Jonquel Jones says the New York Liberty’s championship road still runs through the Las Vegas Aces. After seeing a speculative report about her free agency future this April, Jones texted general manager Jonathan Kolb and now says she had a sense from the start that New York would have to get past Las Vegas to win a title.
That matters now because the Liberty entered the WNBA’s 30th season carrying title-contending expectations, and a month into the year they were off to their worst start since 2022 amid injuries and absences. Jones’ comment lands against a season that was built around keeping the core intact, not just talking about a title window, and it puts the league’s two most recognizable contenders back in the same frame.
“I just had a feeling that this year we were going to have to go through them to win a championship,” Jones said. The Aces have won three of the last four WNBA titles, and the gap they represent is part of why the Liberty held firm in free agency: Jones, Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu never took meetings with other teams and each signed three-year deals to stay in Brooklyn.
The contrast is sharp because the Liberty changed their own sideline before the season, overhauled their coaching staff to maximize a championship window that opened less than two years ago when they won their first title. Even so, the early results have been uneven, and Stewart summed up the mood last month with a blunt line of her own: “Nobody expected this.”
There is also a reason Jones’ view carries extra weight. In the last four years, the 2024 Liberty are the only team to beat the Aces in the postseason, a reminder that New York has already broken through once. But Las Vegas has protected its core through 2028, with A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray and Jewell Loyd under control, while Jackie Young added a one-year standard max deal. That is the matchup Jones is talking about, and it is the one that will define whether New York’s title talk becomes another ring or another near miss.
For now, the Liberty’s clearest path to a championship is also the hardest one: survive the regular season, get healthy, and hope the postseason gives them another shot at the team Jones already sees as the final obstacle.
