When Nicki Collen coached against Liberty forward Betnijah Laney, opponents didn’t guard her.

They dared Laney to take shots, fading farther away from their original assignments.

The reputation of being a defensive-minded player (the role Laney inherited earlier this season with the Liberty) always guaranteed a roster spot and a role, but it also prompted defenses, including Collen’s across the four years prior to Laney joining her Atlanta Dream in 2020, to adjust.

With the Dream, though, Laney uncovered her shot and won the WNBA’s Most Improved Player Award in 2020.

That shot has helped her score 19 points in five of the Liberty’s seven postseason contests entering Game 2 of the WNBA Finals on Wednesday.

And this season, which also included a contract extension, Laney helped the Liberty advance to the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2002.

Laney, who signed with the Liberty in 2021, credited head coach Sandy Brondello with “allowing me to play and play my game.”

Brondello attributed Laney’s success to accepting a role without much offense and then making sure to carve out shots anyway.

“I thought she was an absolute afterthought at the beginning of the year,” Collen said. “I just think the bounce-back now is really, really special.”

This season, Collen said, Laney’s focus shifted back to her defensive roots, perhaps due to the presence of Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot in the starting lineup. Laney topped 10 points just twice in the first seven games, but eventually, she started getting the ball on post-ups — often drawing mismatches — and could also pass the ball if doubled.

In the semifinals against Connecticut, which trapped Vandersloot with pressure defense, Laney had open 3s and attempted 22 across four games.

“Even when she goes and gets 20,” Collen said, “they’re usually really good shots.”

Collen noticed Laney’s shooting potential from their first workouts in Atlanta, she said.

The Dream needed more than a defense-first player, and Laney emerged as a fit, averaging 17.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game that season.

She only played in nine regular-season games last year due to injury, but then Laney became an indispensable piece of the Liberty superteam.

Her assignment originally revolved around defense, around guarding an opponent’s top scorers and letting the rest of the stars carry the offense.

Then, gradually, the shooting side followed.

And that, Collen said, turned Laney into “clearly [the Liberty’s] best two-way perimeter player.”

“I think my role has been different just throughout my career in general,” Laney said in September. “Whether it was the beginning, now, in the middle, it’s always been adjusting, but I’ve just always prided myself on just being the best professional that I can be.”