Winning a championship takes more than star power. It takes chemistry, trust, and the kind of connection that holds a team together when the stakes are highest. The New York Liberty had all of that when they lifted the 2024 WNBA title, but their latest playoff run looked nothing like that championship campaign. After parting ways with Sandy Brondello and bringing in Chris DeMarco as their head coach, New York failed to win a single game in the semifinals. So, with questions already surrounding DeMarco’s future, Liberty forward Leonie Fiebich has revealed what the team needs to rediscover to return to the level that helped New York win its first-ever WNBA championship.

“There’s a standard that’s expected from us,” Fiebich said during her post-season media availability. “This team wants to be in the finals. This team wants to continue to win. We won ’24 because we brought the toughness, and we had the talent, and we had the team chemistry. We gotta continue to find ways to get that back, to compete at the highest level, to make it to the finals.”

“But overall, I think it’s really important that we have good team chemistry, that we have a positive locker room, that we have good personalities, because that’s what’s going to make the difference, because you’ve got to come to work every day and you’ve got to feel good, have fun,” she further added.

The Liberty finished their 2024 regular season with the league’s best offensive rating at 109.6, while averaging 22.8 assists and 36.6 rebounds per game. They were not simply relying on their star power; they moved the ball, created opportunities for one another, and held opponents to 76.5 points per game. Fiebich was part of that formula, too. In her rookie season, she shot 43.3% from beyond the arc and earned a place in the rotation, giving New York another reliable perimeter threat alongside its established stars.

However, that championship standard proved harder to maintain this season. While New York remained productive offensively during the 2026 regular season, its defensive rating fell from 97.9 in 2024 to 108.7.

It is also worth noting that the Chris DeMarco-led Liberty won the Commissioner’s Cup before knocking the No. 1-seeded Minnesota Lynx out of the playoffs in the first round. So it’s not as though their entire season was disappointing. Their semifinal series against Atlanta, however, exposed a different side of the team.

In Game 1 alone, the Liberty committed 21 turnovers that the Dream turned into 32 points, as New York went on to get swept in all three games. The sweep was especially concerning for a team that entered the season with championship expectations. And while the Commissioner’s Cup win and the first-round upset of Minnesota showed that the Liberty could still compete with the league’s best, their inability to win a single game against Atlanta raised questions about whether DeMarco had done enough to get the team back to the Finals.

So with New York’s 2026 run over, the focus has shifted from what went wrong on the court to what the franchise might do next.

Will the Liberty Fire Chris DeMarco?

DeMarco arrived in New York with the task of keeping the Liberty among the league’s title contenders after Brondello’s departure. But while the team had its moments, it never consistently found the rhythm needed.

New York’s longest winning streak of the season lasted eight games, beginning after consecutive losses and ending with another pair of defeats. That inconsistency became harder to overlook when the Liberty’s playoff run ended without a single win in the semifinals. But the scrutiny surrounding DeMarco goes beyond the team’s uneven results.

He made a massive blunder during Game 2 of the semifinals. In overtime, the Liberty failed to use their reset timeout, leaving Breanna Stewart to attempt a difficult 32-foot shot that could have kept New York alive. Stewart missed, and the Liberty fell into a 2-0 series hole.

Although officials incorrectly told Stewart that the team had no timeouts remaining, the situation still raised questions about whether the coaching staff could have caught the mistake before the possession ended.

So with uncertainty surrounding DeMarco’s future, the questions eventually reached Liberty stars Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and Sabrina Ionescu. But none of them offered a definitive answer and emphasized that the decision rested with the organization.

ESPN reporter Alexa Philippou, however, reported that DeMarco expects himself to return as head coach.

There has been no clear indication that the Liberty intend to part ways with Chris DeMarco. Still, his future is not guaranteed. New York made the decision to move on from Brondello after the 2025 season, despite her role in delivering the franchise’s first WNBA championship. That precedent leaves the door open to change, even if DeMarco believes he will be back for another season.