Coming into the 2025 WNBA season, the New York Liberty lost a key piece of their 2024 championship team when Courtney Vandersloot returned to the Chicago Sky in free agency. But the Liberty were able to secure a replacement on their roster for this upcoming season when they acquired former WNBA champion Natasha Cloud in a trade with the Connecticut Sun.

Natasha Cloud had been a part of the massive Alyssa Thomas trade which is how she landed with the Sun, but now she gets to try and win another WNBA title with the Liberty. In fact, the organization believes she can be the difference-maker in a potential repeat, as per Alexa Philippou of ESPN.

“Cloud is someone that the Liberty franchise had their eyes on, really for some time now. But they didn’t think she was going to be available this offseason because she was still under contract with the Phoenix Mercury,” Philippou said during a segment on ESPN. “Lucky for the Liberty, Natasha Cloud was then traded to the Sun, the Liberty were able to work out a trade to get her from Connecticut.”

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“Liberty GM Jonathan Kolb really sees Cloud as a player who can amplify what the Liberty already do well, and that she’s such a two-way force that can really pay dividends for them down the stretch in the playoffs,” Philippou continued. “Defense is more important than ever before. Really for them, they think that this is a player that there’s potentially no better backcourt partner to Sabrina Ionescu than Natasha Cloud.”

Cloud actually got a head start on playing with new Liberty teammate Ionescu during the new Unrivaled league in the offseason. One of the big reasons why Cloud was such a major pickup for the defending champs is the absence of Betnijah Laney-Hamilton. Laney-Hamilton, last season’s starting shooting guard, will miss all of the 2025 season due to a knee injury.

Before last season, Cloud had played her entire career with the Washington Mystics, where she helped them win the 2019 WNBA championship. She signed with the Mercury as a free agent last offseason. In her lone season with the Mercury, she averaged 11.5 points, 4.1 rebounds, 6.9 assists and 1.4 steals.