WNBA: Phoenix Mercury coaching camp tasks to be extremely aggressive

The Phoenix Mercury’s 2025 WNBA Draft was about as quiet as their free company interval was loud.

After an unlimited four-team, 13-player commerce introduced star forwards Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally to Phoenix and despatched a substantial variety of gamers and property elsewhere, the Mercury didn’t have a lot left to work with within the draft. In reality, that they had nothing in any respect; Phoenix was left with zero picks and made no additional strikes to accumulate any, content material to take part within the draft solely as a spectator.

That doesn’t imply that the Mercury’s coaching camp received’t be a aggressive one. Phoenix at present has a whopping 14 gamers signed to coaching camp contracts, and never a lot of them look like locks to make the staff’s remaining roster, making a clean slate of kinds that, in a method, mirrors the Mercury’s strategy as a corporation to the 2025 season.

Which gamers could have an higher hand in Mercury coaching camp?

The Mercury could have assembled a formidable quantity of high-end expertise through the offseason, however they’ll primarily be beginning over when it comes to who will truly be on their roster. The 2025 WNBA season would be the Mercury’s first in properly over a decade with out both Diana Taurasi, who not too long ago introduced her retirement after 20 seasons within the league, or Brittney Griner, who signed with the Atlanta Dream after anchoring the Phoenix frontcourt for the reason that staff drafted her in 2013.

Beginning on the prime, issues look good. Thomas and Sabally be a part of All-WNBA wing Kahleah Copper to type a dynamic and versatile trio of gamers that may ideally be the Mercury’s basis for years to return.

After that, although, the Mercury’s roster is crammed with query marks. Veterans Sami Whitcomb and Kalani Brown determine to play outstanding roles on the staff at guard and middle, respectively, as does sharpshooter Kitija Laksa, regardless of having no prior WNBA expertise. These suits are, in the interim, solely theoretical; none of Whitcomb, Brown or Laksa performed for Phoenix final season.

They’re in good firm. Of the 20 gamers at present listed on Phoenix’s roster, solely three had been on the staff in 2024. Of these three, Copper is the one one whose wage is assured for 2025.

Photograph by Kate Frese/NBAE through Getty Photographs

With so few holdovers from final season, Phoenix shall be studying a couple of good chunk of its roster on the fly. There appears to be a great likelihood ahead Natasha Mack and guard Celeste Taylor make the staff, if for no different purpose than the time they spent in Phoenix final 12 months, however the remainder of the Mercury’s camp invitees could have fairly a bit to show in a brief period of time.

That’s very true for Anna Makurat, Helena Pueyo, Julia Ayrault, Kathryn Westbeld, Lexi Held, Megan McConnell, Monique Akoa-Makani, Murjanatu Musa and Temira Poindexter—none of whom have any WNBA expertise.

One factor the Mercury’s camp invitees can do to differentiate themselves is present that they’ll play properly alongside the staff’s new core. Phoenix would possibly take it simple on Thomas, Sabally and Copper in the beginning of camp, however they’ll must take the courtroom in some unspecified time in the future to determine chemistry not solely with one another, however with their potential regular-season teammates, as properly. Thomas, specifically, spent years in Connecticut because the hub of the Solar’s offense, so Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts and his workers could have loads of information on what works with Thomas and what doesn’t.

No matter which gamers Tibbetts chooses to roll with out of coaching camp, they’re going to be a part of a pivotal season in Mercury franchise historical past. Whether or not or not these gamers arrived in Phoenix through the draft is irrelevant; they’ll nonetheless have a chance to make an affect for what needs to be one of many WNBA’s most enjoyable groups in 2025.