Liam McNeeley’s first eleven games of the 2025-26 season were defined by a brutal, unrelenting adjustment to the speed of professional basketball. His lone bright spot arrived on 10/30 vs ORL. He posted a +0.6 Impact score by acting as a willing connector, supplementing his six points with four assists and three rebounds in just 14 minutes. That fleeting moment of competence vanished completely by 11/01 vs MIN. He registered a ghastly -15.4 Impact score that night, dragging the second unit down with an empty stat line of zero points, zero assists, and 0-for-3 shooting. Even when McNeeley managed to find the bottom of the net, the underlying costs were steep. Look at his outing on 11/23 vs ATL, where he scored six points but still bled value to the tune of a -12.5 Impact score. He needed six shot attempts just to get those points, and his glaring defensive lapses made him an absolute liability on the floor.

Liam McNeeley’s mid-season stretch was defined by erratic bench minutes and a frustrating inability to string together positive shifts. Even when he found the bottom of the net, the underlying metrics often painted a bleak picture. During the 12/04 vs NYK matchup, he scored 10 points in 21 minutes, but a -3.0 impact score revealed the hidden costs of his inefficient 3-for-8 shooting and porous perimeter defense. He briefly flipped the script on 12/07 vs DEN. Pouring in 13 points on blistering 4-of-5 shooting from beyond the arc, McNeeley posted a stellar +7.7 impact by taking exactly what the defense gave him and avoiding costly turnovers. Unfortunately, that rhythm vanished entirely by the end of the month. In a brutal 12/31 vs GSW outing, he managed zero points in 11 minutes, suffering a -10.2 impact because he simply floated on the wing without generating any playmaking or defensive resistance to offset his cold hand.