The New York Liberty just signed Australian forward Anneli Maley to fill the roster spot left open by the season-ending injury to Satou Sabally. Losing an All-Star is never easy but this is a smart pickup.
Sabally has been ruled out for the rest of the season and the Liberty needed to add a body who could contribute right away. Maley has been putting up numbers overseas and has been on WNBA radars for a while.
Maley is not going to replace Sabally’s production. Sabally at her peak is a top-15 player in the world and there is no free agent in September who can step into that role. What Maley can do is give the Liberty legitimate frontcourt minutes.
New York is still one of the favorites to win a title even without Sabally. Breanna Stewart is Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu is playing the best basketball of her career, and Jonquel Jones is a former MVP.
The Liberty are going to need to lean on that trio harder now, but that is what stars are paid to do. Coach Sandy Brondello has been through the injury wringer before and she has the roster experience to figure this out.
For Maley, this is the WNBA opportunity she has been chasing. She has been productive in the Australian league and the FIBA scene, and now she gets to prove she belongs in the best women’s league on the planet.
The Liberty’s title window is right now. They cannot afford to waste seasons and losing Sabally makes their path much tougher. But this team has been through adversity before and always finds a way.
The WNBA playoffs are wide open with the Aces, Lynx, and Sun all lurking. New York getting through the field without Sabally would be one of the most impressive title runs of the modern era.
Maley plays her first game with the team this week. She will be watched closely as the Liberty figure out how to reshape their rotation for the stretch run.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.