NEW YORK — Screams echoed from the visiting locker room at Barclays Center into the surrounding hallways.Another team traveled to Brooklyn and was celebrating leaving with a win. This time, it was the start-up Portland Fire, who were headed back to the Pacific Northwest with a seven-point victory against the supposedly bigger, better Liberty. A day before, it was the Dallas Wings. And days before that, it was the Golden State Valkyries.The Fire’s cheers carried well after the final buzzer sounded. Then came the music.“Psst… I see dead people.”Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” served as the walkup song for Fire coach Alex Sarama, Carla Leite and Teja Oblak as they took the postgame podium to discuss delivering another Liberty post-mortem. Around the corner, New York’s first-year coach, Chris DeMarco, was giving his own explanation, as were Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones.“Nobody expected this,” Stewart said last month.The Liberty came into the WNBA’s historic 30th season carrying the title-contending expectations that come with a roster of its caliber less than two years removed from winning its first. An overhaul to the coaching staff was intended to maximize the franchise’s championship window.But a month in, the franchise’s worst start since 2022 amid injuries and absences raises the question: Do they have enough to dethrone the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces?Social media was not typically a place that stirs a reaction from Jones.However, on this particular April day, during the sprint that was WNBA free agency, a hot take piqued her interest enough to warrant a text to general manager Jonathan Kolb.The speculative report she shared with Kolb: Stewie and Sabrina are signed, but Jones might be headed elsewhere. “Where are they getting this information?” she asked.The futures of Jones, Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu in Brooklyn were not in question. In fact, the Liberty’s big three never even took meetings with other teams, each told The Athletic. Not because they couldn’t command offers elsewhere, but because they were committed to keeping open the championship window in New York. So much so that they each inked three-year deals.Some 2,500 miles to the west, the Aces locked down their core with four-time MVP A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jewell Loyd all committing to Las Vegas through the 2028 season. Four-time All-Star and two-time All-WNBA second team guard Jackie Young curiously did not make a long-term commitment to the Aces. Instead, she opted to sign a one-year contract at the standard max.Championship windows aren’t created equal.Some are built from the ground up. The Aces, for example, constructed their championship era with three consecutive No. 1 overall draft picks: Kelsey Plum (2017), Wilson (2018) and Young (2019). From there, they added WNBA champions such as Gray (2021), Candace Parker (2023) and Loyd (2025) in free agency.Others are constructed in response.“I just had a feeling that this year we were going to have to go through them to win a championship,” Jones said.Jones’ musing wasn’t epiphanic in nature. It’s a relatively obvious conjecture given the Aces have won three of the last four WNBA titles. But the sentiment derives from the lived experiences of Jones and her teammates. In the last four years, only one team has bested the three-time champions in the postseason: the 2024 Liberty.Their starting five that season, outside of Ionescu, who they drafted first overall in 2020, was built through free agency in an effort to shorten the Aces’ dynasty window. In fact, Nyara Sabally was the only Liberty draftee other than Ionescu who played considerable minutes on the 2024 roster.