Betnijah Laney-Hamilton: The Identity of the New York Liberty
On opening night, the heavily favored New York Liberty found themselves trailing the Washington Mystics late in the third quarter.
Down five, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton receives a pass in the corner and goes to work. After a quick pump fake that keeps a closing Karlie Samuelson honest (Laney-Hamilton knocked down 52.0 percent of her corner threes in 2023), she takes a dribble left, her body turned away from the basket as if she was heading toward a hand-off to Breanna Stewart or looking to skip a pass crosscourt. As Samuelson angles with her, Laney-Hamilton plants her left foot, wrapping an inverted dribble through her legs to her right hand, and suddenly she’s exploding downhill. There’s no time for Samuelson to recover as Laney-Hamilton protects the ball with her body, the 2021 All-Star gathering to avoid a swipe from Brittney Sykes and finishing the lay-in off the backboard.
Laney-Hamilton would go on to score 17 of her team-high 20 points after halftime, fueling the 85-80 comeback victory. She’d connect on nine of 13 attempts, converting all seven inside the arc with an array of acrobatic finishes and midrange pullups.
“As that third guard, she’s the perfect combination of what you need. And it’s not always the same, which is really great for us offensively,” Courtney Vandersloot said of Laney-Hamilton’s scoring versatility. “Sometimes, she’s gonna be a corner three-point shooter. Other times, she’ll exploit a matchup in the paint. She’s a ball handler, she’s a playmaker. It’s a luxury that not everybody has. And so, yeah, we’re really fortunate to have her on this team.”
Shot chart courtesy of WNBA Advanced Stats
The New York Liberty are out to a 4-0 start, with Laney-Hamilton in the middle of it all. After the nail-biting opener, they’ve won three straight by double digits—a pair of lopsided victories over the Fever, and an 11-point defeat of the shorthanded Storm on the last leg of a three-cities-in-four-nights road trip.
Through it all, there’s been a positive correlation between Laney-Hamilton’s court minutes and team success. The Liberty guard is pacing the league in +/-, a statistic that measures a player’s impact on a game by calculating the change in score while they are on the court. Through four games, Laney-Hamilton is an absurd +96, or +24.0 per game. For context, Brionna Jones of the Connecticut Sun ranks second (+18.7), and two of Laney-Hamilton’s Liberty teammates follow after: Sabrina Ionescu (+16.5) and Jonquel Jones (+15.3).
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton set a new WNBA record for most games with a plus-minus above +15 to start a season with four.
— NYL Stats (@NYL_Stats) May 21, 2024
Kayla Thornton, one of Laney-Hamilton’s closest friends on the team, is not surprised by the consistent output.
“B, she just does everything,” Thornton said. “That’s my girl, kudos to her. She just comes in and does what she has to with the opportunity she has. She’s been doing an amazing job leading and being that voice for the team.”
In every practice, Laney-Hamilton sets the tone. She’s often directing traffic defensively, calling out movement and actions like a Mike linebacker. A favorite anecdote: last summer, head coach Sandy Brondello had gone through a scout with the starting five, the male practice players lined up to simulate the upcoming opponents on offense. Brondello, the defensive set aligned, tossed the ball to the point guard, and gave the signal to go. Laney-Hamilton, guarding the ball, pounced instantly, closing the gap in just two strides and coming face-to-face with the man running point. He stumbled backwards at the immediate pressure and she snatched the ball, running the other way for an easy layup.
That energy galvanizes the entire unit. Laney-Hamilton wants the toughest perimeter assignments, desiring to be at the point of attack, and she internalizes all the talk of that being a trouble area for the Liberty at the end of last season.
“B just continues to take ownership in being a defensive stopper for us,” Stewart said. “She’s really our anchor on the defensive end.”
The only time you’ll find Laney-Hamilton deferring is when asked to take credit for her success. There, it’s all a team-first mindset. She credits her defensive aggressiveness with the strong hedging from New York’s forward group.
“They continue to have my back and support me,” Laney-Hamilton said postgame, following a spirited effort against Caitlin Clark, the Indiana Fever’s rookie phenom. ”Knowing that I have a top defensive assignment [every night], they are there for me when I need it. That helps me be able to go all out.”
With Laney-Hamilton on the floor, Clark struggled to find a rhythm in the back-to-back set between the two teams. In those minutes the two shared the floor, Laney-Hamilton snaked through off-ball screens, fought with physicality to stay attached. Across the two games, despite both players logging 30+ minutes apiece each time out, Clark logged just 25 possessions, per PBP Stats: seven makes, nine misses, nine turnovers.
For New York, it’s easy to quantify Laney-Hamilton’s value. Per WNBA Advanced Stats, through four games, she is producing the highest offensive rating (117.1) and stingiest defensive rating (79.5) on the Liberty, leading to an absurd 37.5 net rating.
Chart courtesy of WNBA Advanced Stats
Her on/off stats are similarly ludicrous. When Laney-Hamilton’s off the court, the Liberty have surrendered 115.28 points per 100 possessions; when she’s on the court, that number plummets to just 81.75. New York’s effective field goal percentage allowed is also heavily skewed by Laney-Hamilton’s presence: opponents shoot just 39.2 percent with her on, and that number jumps to 60.7 percent with her off.
“I feel like she is the player when it comes to the identity of this team,” Nyara Sabally said. “She really just does everything for us. We ask her to guard the best player every game. She’s the one that, when the offense gets a little stagnant, you know she’s gonna get a bucket if she wants. Her aura on the court just feeds the whole team and if she plays aggressive, we play more aggressive. We know it’s a lot to ask from her, but she’s doing it every single game. So, we’re just really appreciative of all that.”
For a team with championship aspirations, one that came so close last year, making its first WNBA Finals appearance since the late ‘90s but falling to the Las Vegas Aces, the improvements will come in the margins. It’ll come from picking up opposing guards 94 feet for 30-plus minutes a night, from attacking mismatches with authority, from knocking down open corner threes when the defense drifts.
In this talented league full of stretch bigs and speedy guards, early in the season, Laney-Hamilton has been the Liberty’s ultimate counter.
This piece is up to date as of Wednesday, May 22.
The post Betnijah Laney-Hamilton: The Identity of the New York Liberty appeared first on Winsidr.
Welcome to Billionaire Club Co LLC, your gateway to a brand-new social media experience! Sign up today and dive into over 10,000 fresh daily articles and videos curated just for your enjoyment. Enjoy the ad free experience, unlimited content interactions, and get that coveted blue check verification—all for just $1 a month!
Account Frozen
Your account is frozen. You can still view content but cannot interact with it.
Please go to your settings to update your account status.
Open Profile Settings