After firing and re-hiring their coach within a three-month span, the Liberty are firmly pointed forward and have a clear goal in mind: to get younger.

On Monday, the Liberty consummated a blockbuster WNBA trade, shipping 32-year-old Cappie Pondexter to the Chicago Sky in exchange for 27-year-old Epiphanny Prince, in a swap of guards who played at Rutgers. The age difference was no minor detail.

When we made the change to bring [coach] Bill [Laimbeer] back about a month ago, we talked about doing a full evaluation of the Liberty and where we were headed, Kristin Bernert, the teams Senior Vice President of Business Operations, said Tuesday on a conference call. We decided that we probably needed to make some roster moves and plan not just for next year, but for the next 5-6 years. We have a young post player in [26-year-old] Tina Charles. Can we align somebody like Cappie, with a similar skill set, around the same age as Tina? This sets us up for 5-6 years down the road.

With youth the buzzword of the day, Laimbeer part of the methodically assembled core of the 1980s Bad Boy Detroit Pistons as an NBA player detailed what he envisions for the future.

Were building a basketball team for many years to come and want [players of] a similar age, said Laimbeer, who parted ways with the Liberty in October only to return to the fold in January. Essence [Carson], [Alex] Montgomery, those are players are in their mid-20s, right in their time slot where they should be blossoming. Accumulating this kind of talent, theyre all going to grow together. Thats our plan and hopefully it will come to fruition.

Right now, the team that we have assembled is wing-dominant. Were gonna play a little small ball with this lineup. We want to grow our players. This is not win right now. This is about building something. Were going to be more wing-dominant, but with Tina in the post we want to grow to see what we have and then the following year we can add a piece that we really need.

In Prince, the Liberty think they acquired a younger version ofPondexter.Laimbeer said Prince is a scorer with deep range who can handle the ball and [functions well] in the pick-and-roll.Prince said shes excited to play with Carson, a former college teammate at Rutgers.

Im really excited to get back out with E, she said. We pushed each other [in practice].

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The age-old thought process behind Libertys WNBA megadeal