Liberty Newcomer Wins Player of the Week Award
Cloud nine has guided the New York Liberty to victories in their first four.
The WNBA's first Eastern Conference Player of the Week award of the 2025 season has gone to new New Yorker Natasha Cloud, whose brilliant beginning to her Liberty career has pushed Brooklyn forward in its first-ever postseason championship defense. It's the first such award of Cloud's career since her WNBA entry in 2015 with the Washington Mystics.
Acquired in a late offseason trade with the Connecticut Sun, Cloud has thrust the Liberty's fortunes forward both on and off the floor. In the three games she played between May 16 and 25 (the criteria for the first Player of the Week Awards of the 2025 campaign), Cloud averaged 18.7 points, 7.7 assists, a WNBA-best 2.7 steals, and 1.3 blocks.
The opening trio was capped off with a game-closing rejection of sophomore sensation Caitlin Clark when the Liberty earned a 90-88 win over the Indiana Fever on Saturday afternoon. In the same game, Cloud moved into a 10th-place tie with Skylar Diggins-Smith on the WNBA's all-time assists list (passing her during Tuesday's win over Golden State) and earned her 2,500th point in the Association. Cloud also became just the sixth New Yorker to score at least 50 points and the third to post at least 20 assists in her first three games with the franchise.
Cloud's impact on the Liberty's off-court vibes and fortunes have proven equally valuable, if not innumerable.
"Love Tash. She's just come in and she's just fit right in," head coach Sandy Brondello said prior to the Liberty's season-opening win over Las Vegas on May 17. "I know my first conversation once we finally got that trade through, [she said] 'Coach, I'll do whatever you need for me to do' and I said I want you to come in and be you, because you're adding something to us."
"Just the way that she plays, her ability to get to the rim, the pressure that she can put on opposing players, Leo (Fiebich) is going to be happy because she won't have to guard down the court the whole time ... Just the energy that she brings, the positivity that she brings, you love being around that. You love coming to work. She comes to work and she works really hard ... She's certainly added another dimension to what we wanted to do."
Joining Cloud on the early honor roll is Napheesa Collier, who put up 29.5 points and 7.3 rebounds in her season debuts for the Minnesota Lynx en route to the Western Conference title. The Liberty and Lynx, who met in last fall's WNBA Finals, are the only two undefeated teams left on the early ledger thanks to the efforts of Collier, Cloud, and more.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
Geoff Magliocchetti is a veteran sportswriter who contributes to a variety of sites on the "On SI" network. In addition to the Yankees/Mets, Geoff also covers the New York Knicks, New York Liberty, and New York Giants and has previously written about the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, Staten Island Yankees, and NASCAR.