With a whirlwind of offseason moves in the WNBA, many fans of the 2024 champs, the New York Liberty, were waiting for Jonathan Kolb and his seafoam army to make a move. As of last night, they finally did. It was announced that former Washington Mystics (and Connecticut Sun) Guard, Natasha “Tash” Cloud would be making the move to Brooklyn in exchange for the no. 7 overall pick in the upcoming 2025 WNBA draft, and the team’s first-round pick in the 2026 draft as well. Before this, the only move Liberty fans had seen was just that of Isabelle Harrison being picked up from Chicago. However, with Harrison being a Power Forward, it was assumed that she would be subbing in for Benijah Laney-Hamilton for a good chunk of time here in New York as Laney-Hamilton is still trying to recover from the injury to her knee she sustained last season, leaving a gaping hole in one of the starting spots.

In all honesty, this move and news couldn’t have come at a better time with the season drawing nearer. With the announcement earlier this offseason of veteran Courtney Vandersloot’s departure from New York to return to the Chicago Sky, the Libs needed some help rounding out that second Guard spot. Until this move, it was expected that Liberty’s number one starting Guard Sabrina Ionescu would be seeing the brunt of the work for the 2025 season while youngsters Marquesha Davis and Candace Burke would be sharing the time in the second slot; however, with this acquisition of Cloud, clearly she and Sab will be the starting two guards on the floor for the Libs this upcoming season. Cloud is coming off of the second time she was named a member of the All-Defensive team for the W with her short tenure in Pheonix last season, which is perfect for the Liberty as “Sloot” was often looked at as the strong defensive guard while Sab excelled offensively. This pairing of Sab and Tash was remarkable on the court alongside one another in the Unrivaled league. While their team, the Phantom, did not qualify for playoffs, the two of them in addition to BG were the reason why their team even had a fighting chance, and it will be very exciting for the Unrivaled’s “Ghost Gang” to keep the party going with these two at the helm of the Liberty’s starters.

Natasha Cloud will be the only new face in terms of starting players for the reigning WNBA champions as they seemingly will be “running it back” with a majority of the roster that helped them clinch their organization’s first title including Finals MVP Jonquel Jones, two-time MVP and five-time all-star Forward Breanna Stewart, and Shooting Guard/Forward Benijah Laney-Hamilton, who, despite quickly getting injured after her debut, looked phenomenal in the sample size of games fans got to see her play in after signing a Relief Player contract in the middle of the Unrivaled season. So what will the 2025 Liberty starting five look like? Right now, it’s safe to assume that Cloud, Ionescu, Stewart, and Jones are lock-and-key starting this year, and Benijah’s position will probably be more of a revolving door in which she will alternate with both Harrison and Finals superstar Leonie Fiebich if Laney-Hamilton’s injury persists. It’s also interesting to note that ten years prior in the 2015 draft WNBA fans watched as Isabelle Harrison was selected as the last pick in the first round, Cloud was the third pick of the second round, and Laney-Hamilton was the fifth pick of the second round, and now all three are heading into camp together for the first time as teammates.

With the WNBA season starting soon, it’s only a matter of time before we see our girls in seafoam storm the Barclays Center again from beyond their tunnel, and with the presence of Natasha Cloud, that hype can only grow. Genuinely, with this move we may see the New York Liberty become the third team in history to go back-to-back, joining their rival Las Vegas Aces and the LA Sparks in the process. Go Liberty, and get hyped for what’s projected to be the biggest season in WNBA history.