Liberty’s First Preseason Game Hinted at Secret Weapon in Title Race
The New York Liberty enter the new season as one of the top title favorites. They re-signed Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, Sabrina Ionescu, and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, and added Satou Sabally to their 2024 championship core. That makes for an insanely stacked roster.
However, the Liberty also lost a ton of their frontcourt depth and size behind Jones. The Toronto Tempo selected Nyara Sabally in the expansion draft, and Isabelle Harrison signed with the team in free agency. Emma Meesseman hasn’t signed with any WNBA team yet and may be more focused on defending Belgium’s EuroBasket crown at the World Cup in September than anything else.
Those departures create room for Han Xu to shine. Her first preseason action in a bigger role suggested that she could be a secret weapon in the race for the 2026 WNBA Championship. Her size and ability to score over defenders could quickly make her a difference-maker against even the best teams.
Han Xu impressed in the Liberty’s first preseason game
Han Xu hadn’t played a WNBA game since 2023, when she stepped onto the floor for the Liberty yesterday. The 26-year-old looked more confident and comfortable. Her time playing in China and Australia obviously helped with her development.
As the Liberty’s starters all played limited minutes, Han Xu emerged as the team’s leading scorer. She recorded 20 points on 6-10 shooting, including a made 3-pointer, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 2 blocks.
Fans shouldn’t expect that kind of scoring output from her regularly during the regular season, but she should be able to give the Liberty a nice offensive boost whenever she enters a game. At 6’11”, she can shoot over pretty much any defender, she showed some nice footwork around the rim, and she can knock down some 3-pointers.
On the other end of the floor, her height and long arms make it difficult for opponents to score around the rim.
Despite an overall impressive outing, there is still plenty of room for improvement. Most importantly, a player with her size and length should be able to grab more than two rebounds in over 20 minutes of playing time.
Moreover, she has to prove that she can also be impactful in the regular season when opponents have their full rosters and play regular rotations.
Han Xu should mostly act as a backup to starting center Jonquel Jones, but new head coach Chris DeMarco also gave her a chance to play with the starters in a supersized lineup next to Jones and Stewart.
That lineup has a ton of size and versatility that could give opponents real headaches.
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Elaine Blum covers women’s basketball for On SI from Europe. She has been writing about women's hoops since 2023 and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism and a master’s degree in American Studies with a focus on women’s and gender studies. She started playing basketball when she was 10 years old and won several league and state championships at the youth and senior level.