Liberty ready to build on last season's success

It didn't take a long period of film study and reflection for New York coach Bill Laimbeer to understand what happened to keep the Liberty from making the WNBA Finals last year despite having had the league's best record in the regular season.

Indiana's comeback victory in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals meant that a series that looked as if it were almost over in New York's favor would instead extend to one more game. Even though that was back at Madison Square Garden, Laimbeer sensed the Liberty's tank was nearly empty.

"In the end, I think we kind of just ran out of gas," Laimbeer said. "Give Indiana credit in [Game 2], they made some big shots. In Game 3 we were a tired, beaten basketball team. We pushed and pushed and got the most out of everything that we could. And it just didn't go our way.

"That's why we looked at adding some pieces here and there; we're not done yet. We really know what we have now, whereas going into last year, we had no clue."

A key addition came earlier this month, with free-agent guard Shavonte Zellous signing with the Liberty. She was part of the Fever team that beat New York in the East finals last year, and also an important component to Indiana's 2012 WNBA title team.

The opening of the WNBA's 20th anniversary season is less than three months away. Last week, the league announced a new president in Lisa Borders. And since Feb. 1, when the WNBA free-agency signing period began, there has been ...

Not much movement, as expected, which is why Zellous' relocation stands out. Someday, perhaps, the league will grow financially to a point where there is more potential for big offseason moves. For now, though, that's generally not the case. Veteran guard Sue Bird, as big a name as was available among unrestricted free agents, signed a deal this week to remain in Seattle.

Players with the core designation, such as Candace Parker (Los Angeles), Sylvia Fowles (Minnesota), DeWanna Bonner (Phoenix) and Crystal Langhorne (Seattle) have re-signed with their teams. So have restricted free agents such as Nneka Ogwumike (Los Angeles), Tiffany Hayes (Atlanta), Shenise Johnson (Indiana) and Carolyn Swords (New York).

Big-impact free agents leaving one team for another is just not something that happens a lot in the WNBA. Laimbeer hopes, though, that getting a player like Zellous is an indication that the Liberty take advantage of the lure of the Big Apple when they can.

"It's been a long time coming for New York to exert that status: It's a marquee franchise, one of the original franchises," he said. "We play at Madison Square Garden. Our practice facility is second to none."

Laimbeer knows that the Liberty haven't always been seen -- for a variety of reasons -- as a team that the top WNBA players would want to join if they had the chance. The three-year exile to Newark, New Jersey, while the Garden was being renovated didn't help. Isiah Thomas becoming Liberty president last year garnered its share of deserved negative publicity, too.

However, the way the Liberty played last season -- going 23-11 and bringing some of the old excitement back to Garden -- is what Laimbeer hopes the franchise can keep building upon.

"Top to bottom, the whole package should lend itself to New York being a destination place," he said. "But you still have to have players on the team that can command that also."

Laimbeer points to the 2014 acquisition via trade of center Tina Charles, a New York native, as the most important component of the Liberty's current mind-set as a franchise.

"Because she is New York; she wants to be here," Laimbeer said. "She's about winning, not about herself. We've built the team so far on her and leadership with players like [Swin] Cash and [Tanisha] Wright."

It was well-established that Charles wanted to be in New York and would have been willing to sit out a season if she hadn't been traded from Connecticut. Wright was a free-agent signing before the 2015 season who also specifically wanted to be in New York after 10 seasons in Seattle. Wright was born in Brooklyn, New York, spent some of her childhood in New York, and still has most of her family there.

As for Zellous, she is originally from Orlando, Florida, went to college at Pittsburgh, and was drafted in 2009 by Detroit. Laimbeer was still the Shock's coach at that time (he would leave during that season), and Liberty assistant coach Katie Smith was playing for Detroit then.

Zellous went with the Shock when they moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2010, but she was traded to Indiana that season. Laimbeer has been a fan of Zellous' since drafting her, and sees her fitting in well with the Liberty. She's also definitely needed, as New York guard Epiphanny Prince -- who averaged 15.0 points and 3.4 assists last season -- is out at least six months after suffering a torn ACL on Nov. 11.

"I like big guards, and she's a tremendous catch-and-shoot player," Laimbeer said of the 5-foot-10 Zellous, who averaged 8.4 PPG last year. "Not so much like a Piph from the 3-ball line, but curling off of screens. And she's got great hops; she can shoot right over people, and can attack the basket with strength. And she's a solid defensive guard."

Zellous acknowledged there were some considerations before she made the decision to go to New York. The Liberty players live and practice in Westchester County and the commute to the Garden (about 27 miles to the south) takes some getting used to. Then there's the overall cost of living in New York as opposed to, for example, Indianapolis.

But Zellous, 29, took it all into account and felt that New York was right for her at this point in her career. She loves the idea of having the Garden as her home court.

"I'm ready for this change and really excited for it," she said. "Going through this free-agency period, the No. 1 thing I was looking for was being comfortable. Playing with Katie that one year in Detroit, and having Bill draft me, that was huge for me. They are familiar with what I can bring to the team.

"Chemistry is extremely important, and at Indiana, we had that. If someone was having a bad day, everybody would come in and cheer them up. When you have a locker room where everyone is on the same page with what you need to do, that really helps you. I think New York has that, too."

The Liberty definitely seemed to have that last season. They fell short of the WNBA Finals, and especially for Charles, that was a stinging disappointment. But Laimbeer thinks in retrospect, the Liberty might have surprised themselves a bit with how well they played in the regular season.

This season, they won't be surprised. The expectations for the Liberty -- even with Prince's injury -- should be high. And that's fine with Zellous.

"You could feel the excitement around them last year," Zellous said. "I just felt like, 'This is the place for me.'"