The new era of Phoenix Mercury basketball is off to a good start, even if things aren’t going quite as planned. Despite early-season injuries to key players Kahleah Copper and Alyssa Thomas, Phoenix is in third place in the WNBA standings at 5-2, thanks to strong team defense and contributions from players who began the season as virtual unknowns.
When the Mercury went all-in to acquire Thomas and Satou Sabally last offseason, one of their goals was to build a team around them that could play a free-flowing offensive style head coach Nate Tibbetts described as “positionless.” The pair’s diverse skillsets would, in theory, allow Phoenix to think differently when constructing the rest of its roster, focusing more on how further additions would play alongside the team’s best players without worrying as much about how they match up individually.
It’s been the Mercury’s defense, however, that has carried them early in 2025. With Copper, their leading perimeter scorer, out for the first four to six weeks of the season following a knee procedure, the Mercury’s offensive ceiling is somewhat limited, but they’ve still been able to get themselves going in transition. Phoenix is currently leading the WNBA in opponents’ turnover rate at 22 percent and is second in…
