-old still has the league’s sweetest pull-up midrange jumper.

Two of my favorite forwards to watch this season have been 31-year-olds Kayla Thornton and Temi fa*gbenle. Thornton will feature more prominently later, but as a teaser, she’s making 38.5 percent of her 3-pointers and can defend just about every position on the floor for New York, which owns the best net rating in the W. fa*gbenle, back in the league after four years away, provided the initial proof of concept that Clark’s style of play could work for Indiana. Her tremendous motor and instincts off the ball helped establish the Fever’s identity even before they started winning.

Head Coach Christie Sides talked about the leadership that Temi fa*gbenle brings to the team after her first career double-double.

"She's been everything for us in the locker room." pic.twitter.com/5GJljLqxK7

— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) May 21, 2024

See Also

Top 150 Fantasy Football PPR Rankings – Pre-Training Camp Sleepers!Best Fantasy Football Draft Strategy for PPR Leagues 2024 - Bleacher NationFantasy Football Mock Draft: McCaffrey Goes No. 1 in 12-Team PPR Draft With Industry ExpertsWhat is the Flex Position in Fantasy Football? - Bleacher Nation

Finally, Stefanie Dolson at the five. Dolson, 32, leads the league in 3-point percentage, taking 4.3 per game as Washington’s center and canning half of them. She took all of three triples as a rookie and now uses that shot as her primary offense in Year 11. That type of growth is how someone keeps a roster spot in this league.

The top team in this week’s rankings boasts four rotation players — plus Breanna Stewart after the Olympics — on the other side of 30, and that veteran experience has been key to helping the Liberty improve from their 2023 finals loss.

Three standout performances

1. The unending parade of Liberty wings

Last year, New York had an incredibly talented roster, but the Liberty had only two wings (Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Thornton) coach Sandy Brondello trusted to score and defend both perimeter and frontcourt players. Now they’re overflowing with wing depth. Their additions and Leonie Fiebich, Ivana Dojkić and even Kennedy Burke have given New York five players at least 6-foot (with some generous rounding on Dojkić’s listed height) with enough versatility to guard multiple positions and not compromise the Liberty’s spacing in the process.

Other than Burke, all shoot at least 37 percent from 3-point range, and they have the length to stay in front of their matchups and wall off the paint on defense. The depth means Brondello can afford to be conservative with injuries. When Laney-Hamilton has been unavailable, Fiebich has been a spot starter for six games, and New York has won all of them, outscoring opponents by 15.5 points per night in Fiebich’s minutes. With Stewart out against Chicago, Dojkić got hot from distance, scoring 12 points off the bench while Thornton hounded Angel Reese inside.

Brondello has often closed games with Sabrina Ionescu, Jones and three wings in the middle, even with Courtney Vandersloot available. The fourth-quarter lineup with the most minutes is the starters with Fiebich in place of Vandersloot, and the third-most common lineup has Thornton in that spot. As Ionescu becomes a more effective playmaker and commits fewer turnovers, the Liberty can afford to sacrifice some shot creation and lean into their length, especially when Dojkić, Fiebich and Laney-Hamilton are capable playmakers at their size.

The primary deficiency New York had in 2023 was perimeter defense, and that has been addressed in spades.

2. Reese’s double-double streak ends

Speaking of that Liberty length, it showed off in full effect in the team’s win over Chicago on Saturday when it limited Reese to 8 points on 3-of-13 shooting, bringing her 15-game double-double streak to an end. New York sent four defenders at the rookie on the final possession to force her to give up the ball and prevent her from scoring

Liberty were NOT letting Angel Reese get that double double they quadruple teamed her pic.twitter.com/zMWydeehpt

— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) July 13, 2024

It might seem like an excessive defensive display at the end of a game that was already decided — New York won by 14 — but things had been getting kooky down the stretch in games as Reese’s streak persisted. Two games earlier, she called for the ball in the post up seven with less than 10 seconds to play, needing one more point to get a double-double. Marina Mabrey delivered the pass, and Reese was fouled, earning her 10th and 11th points at the line, but it felt like stat-padding when the outcome was no longer in question.

As impressive as it was to see Reese set the WNBA record for consecutive double-doubles in her rookie season, instances like these make me slightly relieved that the pressure of the streak is gone. These types of shenanigans don’t need to be happening at the end of non-competitive games.

3. Kelsey Mitchell has her speed back

Lost in the muck of Indiana’s rough start to the season was the fact the Fever’s longest-tenured player had missed the bulk of training camp with an ankle injury. For Mitchell, a player who relies so heavily on her speed, that injury dramatically changed the way she was able to impact the game.

The lingering effects of that injury appear to have dissipated because Mitchell is once again a blur on the court. The now two-time All-Star is taking advantage of her pace to race off of screens in the half court, cut off ball and streak down the court in transition. She sometimes lulls her defender to sleep on a possession, and then it looks like she is shot out of a cannon when she takes her first step, like against Rebecca Allen in Indiana’s win over the Mercury on Friday.

Mitchell even showed off her quickness in help side defense, collecting an unexpected block against Alanna Smith to clinch Sunday’s victory over Minnesota.

Kelsey Mitchell big-time block 🥶 pic.twitter.com/hZ5JA81BWL

— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) July 14, 2024

The Fever are now 7-3 when Mitchell scores at least 18 points, including each of their last two wins. That extra dynamism off the ball has helped Indiana play with more pace in its latest winning streak as the Fever climb up the WNBA standings.

Rookie of the week

Celeste Taylor, Phoenix Mercury

Taylor played all of 17 minutes in her 18-game tenure with the Fever to start the season, and she was waived to create a roster spot for Damiris Dantas when Dantas’ health improved. It was all too fitting that Taylor’s second WNBA opportunity came in the form of a seven-day contract the day her new team, Phoenix, was set to play Indiana. And because of injuries to four other Mercury guards, Taylor ended up playing 24 minutes in her return to Gainbridge Fieldhouse, almost delivering an upset in the process.

Taylor was pressed into a near-impossible situation as a point guard. As coach Nate Tibbetts mentioned postgame, the rookie didn’t know most of the sets yet still had to bring the ball up on several possessions and try to run the offense. Phoenix mostly went away from having Taylor direct the show in the second half, instead stationing her in the corners and having her attack closeouts so that she had to only read an already-compromised defense. Even so, Taylor still collected five assists, showing the ability to run a basic pick-and-roll with Natasha Mack and crash the offensive glass from the corners to keep possessions alive. It was clear when Cloud returned to the lineup Sunday that Taylor had some off-ball utility as a cutter, one that couldn’t be realized when all of the Mercury ballhandlers were injured.

The real value for Taylor, unsurprising as a two-time conference defensive player of the year, came on the other end. Phoenix ran a lot of zone with five healthy bodies in the second half, and Taylor was active at the top, keeping her hands high and forcing multiple turnovers. She helped keep Clark scoreless in the fourth quarter as the Mercury cut a 23-point lead to four.

Taylor’s window of opportunity shut almost as quickly as it opened with Cloud and Taurasi healthy in the next game, but at least the Ohio State product finally has some tape on what she can do in the WNBA.

Game to circle

Connecticut Sun at New York Liberty, 7 p.m. (ET) Tuesday

The matchup between the top two Eastern Conference teams has been one-sided of late, with New York winning the last five, including three in a row in the 2023 semifinals. The Liberty ended the Sun’s undefeated start to the season and added another win in Connecticut last week despite missing Laney-Hamilton. Regular-season results aren’t always predictive of the postseason, but it would be useful for the Sun to collect a win in this series to gain some confidence for a potential playoff meeting. This is as good of a time as any with Laney-Hamilton and Stewart hobbled. If Connecticut can’t beat New York in this state, it doesn’t bode well for a postseason rematch.

(Top photo of Jonquel Jones: Melissa Tamez / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Sabreena Merchant is a women's basketball Staff Writer for The Athletic. She previously covered the WNBA and NBA for SB Nation. Sabreena is an alum of Duke University, where she wrote for the independent student newspaper, The Chronicle. She is based in Los Angeles. Follow Sabreena on Twitter @sabreenajm