# 2020 New York Liberty season

The 2020 WNBA season was the 24th season for the New York Liberty franchise of the WNBA. The Liberty opened the regular season on July 25, 2020, versus the Seattle Storm.
During the off-season the Liberty announced that they would return to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn as their permanent home. In the 2018 and 2019 seasons, the Liberty's primary home venue was the Westchester County Center in White Plains, New York. Additionally, the Liberty announced that Walt Hopkins would replace Katie Smith as head coach.
This WNBA season had planned to feature an all-time high 36 regular-season games. However, the plan for expanded games was put on hold on April 3, when the WNBA postponed its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Under a plan approved on June 15, the league is scheduled to hold a shortened 22-game regular season at IMG Academy, without fans present, starting on July 24.
The Liberty's shortened season started slowly, when they lost their first five games. Their first win came on August 7, but was followed by another seven straight losses. An eight-game losing streak saw the team finish 2–20 for the season. Number one overall draft pick Sabrina Ionescu only played in three games for the Liberty. Their .091 winning percentage was the worst in team history.

## Transactions
### WNBA draft

| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| 1 | 1 | Sabrina Ionescu | United States | Oregon |
| 1 | 9 | Megan Walker | United States | UConn |
| 1 | 12 | Jazmine Jones | United States | Louisville |
| 2 | 13 | Kylee Shook | United States | Louisville |
| 2 | 15 | Leaonna Odom | United States | Duke |
| 3 | 26 | Erica Ogwumike | United States | Rice |

### Trades/Roster Changes

| Date | Details |
| February 10, 2020 | Signed G Layshia Clarendon |
| February 24, 2020 | Re-signed G Marine Johannès |
| April 11, 2020 | Engaged in a three team trade where the acquired the 13th pick in the 2020 draft and sent Sugar Rodgers to Las Vegas. |
| April 15, 2020 | Engaged in 3 team trade where they acquired G Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, the twelfth pick in the 2020 WNBA draft and the first, second, and third round picks in the 2021 WNBA draft from the Washington Mystics in exchange for Tina Charles. They also acquired Tayler Hill and the ninth and fifteenth pick in the 2020 draft in exchange for the Mystics' 2021 first-round pick and New York's 2021 second round pick. |
| April 17, 2020 | Traded the draft rights for G Erica Ogwumike to Minnesota in exchange for F Stephanie Talbot. |
| April 17, 2020 | Acquired the draft rights to G/F Jocelyn Willoughby from Phoenix in exchange for G Shatori Walker-Kimbrough. |
| April 21, 2020 | Waived G Brittany Boyd |
| April 29, 2020 | Waived G Tayler Hill |
| April 29, 2020 | Announced that F Stephanie Talbot would remain overseas for the 2020 season. |
| June 25, 2020 | G Rebecca Allen opts out of the 2020 season. |
| June 26, 2020 | Signed F Joyner Holmes. |
| July 7, 2020 | G Asia Durr opts out of the 2020 season. |

## Game log
### Regular season

2020 game log Total: 2–20 :
July
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
July 25
Seattle Storm
L 71–87
Clarendon (20)
Stokes (9)
Ionescu (4)
IMG Academy 0
0–1
2
July 29
Dallas Wings
L 80–93
Ionescu (33)
Zahui B. (11)
Ionescu (7)
IMG Academy 0
0–2
3
July 31
Atlanta Dream
L 78–84
Jones (20)
Stokes (7)
Clarendon (5)
IMG Academy 0
0–3 :
August
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
4
August 2
Phoenix Mercury
L 67–96
Nurse (17)
Zahui B. (9)
Tied (4)
IMG Academy 0
0–4
5
August 5
Minnesota Lynx
L 66–92
Zahui B. (13)
Stokes (8)
Clarendon (6)
IMG Academy 0
0–5
6
August 7
Washington Mystics
W 74–66
Nurse (17)
Zahui B. (14)
Clarendon (6)
IMG Academy 0
1–5
7
August 9
Las Vegas Aces
L 76–78
Zahui B. (20)
Stokes (12)
Clarendon (8)
IMG Academy 0
1–6
8
August 11
Los Angeles Sparks
L 78–93
Jones (24)
Zahui B. (10)
Clarendon (5)
IMG Academy 0
1–7
9
August 13
Indiana Fever
L 79–86
Nurse (21)
Stokes (8)
Tied (3)
IMG Academy 0
1–8
10
August 15
Minnesota Lynx
L 64–94
Jones (13)
Zahui B. (8)
Nurse (3)
IMG Academy 0
1–9
11
August 18
Seattle Storm
L 64–105
Nurse (21)
Tied (6)
3 tied (2)
IMG Academy 0
1–10
12
August 20
Chicago Sky
L 85–101
Jones (18)
Stokes (9)
Clarendon (5)
IMG Academy 0
1–11
13
August 22
Connecticut Sun
L 65–82
Nurse (17)
Zahui B. (10)
Tied (5)
IMG Academy 0
1–12
14
August 25
Chicago Sky
W 101–99
Zahui B. (22)
Zahui B. (12)
Clarendon (5)
IMG Academy 0
2–12
15
August 29
Las Vegas Aces
L 63–80
Key (14)
Zahui B. (21)
Clarendon (4)
IMG Academy 0
2–13 :
September
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
16
September 1
Connecticut Sun
L 65–70
Nurse (18)
Zahui B. (10)
Tied (3)
IMG Academy 0
2–14
17
September 3
Atlanta Dream
L 56–62
Tied (12)
Zahui B. (11)
Zahui B. (3)
IMG Academy 0
2–15
18
September 5
Phoenix Mercury
L 67–83
Holmes (13)
Holmes (13)
Clarendon (3)
IMG Academy 0
2–16
19
September 8
Los Angeles Sparks
L 70–96
Willoughby (21)
Stokes (8)
Clarendon (5)
IMG Academy 0
2–17
20
September 10
Indiana Fever
L 75–85
Kea (21)
Jones (10)
Tied (4)
IMG Academy 0
2–18
21
September 12
Washington Mystics
L 58–75
Tied (15)
Tied (7)
Jones (6)
IMG Academy 0
2–19
22
September 13
Dallas Wings
L 79–82
Jones (21)
Zahui B. (10)
Nurse (7)
IMG Academy 0
2–20 :
2020 season schedule :

## Awards and honors

| Recipient | Award | Date awarded | Ref. |
| Jazmine Jones | All-Rookie Team | September 27, 2020 | |

## Standings

| # | Team | W | L | PCT | GB | Conf. |
| 1 | x – Las Vegas Aces | 18 | 4 | .818 | – | 8–2 |
| 2 | x – Seattle Storm | 18 | 4 | .818 | – | 8–2 |
| 3 | x – Los Angeles Sparks | 15 | 7 | .682 | 3 | 5–5 |
| 4 | x – Minnesota Lynx | 14 | 8 | .636 | 4 | 4–6 |
| 5 | x – Phoenix Mercury | 13 | 9 | .591 | 5 | 4–6 |
| 6 | x – Chicago Sky | 12 | 10 | .545 | 6 | 6–4 |
| 7 | x – Connecticut Sun | 10 | 12 | .455 | 8 | 7–3 |
| 8 | x – Washington Mystics | 9 | 13 | .409 | 9 | 6–4 |
| 9 | e – Dallas Wings | 8 | 14 | .364 | 10 | 1–9 |
| 10 | e – Atlanta Dream | 7 | 15 | .318 | 11 | 5–5 |
| 11 | e – Indiana Fever | 6 | 16 | .273 | 12 | 4–6 |
| 12 | e – New York Liberty | 2 | 20 | .091 | 16 | 2–8 |
* v
* t
* e
Notes
    x – Clinched playoff berth
    e – Eliminated from playoffs
    Home and Away records not shown, as all games played at a neutral location.
    Updated to include results from September 13, 2020
    Source

## Statistics

Source:

### Regular season

| Player | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
| Sabrina Ionescu | 3 | 3 | 26.7 | 45.2% | 35.0% | 100% | 4.7 | 4.0 | 0.7 | 0.0 | 18.3 |
| Kia Nurse | 21 | 18 | 27.5 | 27.3% | 23.8% | 86.4% | 2.9 | 2.3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 12.2 |
| Layshia Clarendon | 19 | 19 | 26.1 | 46.5% | 34.1% | 87.3% | 2.5 | 3.9 | 0.9 | 0 | 11.5 |
| Jazmine Jones | 20 | 2 | 21.4 | 40.4% | 33.3% | 78.8% | 4.1 | 2.3 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 10.8 |
| Amanda Zahui B. | 21 | 20 | 25.3 | 35.3% | 34.0% | 69.4% | 8.5 | 1.9 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 9.0 |
| Paris Kea | 11 | 5 | 15.0 | 38.4% | 39.4% | 87.5% | 2.0 | 1.5 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 6.9 |
| Jocelyn Willoughby | 22 | 5 | 17.4 | 35.8% | 40.5% | 83.3% | 2.4 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 5.8 |
| Kiah Stokes | 22 | 22 | 27.3 | 37.2% | 23.5% | 57.1% | 6.7 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 5.7 |
| Leaonna Odom | 22 | 16 | 20.6 | 49.0% | 25.0% | 87.0% | 2.3 | 0.7 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 5.5 |
| Kylee Shook | 20 | 0 | 14.5 | 40.5% | 17.6% | 82.4% | 2.8 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 4.1 |
| Megan Walker | 18 | 0 | 11.4 | 32.1% | 14.0% | 60.0% | 1.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 3.3 |
| Joyner Holmes | 19 | 0 | 10.0 | 30.6% | 10.7% | 75.0% | 2.7 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 2.9 |