Free agency officially began on Monday with qualifying offers and player rights being renounced today. But, significant information in the past week has come to light about how at least half of the New York Liberty’s 2026 roster will be constructed.
On Sunday night, The IX Sports reported that Jonquel Jones intends to re-sign with the Liberty. Jones, who had surgery on her right ankle this past October, maintained a low profile during the WNBA offseason. She went back and forth between New York and the Bahamas throughout the winter months to rehab and then train following surgery. She didn’t attend the introductory press conference of new head coach Chris DeMarco in December.
Jones spoke to fellow Bahamian Buddy Hield about DeMarco, someone he had worked with on both the Golden State Warriors and the Bahamas Men’s National Basketball team. He told her that DeMarco is “the guy you want to go get,” that he motivates players well, is fair and honest. All of what players want in a head coach.
Back in December, it wasn’t officially known if Jones was going to stay. I asked Hield how he thought DeMarco would convince Jones to stay.
“Hopefully the Bahamian connection,” Hield told The IX Sports back in December. “But you know what? I can’t speak on that because that’s above me, but hopefully everything works out.”
As of now, it seems like it has.
Days prior to the news about Jones, both Stewart and Ionescu made it clear to the public that New York is where both stars will be in 2026. Stewart announced that fact on the April 1 episode of her podcast with NBA player Myles Turner.
Ionescu was asked about free agency during a USA Basketball camp availability in Phoenix later that same day, and her response mirrored Stewart’s.
“Obviously I’m where I’m supposed to be,” she told reporters. “Never thought anything different, and so excited to be able to sign and get started. It’s coming up really quickly, so excited to get all this behind us and just be able to start our season and get going in New York.”
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While Liberty General Manager Jonathan Kolb expressed back in September that he had confidence that the team’s big three in Stewart, Jones and Ionescu would all return to New York, this was before DeMarco and his staff were hired and before the WNBA’s transformational CBA was verbally agreed to back in mid-March. A lot can change in six months, but now that initial confidence has turned into virtual certainty.
But it’s not only the big three who are expected to return to New York. Leonie Fiebich is as of now the only player that’s on the Liberty’s books. She’ll be going into the third year on her rookie scale contract.
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, who missed all of 2025 recovering and rehabbing from surgery to repair an acute meniscus tear on her left knee, is expected to be re-signed. Since her contract was suspended in 2025, the Liberty will have exclusive negotiation rights. Laney-Hamilton herself has made it clear that she expects to be back in New York.
“44 more days!!!!,” she wrote on her Instagram story. “But who’s counting?…I for sure am!”
She attended DeMarco’s introductory press conference back in December alongside Ionescu, Isabelle Harrison and Nyara Sabally.
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What Nyara Sabally‘s departure in the 2026 expansion draft means for the Liberty
Speaking of Sabally, she was picked fourth overall by the Toronto Tempo in the 2026 expansion draft, and she will join former Liberty coaches Sandy Brondello, Olaf Lange and Brian Lankton.
Sabally’s legacy in New York will be rich amid limited playing time and modest average statistical outputs due to injury. Her impact and heroism in New York could be compared to former New York Giants wide receiver David Tyree and his memorable performance in Super Bowl XLII which included the helmet catch that helped deliver the Giants the championship win.
Kolb alluded to how bittersweet this was for him and the franchise in a statement that came from the team’s release following the expansion draft.
“Saying goodbye to Nyara is extremely difficult, especially knowing the impact she has had within our organization and the lasting legacy she leaves with this franchise,” Kolb said.
“From the moment she arrived in 2022, Nyara brought professionalism, humility, and a true team‑first mindset, quickly becoming a valued part of our locker room and Liberty family. Her performance in Game 5 of the 2024 WNBA Finals will forever be part of Liberty history and was pivotal in delivering our first championship. We are grateful for everything she gave to this team and excited to see her step into an expanded role in the next chapter of her career with Toronto.”
So why was she left unprotected if she was valued by the franchise and was often seen in New York spending time bonding with DeMarco? The two of them made a trip to New Rochelle to watch Sabally’s brother play basketball for Iona College.
Part of leaving Sabally unprotected had to do with how much her salary would balloon to in the new CBA. According to Her Hoop Stats, Sabally’s fourth-year salary would net out to $436,957. Especially with her injury history and on the heels of her missing 27 games last regular season, New York needed to think about its own goals a bit more, especially when Jones was open about how not having a backup center available in 2025 impacted her own performance.
How could the Liberty replace Sabally on a presumably cheaper contract? Enter Kolb’s pre-2026 CBA farm system. The Liberty traded for Spanish front court player Raquel Carrera in 2022. Carrera was extended a qualifying offer back in 2025, but that was suspended prior to training camp. The Liberty hold her rights and can negotiate exclusively with her.
The IX Sports reported on April 3 that Carrerra is expected to make her WNBA debut this season. Carrerra, who is 24 years old, can play both center and power forward, similar to Sabally. New York presumably can offer Carrerra the $270,000 rookie minimum under the 2026 CBA. That saves the Liberty approximately $166,957, which is no small amount.
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How much cap space could the Liberty have left?
Let’s do some math, shall we?
If the Liberty are to offer their big three each the reported $1.4 million supermax in the new 2026 CBA, then that will take exactly $4.2 million off the salary $7 million cap. Add Fiebich’s reported salary to that and the Liberty have then blown through almost $4.5 million of the cap. Now what type of salary could Laney-Hamilton demand? Let’s say that’s the regular max, which is reported to be $1.19 million. Then the Liberty’s spent cap money goes up to $5,683,710. Add Carrera’s rookie minimum salary to that and poof: New York would only have $1,460,290 left for the second half of their roster. Put simply, the math doesn’t work.
But it wouldn’t be a surprise if the big three in Jones, Ionescu and Stewart take deals that are all below the reported $1.4 million supermax. It also wouldn’t be a surprise if Laney-Hamilton’s 2026 salary falls below what has been reported is the $1.19 million regular max. While salaries across the board throughout the league will all be higher and there are now codified minimum league standards for amenities, including facilities and training staff, organizations that previously provided their players with above and beyond care will still do so. There’s a lot more that New York can offer besides a base salary.
But with the big three and Laney-Hamilton being priorities in addition to the projected salaries that Fiebich and Carrera yield, there might not be enough cap space for the type of money that New York’s 2025 guard Natasha Cloud could demand. While Cloud became a fan favorite in New York, there were some questions about how well she fit alongside Ionescu in the backcourt in addition to her fit within the Liberty’s culture, especially when adversity struck.
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Cloud admitted herself on the New York Times’ Modern Love podcast back in late October that she needs to be more consistent.
“I will say that the accountability factor even for myself is — when adversity hits, and there’s always ebbs and flows to a season, I have to remain more consistent,” she told host Anna Martin. “Even in my frustrations of like — I don’t feel like we’re playing well, we’re not gelling — like, I’ll be frustrated. In those moments, the accountability for me for next year is to be more consistent.”
The Liberty are hellbent on winning another championship and they will have to weigh the opportunity cost when it comes to Cloud’s ability to be a net positive in that pursuit. It could be in New York’s interest to spend the money that is left on players that can be cost controlled like Marine Johannès and Rebekah Gardner. New York has both players’ exclusive negotiation rights, as both players have under five years of service in the WNBA.
According to a source familiar with her thinking, Johannès is expected to play in the WNBA this season even amid 2026 being a World Cup year. (Remember, there will be a full break in September for that global competition in Berlin.)
What the Liberty do with the second half of their roster remains to be seen, but expect Kolb to use the newly reported salary cap exemption that allows veterans with at least seven years of service on minimum contracts to earn full salaries without it completely impacting the salary cap.
With presumably the Liberty’s 2024 championship winning starting lineup on board to return in 2026, filling out the rest of the roster and the salary cap gymnastics begin.
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