Leonie Fiebich, the New York Liberty's X-Factor
How the rookie German forward could play a pivotal role for last season's WNBA runner-up
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After losing in the 2023 WNBA Finals, the New York Liberty has overhauled its bench in the offseason. Stefanie Dolson has moved on to the Washington Mystics while Marine Johannés will not return to the team until after the Olympics, if at all. That leaves just Kayla Thornton among bench players who played a non-trivial amount of playoff action. In response, the Liberty have not brought in any players who finished last season on a WNBA roster but instead signed three players who are at the pinnacle of the European club landscape.
Ivana Dojkić had strong moments with the Seattle Storm last season before falling out of the rotation and ultimately being cut in August in order to report to Italian club Virtus Bologna in time for training camp. She seems primed to absorb many of Johannés’s minutes.
Kennedy Burke has three-and-a-half years of WNBA experience, most recently being on Washington’s roster until the midseason contract guarantee date in 2022. Despite this lack of WNBA success, Burke has cemented herself as one of EuroLeague Women’s best power forwards. Burke has played small forward in the WNBA in the past, including in that stint with the Mystics, but benefits from playing the 4 spot, where she will need to compete for backup minutes with Thornton and Nyara Sabally.
Finally, 6-foot-4 small forward Leonie Fiebich was a second-round pick in 2020 whose draft rights New York acquired last year as the third team in the Marina Mabrey sign-and-trade. While Fiebich is the only one of these players without previous WNBA experience, the versatility and rarity of her skill set make her a mismatch nightmare. The fact that Fiebich’s skillset overlaps the least with New York’s cadre of superstars means there is a reasonable chance that she has the greatest impact of the trio.
What stands out most about Fiebich, especially in club competition, is her efficiency. She spent her club season playing in Spain for Casademont Zaragoza, a team in its first EuroLeague Women season. Unusual for the EuroLeague level, the roster had a combined 10 games of WNBA experience, all of them from last-season acquisition and backup guard Khayla Pointer. Furthermore, Fiebich was the team’s only player to average double figures in scoring. Nevertheless, Zaragoza made the quarterfinals, pushing Turkish superteam Cukurova Basketbol Mersin with Mabrey and Kahleah Copper to a deciding third game.
Individually, Fiebich averaged an outstanding 1.14 points per possession and 1.34 points per scoring attempt in the best club competition outside the WNBA. For context, only seven players in WNBA history have recorded an equal or better points per scoring attempt mark in a season when they played at least 500 minutes. Only one of those players, Alysha Clark, shot a significant number of 3-pointers that season, and only two of those players, Nneka Ogwumike and Sylvia Fowles, had a usage rate above 20%. Fiebich was only a hair less efficient in Spanish league and Copa de la Reina action across a larger cumulative sample. The standout element of her scoring profile is her 3-point shooting, as she recorded an incredible 44.4% mark from 3-point range on 6.1 attempts per 40 minutes across all competitions.
While she generally cannot record such astounding efficiency marks when playing for the German national team, that is largely a product of that team having much less ball-handling talent and Fiebich therefore having to shoulder a substantial proportion of the burden herself.
Fiebich’s value to Zaragoza extended beyond the traditional box score. On-off +/- data represents the difference in a team’s scoring margin when players are playing versus when they are not. In EuroLeague Women play this season, Casademont Zaragoza outscored its opponents by 9.2 points per 100 possessions when Fiebich was on the court and was outscored by 16.5 points per 100 possessions when she was off the court. This represents a net figure, or on-off value, of +25.7 for Fiebich. In other words, Casademont Zaragoza’s point margin was 25.7 points per 100 possessions better when Fiebich was playing. The next closest mark on the team was backup power forward Vega Gimeno’s value of +9.6.1 Unadjusted on-off numbers are subject to a great deal of statistical noise, especially on the extremely limited sample of a EuroLeague Women season, and EuroLeague Women teams tend to have rather stark differences in quality between their best players and those on the fringes of the rotation. Nevertheless, it is clear that Fiebich had an extremely large positive impact on her team.
Fiebich may not shoot the largest number of 3-point attempts - her 6.1 attempts per 40 minutes would have ranked in the 78th percentile among WNBA players last season, which translates to 27th among qualifying players - but that does not mean that she is strictly a stand-still shooter. In fact, she will run off significant off-ball movement like this dribble hand-off that generates a deep three which Fiebich sinks with ease.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/d92FCl2kZgc?si=jR7gLttFuQtoyzmF&t=2402
Of course, being able to make more subtle movements around the court can threaten defenses just as much, especially when playing alongside talented teammates. As this Christelle Diallo roll to the basket turns into a post-up, Fiebich catches Copper with her head turned and lifts to the wing, sinking a wide-open 3-pointer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/d92FCl2kZgc?si=TK4kmWS6td5uNny-&t=4462
Fiebich can also do more than just shoot off those complex actions. Indeed, she has some ability to attack the basket, especially coming off off-ball screens. When Kayla McBride falls behind as Fiebich approaches this hand-off, Fiebich receives the ball and turns the corner, avoiding the stunt and finishing through some contact on the contest from Emma Meesseman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/jtmBmuiT0Rg?si=De3msejFwbL2-g1N&t=881
Fiebich is also more than willing to distribute the ball to her teammates. On this dribble hand-off with Nerea Hermosa, Fiebich finds Hermosa getting open rolling to the basket, but Hermosa is just not able to convert the layup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/d92FCl2kZgc?si=6FabEVJr6m0dkVnP&t=1757
That passing ability also translates to quick decisions as she moves around the court. Here, Gimeno fills the corner that Fiebich has just vacated after lifting to the wing. As Fiebich catches the ball and attracts a closeout, she whips an assist over to Gimeno without hesitating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/jtmBmuiT0Rg?si=EpcU71_lW2Mk4gFl&t=1889
In this transition situation, Fiebich makes a nice interior pass straight off the catch, hitting Tanaya Atkinson for an easy layup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/jtmBmuiT0Rg?si=bDm2ixrqf22sCVGC&t=5043
While Fiebich does not always make a move in a split second, that sometimes is because she is waiting for the play to develop. Here, she pauses after catching the ball coming off an off-ball screen, waiting a few beats before slinging a pass to Petra Holesínská cutting off her own screen on the other side of the court.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/jtmBmuiT0Rg?si=41z9SmzkyAVba-8t&t=3918
Fiebich does have limitations as a ballhandler. In particular, she has some difficulty continuing to handle the ball when she attracts attention from off-ball defenders. When she has the opportunity to run pick-and-roll, she is vulnerable to getting blitzed, often turning the ball over or having to reset the play.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/jtmBmuiT0Rg?si=YG4vptGvUIFm57uO&t=2100
Here, Fiebich curls to the elbow but has to pick up her dribble when two defenders loosely collapse around her. The team’s spacing does not help Fiebich necessarily - the obvious kickout, Diallo on the right wing, is not a credible outside shooting threat - but she also notably lacks the lateral shake to escape the situation. Ultimately, she runs through several progressions before simply resetting the play, losing the momentum established by the threat of her off-ball movement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/d92FCl2kZgc?si=BbiU2uE54KETYkWH&t=1094
On this pick-and-roll, Fiebich rejects the side ball screen and gets fairly deep penetration but becomes stuck in a bit of a middle when the help rotation comes. She ultimately traps herself against the baseline before spinning out and attempting a fallaway jumper, which she misses.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/d92FCl2kZgc?si=z7jVrEUrYY6NZHMP&t=810
This play indicates that Fiebich is not always able to get all the way to the rim. While that fallaway jumper can be deadly, there have been times when she has had to rely on it to a greater extent than is ideal.
On this weave action, Fiebich essentially gets an isolation opportunity against McBride. However, she does not feel comfortable attacking from this position, so the action sticks a bit, and point guard Mariona Ortiz has to bail her out, moving toward her slightly in a way that seems unplanned.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/jtmBmuiT0Rg?si=19o9rcyM4tdF0BqW&t=1020
That being said, Fiebich’s success operating out of hand-offs demonstrates how she can attack when she finds herself in advantage situations. In the WNBA, especially on a team with as many talented players as New York, she will not need to run as many of these ball-handling intensive actions and can focus on leveraging her outstanding shooting ability. As she becomes more of a play finisher, it seems entirely reasonable that her 3-point volume should increase without significantly affecting her elite shooting percentage.
Furthermore, she is not without her highlight moments attacking the basket. Here, she curls off a series of off-ball screens, but Copper demonstrates her defensive quality and sticks with her. Fiebich assesses the situation to see if any of the action in the middle of the court proves fruitful. Observing that the help defense is totally preoccupied, she swings the ball to her right side and attacks Copper in isolation, getting all the way to the restricted area and drawing an and-1 against an above-average WNBA defender.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/d92FCl2kZgc?si=QJkNWGts4BKWwxVt&t=4747
Given Fiebich’s potency as a perimeter shooter, requiring defenders to keep up with her, and limitations as a ballhandler, allowing defenders to get into her handle and disrupt the team’s offense, opposing coaches may feel tempted to ask smaller guards to match up with her defensively. That would be a miscalculation. Fiebich has consistently demonstrated the willingness and the ability to seal smaller players in the post for easy layups. Take this example where the 5-foot-11 McBride must front Fiebich, but Fiebich seals her off and gets an easy finish off Ortiz’s nice entry pass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/jtmBmuiT0Rg?si=ub-nbOcWILZL_wUR&t=742
Former South Florida star shooter and first-round WNBA draft pick Kitija Laksa may not be the most physical player in the world, but she still stands 6-foot-1, an excellent height for a wing. Nevertheless, Fiebich takes her to the post and attacks with just as much alacrity as she does against the smaller players, repositioning herself multiple times before ultimately sealing her off for a layup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/jtmBmuiT0Rg?si=dg1CGH7beUYQnF47&t=2262
While there will surely be fewer opportunities for her to attack mismatches in the post like this in the WNBA, Fiebich’s size should allow her to continue to manufacture easy shots like this for the Liberty. In particular, off-ball screen actions with Sabrina Ionescu coming off her historically deadly shooting season should present defenses with an impossible dilemma because of Fiebich’s ability to attack down low should the defense switch.
A wrinkle that Fiebich’s coaches have not historically explored is her ability to slide down to the power forward position. Fiebich’s height and perimeter skill have the potential to make her especially difficult to guard for opposing post players. In particular, her ballhandling ability has a much better chance of remaining usable even in more static situations if she is being marked by taller, slower players. One of the biggest concerns about small-ball lineups is their ability to survive on the boards. Fiebich secures a perfectly respectable number of rebounds, 7.8 per 40 minutes across all competitions, but these do seem disproportionately uncontested, and she does not always box her opponent out super physically. She also has a notably large difference between her offensive rebounding and defensive rebounding totals, which is normal for a perimeter player but does underscore the point about her not necessarily using her physicality in rebounding situations. The other big question revolves around her ability to check power forwards in the post, which may also present issues. Overall, this would represent more of a gadgety change-up option but seems worth exploring.
As with any oversized perimeter player who is not an obvious superathlete, questions will be raised about Fiebich’s abilities at the defensive end, in particular her ability to guard on-ball. However, while no one will likely confuse her for an All-Defense candidate any time soon, Fiebich has enough skill and versatility to acquit herself well at that end.
Zaragoza played competitive games against two of the EuroLeague Women’s best teams where Fiebich spent much of her time guarding two high-level WNBA wings in the top 35 of our Ranking the W voting who have vastly different skill sets. Against Fenerbahce Alagoz Holding, she spent much of the game checking McBride, an off-screen specialist with more than enough cutting savvy and ball-handling ability to attack defenders who overplay her. Against Cukurova Basketbol Mersin, she was paired against Copper, a downhill attacker more than comfortable stopping on a dime in the mid-range.
Using ICE coverage to guard McBride on this side pick-and-pop, Fiebich stays with McBride after McBride rejects the ball screen, which ICE forces, and then gets over the screen when McBride takes the rescreen. The open mid-range jumper that Meesseman sinks is as much the product of how center Serena-Lynn Geldof times her recovery as anything else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/jtmBmuiT0Rg?si=VALKDDq72EwYv5ac&t=4102
This following clip reflects many of the highs and lows of Fiebich’s defensive game. On the one hand, Fiebich gets around several tightly set screens guarding McBride starting from the left wing, including one of McBride’s own. However, when she and Gimeno send two to the ball off a hand-off, they leave enough space for McBride to slot a pretty pass to a rolling Meesseman with plenty of space in front of her. Then, Fiebich lingers a bit behind the play, even after the first shot goes up, letting Ortiz, still a point guard despite standing 6 feet tall, take the contest and not entering the rebounding fray in earnest. However, on the second shot, she spots an opportunity to attack the rebound in some more open space where she doesn’t need to bang around with others and grabs the board.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/jtmBmuiT0Rg?si=MV-5reGrhcHvHdYX&t=5156
It is remarkable for a 6-foot-4 player to do such a good job getting around such a tight network of screens, even if the collective result is not superlative. Fiebich was not able to maintain this level on every possession against McBride, who had a productive offensive game overall, but screen navigation is notoriously difficult for taller players in particular, and Fiebich at least put together a serviceable effort.
Despite Copper being the more dangerous athlete and more effective at the WNBA level, Fiebich actually performed better defensively against her than she did versus McBride. Guarding Copper here, she gets around first an off-ball screen and then stays tightly with her as she comes around a ball screen from Stephanie Mavunga. Ultimately, Ortiz digs in and forces a turnover as Fiebich remains right with Copper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/d92FCl2kZgc?si=gpkO44bTjG1O1Y4V&t=4478
On this sideline out-of-bounds (SLOB) play, Copper comes off two screens, yet Fiebich keeps pace and does not give Copper a driving lane once she catches the ball.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/d92FCl2kZgc?si=1ZNYw_YbD8wY8dTB&t=5701
Fiebich picks Copper up in transition here, and while Copper has an empty side all to herself, Fiebich moves her feet, does not overreact to any moves, gets into Copper’s body just before she gets to the paint, forces her off balance toward the baseline, and strips her for the steal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/d92FCl2kZgc?si=gHrjsXqKg0nzz9k9&t=1108
Even though Copper briefly catches Fiebich looking the other way on this side ball screen, Fiebich stays with her and cuts off her drive toward the sideline. Then Fiebich manages to get under the rescreen and cut Copper off again as she drives middle, forcing a reset.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/d92FCl2kZgc?si=q6rB_twg_6Q6Auo_&t=5397
Going under screens like this may not be an option against foes who can shoot threes consistently off the dribble. Very few wings can do this consistently even in the WNBA, and most of the ones who can are All-Stars like Rhyne Howard and DeWanna Bonner.
On this play, Copper sizes Fiebich up and isolates from the right wing. Fiebich stays with her every move and blocks the mid-range pull-up she attempts as the shot clock nears zero.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/d92FCl2kZgc?si=lUMnZ4nMMWDHHJ3X&t=4649
With Zaragoza nursing a one-point lead in the final minute of the game, Fiebich once again stuck with Copper in isolation and blocked a pull-up jump shot, with this one not being in a late-clock situation and Copper therefore having more options.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/d92FCl2kZgc?si=pXP5JV49PJYkfoCO&t=7025
Blocking jump shots is one of the most impressive defensive skills a player can have. To do so against someone with Copper’s ability to create separation stands out even further.
It is also notable, and positive for her chances of surviving defensively in the WNBA, that she has spent much of her time guarding smaller players, including outright guards. Take this possession where she guards Sevgi Uzun. Uzun is technically the 2 in this lineup, but she plays primarily as a point guard, as is reflected by her play with the Dallas Wings this preseason. Uzun runs a pick-and-roll after coming up to receive the ball, and while the play is shut off as much by a good weakside stunt from Holesínská as much anything else, Fiebich still gets over the screen and does her job, recovering completely by the team Uzun kicks the ball out to Holesínská’s matchup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/jtmBmuiT0Rg?si=z0UQP5sWJND3Ds2p&t=3713
Additionally, it is worth noting that Aleksa Gulbe is a perfectly reasonable athlete for a EuroLeague power forward, yet she still defends the pick-and-roll below the level of the screen. This decision requires less from Gulbe athletically and more from Fiebich to get over the top. Uzun not being the deadliest 3-point shooter certainly factors into choosing that coverage, which typically concedes pull-up jumpers, but it also indicates that Zaragoza’s coaching staff trusts Fiebich’s movement skills and defensive technique.
Even more impressive is this possession where she is guarding Mabrey. As Mabrey tries to obtain the ball off this hand-off, Fiebich’s aggressive ball denial pushes her nearly all the way to the half-court line. Fiebich then continues to body Mabrey, pushing her baseline on the side ball screen. Ultimately, Diallo comes to trap Mabrey in the corner as the shot clock withers, and Mabrey has to throw a hopelessly desperate pass that Atkinson reads easily.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/d92FCl2kZgc?si=zad4rGFP13RDAS6u&t=4853
Athleticism might not be Mabrey’s best skill, but she is still an actively good WNBA player who earned a max contract in no small part because of her ability to play point guard.
To be clear, this collection of plays more closely represents a highlight reel than a holistic review of Fiebich’s defense. In particular, blocking Copper’s jump shot is not really a representative skill as she only blocked 0.5 shots per 40 minutes. However, the fact that these positive plays can be found across merely two games against her team’s toughest opponents indicate that Fiebich should have little trouble surviving defensively against WNBA competition. In fact, it points to her having the potential to play average defense once she fully adapts to the league.
Further keeping in mind Fiebich’s experience playing shooting guard with the German national team, her ability to survive against offensive players of this caliber unlocks ultra-big lineup possibilities. Even ignoring the possibility of Fiebich continuing to play as an outright shooting guard, lineups with Fiebich at the 3 and Betnijah Laney at the 2 can mix and match match-ups to put both players in the best position to succeed. Laney deservedly has the stronger defensive reputation, but Fiebich should be versatile enough to take at least the weaker wing matchup against most conventional lineups, allowing the Liberty offense to benefit from both players’ spacing capabilities. Her ability may also allow Fiebich to take tougher matchups against other teams’ under-strength offensive fives and thereby hide Ionescu defensively against less dangerous small forwards.
In the end, the biggest obstacle to Fiebich getting consistent playing time might just be coach Sandy Brondello's reticence to play young players over established veterans. There is clear precedent for this in New York, most recently how Han Xu was always behind Dolson on the depth chart and then was completely marginalized from the rotation when the team acquired Jonquel Jones. Fiebich fills a niche on the New York roster, with Laney having the closest offensive role to hers on the roster, but Laney and Thornton are still good WNBA players whose main position is small forward, not to mention the possibility of Burke sliding down or Ionescu sliding up the positional spectrum. Furthermore, Laney, Thornton, and Burke are all good defenders, so Fiebich, despite being far from a liability, stands out as being a step behind the rest. This definitely matters, especially on a team with so many clear offensive stars.
Last season, New York’s starters averaged 151 minutes per game, leaving 49 minutes per game for the rest of the roster at full strength. Some of those minutes will certainly go to Sabally as the only other traditional post player likely to make the team. Even assuming that Courtney Vandersloot scales back her minutes load slightly as she ages, that presumably leaves about 35 minutes up for grabs between Thornton; the three free agent acquisitions in Dojkić, Burke, and Fiebich; Sabally breaking out; and likely their first-round pick, Marquesha Davis. Of that group, Fiebich represents the most likely to push the team’s offensive ceiling because of her ability to attract defensive attention even as an ancillary player next to several All-Stars. The WNBA is tilting more and more toward offensive spacing and elite offenses in general, a paradigm best represented by the Las Vegas Aces winning back-to-back titles with historical offenses since hiring Becky Hammon as head coach. As such, pushing that offense to the next level might prove critical for New York’s title chances, making Leonie Fiebich the team’s secret X-factor.
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Burke had a similarly high on-off figure of +20.7 for Villenueve d’Ascq LM, a French team which reached the EuroLeague Women final, while Burke’s teammate, Kamiah Smalls, recorded an astronomical figure of +31.1. (These values were edited on May 12 to adjust a minor error in the pace calculations.)
Great, thorough article covering every aspect of Fiebich's game -- and with video links too! I first saw Fiebich playing off guard for Germany at a U-19 tournament. My first impression was, "great shooter, weak handle." Interesting that 6 years later those are still her greatest strength and weakness. I guess where Fiebich has made progress is in her passing and on defense. And you're right, the greatest threat to her success as a Liberty is Brondello. Sandy has been the biggest obstacle to her young players well before Han. Just ask Courtney Williams, Izzy Harrison, Alanna Smith, Sophie Cunningham, and even Ezi Magbegor. Brondello ignored Magbegor on the Australian Opals until Seattle turned Ezi into an All-Star.