Before Sunday afternoon, oddsmakers viewed the New York Liberty as a middle-of-the-pack team in regard to the 2023 WNBA Championship race. Last month, when futures first went live on FanDuel, the Liberty were saddled with odds of +750 to win the title.
Then the odds shifted after multiple reports circulated Sunday that the Liberty are acquiring 2021 league MVP Jonquel Jones in a trade with the Connecticut Sun.
According to ESPN, Jones specifically requested a trade to New York. According to Winsidr, she met with multiple teams before settling on the Liberty.
And Howard Megdal of The Next reported the specifics of the three-team deal, which sends Jones and Kayla Thornton to New York, Natasha Howard and Crystal Dangerfield to the Dallas Wings, and Ty Harris, Rebecca Allen and the Liberty’s 2023 first-round draft pick (No. 6 overall) to the Sun.
Hours after the deal was reported on Twitter, the Liberty’s championship odds on FanDuel jumped to +600 and then to +500, giving them the second-best championship odds behind the Las Vegas Aces (+185), the reigning champs.
Liberty now have the second-best odds (+500) on FanDuel to win the title next season with Jonquel Jones reportedly on the way to New York. https://t.co/pRrw1myDh0 pic.twitter.com/fjbQ3pFzWq
— Jovan Alford (@Jovan10) January 15, 2023
Hopes are high for the Liberty after making the playoffs last season, their first under new head coach Sandy Brondello. Star point guard Sabrina Ionescu had her best season yet, pouring in 17.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 6.3 assists per game to earn her first all-star appearance.
And now the team adds in Jones, one of the WNBA’s top frontcourt talents. The 6-foot-7 native of the Bahamas is a four-time all-star and averages 13.6 points, 8.3 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.4 blocks per game over her six-year career while shooting 51.1% from the floor and 37.7% from 3-point land. Jones also had the best defensive rating in the WNBA last season with a 91.2 mark, according to HerHoopStats.
This is the third time in the last decade that a former WNBA MVP has been traded. The Liberty landed 2012 MVP Tina Charles in 2014, and in 2017 the Mystics acquired 2015 MVP Elena Delle Donne. The Liberty never made the Finals with Charles, but Delle Donne led the Mystics to a title in 2019 and won another MVP trophy.
The Liberty could see their odds improve even more after free agency opens on Jan. 21. The top player available in this free agent class is New York native Breanna Stewart, a four-time all-star and two-time WNBA champion that the Liberty have been long been rumored to covet. Pairing two former league MVPs together in the frontcourt would make the Liberty one of the more formidable teams in the WNBA.
