Essence Carson was excited when she heard she might be reunited with former Rutgers teammate Cappie Pondexter on the Liberty.
“I knew she wanted to come here, but she wasn’t sure it could happen,” Carson said Monday after the Liberty’s second practice of training camp. “I was like ’Oh come on you got to make it happen. Come on, I love playing with you.’”
When the three-team trade that brought Pondexter from defending champion Phoenix was finalized late last month, Carson was thrilled.
“It was a great, great deal we were able to make,” she said. “Cappie, she’s a player, an All-Star, (Olympic) gold medalist.”
The acquisition of Pondexter was the cornerstone of the offseason overhaul following a 13-21 season — the second-worst in franchise history. The Liberty also added Nicole Powell in the Sacramento Monarchs dispersal draft and signed veteran center Taj McWilliams.
“Last year was very disappointing,” Liberty president and general manager Carol Blazejowski said. “The expectations were very high and we just didn’t meet our expectations. So in the offseason we said we can’t take the risk of having more of the same.”
Blazejowski is counting on the new players to bring a new mindset to the team. All three have previously won championships — Pondexter in 2007 and 2009 with the Mercury, Powell with the Monarchs in 2005, and McWilliams with Detroit in 2008.
“We really felt we needed, one, leadership. We had no leadership in this team,” Blazejowski said. “Two, we needed people that knew how to win. We needed to bring in new blood to give us new energy and just give us a different look.”
As part of the changes, Shameka Christon and Cathrine Kraayeveld were sent to Chicago in the Pondexter deal, and Loree Moore and Ashley Battle were released earlier this month.
Despite the roster overhaul, coach Anne Donovan said she believes the Liberty can contend for the title this season.
“We will compete for it,” she said. “We have the kind of personnel coming in, championship experience … so these players know what it takes.”
After being one of the lowest scoring teams in the league the past few years, New York figures to be more uptempo and offensive-minded this season. Pondexter has averaged 19.2 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.1 assists in her four-year career, Powell is coming off a season in which she led Sacramento with 16.7 points per game, and McWilliams has averaged 12.1 points and 7.2 rebounds in her 11-year career.
“(The Liberty’s) steadiness has been they’re a defensive team,” Donovan said. “They grind it out, grit it out and they don’t care if they score points. At least that’s the history, that’s how it’s been. I like to play defense but I like to push the tempo. With the guards we’re bringing in, and the rebounder in Taj we’re bringing in, we should be able to do that a lot more.”
None of the newcomers — or returning players Janel McCarville, Tiffany Jackson, Leilani Mitchell, Sidney Spencer and Erlana Larkins — have joined the team yet as they are still finishing their seasons overseas. Powell could miss all of training camp while playing in Turkey.
Late arrivals have been a perennial problem in the WNBA, though a delayed start to the season last year allowed every team to have all its players back for the entire training camp. Donovan acknowledged integrating the players into a new system will be a challenge.
“It’s a challenge on a number of fronts,” she said. “I can list all those fronts and the moans and the groans of why it’s a challenge, but I can say simply we had everybody back and won 13 games last year.
“The people we’re bringing in are all pros and experienced players. They’re veterans and know how to hit the ground and run.”
In addition to Carson, others in camp included second-year center Kia Vaughn — another former Rutgers player — and 2010 draft picks Kalana Greene from two-time reigning NCAA champion UConn, Georgia’s Ashley Houts and Nebraska’s Cory Montgomery.
After reaching the finals in four of the league’s first six years, the Liberty have missed the postseason three times in the past seven. With an 11-23 season in 2006, that stretch includes the two worst seasons in franchise history.
The Liberty open preseason at Washington on May 5, and start the regular season at home against Chicago on May 16.