New WNBA salary cap forces tough choices, making it a colossal challenge for the Liberty to keep their star trio together.
The New York Liberty are facing a new kind of challenge this offseason. It’s no longer about attracting talent, but figuring out how to keep it under a rapidly evolving financial structure.
With the WNBA’s new collective bargaining agreement introducing a $7 million salary cap and a record $1.4 million supermax, retaining the trio of Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, and Jonquel Jones has become significantly more complicated.
All three are eligible for supermax deals. In theory, that reflects their value. In practice, it creates a cap management issue.
Under the new system, a single supermax contract accounts for roughly 20 percent of a team’s cap. Carrying three such deals would consume around 60 percent of the Liberty’s available space, leaving limited flexibility to build out a competitive roster.
Even if each player settles closer to the $1 million range instead of the full supermax, the combined cost would still approach 40 to 45 percent of the cap.
That squeeze is one of the defining features of the new CBA. Player salaries have increased sharply, but the cap has not expanded at the same rate. The result is a tighter middle tier and less room for depth, particularly for teams built around multiple stars.
For New York, this is not just a financial puzzle but a strategic one.
General manager Jonathan Kolb has previously expressed confidence in keeping the core intact, but doing so may require compromises. One potential approach is structuring multi-year deals to spread out cap impact, giving the franchise more flexibility year-to-year. However, that depends on the player's willingness.
Stewart, in particular, played a key role in pushing for higher salaries as part of the players’ union leadership. Taking a discount under a new system designed to increase earnings may not align with that effort.
Additionally, similar arguments can be made for Ionescu and Jones, both of whom have strong cases for top-tier contracts based on production and market value.
Roster rules also add another layer. Teams are now required to carry at least 12 players, which further limits how much cap space can be concentrated at the top without sacrificing depth.
The Liberty do have some advantages. Younger contributors like Leonie Fiebich and Nyara Sabally remain on cost-controlled deals, which could help balance the books. But even with that, the margin for error is slim.
Ultimately, the new CBA forces contenders like New York to make clearer choices. Keeping all three stars is still possible, but it will require careful structuring and, likely, some level of financial compromise.
The bigger question is whether that balance can be achieved without weakening the roster around them.