The New York Liberty have signed Anneli Maley to a developmental contract, the team announced Saturday, a move that brings a 27-year-old forward with dominant recent overseas production back into the WNBA picture. "The NY Liberty have signed Anneli Maley to a developmental contract, the team announced" was posted by WNBA insider Khristina Williams.
Maley arrives with a résumé that reads differently depending on the continent. In Australia’s 2025 WNBL season she played 27 games for the Perth Lynx and averaged 15.5 points, 14.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.5 steals per game while shooting 40.8 percent from the field, 32.8 percent from three and 81.8 percent from the free-throw line. She is also a former WNBL MVP, winning the award in 2022 with the Bendigo Spirit.
Her WNBA minutes so far have been scarce. Earlier in the current season Maley had a brief stint with the Phoenix Mercury, appearing in two games and averaging one rebound in three minutes per game. She also logged time in the 2022 WNBA season with the Chicago Sky, appearing in four games and averaging two points and 1.8 rebounds in 11 minutes per game while shooting 50 percent from the field and 66.7 percent from three.
The move comes while the Liberty are still settling into the early portion of the season. New York entered Sunday with a 3-2 record after an 87-70 loss to the Golden State Valkyries on Thursday night, and the team was scheduled to face the Dallas Wings on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET. The signing was first reported Saturday on X by Williams and made public by the Liberty over the weekend.
The obvious tension in the signing is the gap between Maley’s Australian dominance and her limited WNBA exposure. Her WNBL numbers — particularly the 14.4 rebounds per game in 2025 and her 2022 MVP honor — suggest a player who can assert herself at a high level. On the other hand, her WNBA game logs show two brief appearances with Phoenix this season and only four games with Chicago back in 2022, with modest minutes and production.
For New York, which has opened the season with a winning record but suffered a lopsided loss most recently, adding a developmental player is a low-cost way to expand options around the roster. For Maley, the contract is a re-entry point: she returns to a WNBA locker room with clear evidence that she can produce at a professional level overseas, but with no guarantee of immediate playing time in New York.
The single most consequential question now is straightforward: will Anneli Maley convert her WNBL form and past MVP standing into a regular WNBA role and meaningful minutes with the Liberty this season? The signing gives her the pathway back into the league; whether it becomes a bridge to a standard roster spot depends on how she translates her production against WNBA competition in the weeks ahead.
