Satou Sabally has thrived early on this year, averaging a career high 21.3 points in coach Nate Tibbetts’ system. (File photo by Dani Trujillo/Cronkite News)
PHOENIX – The Phoenix Mercury were supposed to need time. Time to adjust to a new era, to recover from the departures of Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner. Time to jell with a roster that returned just two players from last season — both of whom are currently injured.
They especially needed time to develop chemistry between a reimagined Big Three and a host of first-year WNBA players who had only previously played overseas.
And yet, seven games into the 2025 season, Phoenix is 5–2 heading into Tuesday’s contest against the Minnesota Lynx — marking the Mercury’s best start since their championship season in 2014. It has been a remarkable opening act for a team that lost its two most iconic stars in Taurasi and Griner, has elite scorer Kahleah Copper and defensive anchor Natasha Mack out injured, and has been without star forward Alyssa Thomas for the last two games.
With this year’s roster changes, and in some cases with their hand being forced by injuries, the Mercury have undergone a dramatic identity shift in their second year under coach Nate Tibbetts.
The ball moves. The floor stretches. And the treys fly. It’s early, but the Mercury are part of a league-wide shift toward a 3-point revolution — attempting 30 per contest, more than any WNBA team has ever averaged over a full season.
Much of the early success has come from the Mercury’s new stars: Thomas and Satou Sabally.
Sabally has thrived early on this year, averaging a career high 21.3 points in Tibbetts’ system, which emphasizes movement, screening, spacing and skill.
“I would truly say that this is the first time I’ve been coached to my limits,” said Sabally, a small forward who joined the Mercury during the offseason in a four-team trade after spending five seasons with the Dallas Wings. “I’m grateful that I’m being put in those positions. … I like to handle the ball, get off screens like a guard.”
The Mercury’s aggressive outside shooting approach contrasts with their star Thomas, who is almost exclusively an inside scorer. In order to maximize her playmaking potential, the team did what it could to surround her with outside scoring threats.
“Before coming here, (Phoenix’s front office) told me they were going out there to find shooters, and they definitely delivered on that,” Thomas said.
Sabally said Thomas’s ability to read and react to what the defense gives her is key to the team generating good shots from the perimeter.
“(Alyssa’s) a facilitator, but people have to guard her,” Sabally said. “It’s either two people on me or two people on her, and she reads it phenomenally. If nobody’s on her, she will score a bucket … having shooters around her really helps as well. We really create space for each other.”
Tibbetts said that as long as the team is generating the right types of looks from beyond the arc, the Mercury have no issue rewriting the record books.
“We took 40 (3-pointers) the other night (in a win against the Chicago Sky) and 34 were catch-and-shoot,” Tibbetts said. “We want to build off of that momentum, keep sharing the ball.”
What makes the Mercury’s successful start so interesting is that a lot of the surrounding pieces next to Sabally and Thomas weren’t expected to be major contributors.
The team has five rookies, none of whom were actually drafted this year, and all of whom exclusively have spent time playing professionally in Europe or Australia. Tibbetts admitted that if the Mercury had been fully healthy, he probably wouldn’t have rushed them into action.
“Some of it our hand has been forced a little bit with Mack and Kah out,” Tibbetts said. “The anticipation early wasn’t to have [the rookies] get this many minutes, but the hope is that this is going to help us down the road. The versatility of having different lineups — if we can play different types of players during stretches that’s only going to help us when it counts.”
Questions about how they would adjust to WNBA competition have been quickly answered, as the team’s third-sixth leading scorers (Monique Akoa-Makani, Kitija Laksa, Kathryn Westbeld, Lexi Held) are all technically rookies in the league despite having years of experience playing overseas.
“Is Kit considered a rookie?” Sabally wondered about the Latvian forward who signed with the Mercury in February after most recently playing for PF Schio in the Italian Serie A. “She just came here and had an immediate impact — but everyone, even Kat … her being ready to play and hit crunch time shots. They don’t seem like rookies to me, it’s obvious they have a lot of experience playing overseas.”
Even after losing a former Defensive Player of the Year in Griner, and an elite rim protector in Mack, the team has competed extremely well defensively, ranking second in the league in fewest points allowed per possession.
“We’re there for each other — we limit them to one shot and then get that rebound,” Sabally said. “But also, really being there on passes and kickouts, being on one string to help one another. That’s how you win on defensive plays.”
The Mercury will have a chance to show their standing among the top teams in the coming week, as they start a stretch of three matchups in five days, beginning with Tuesday’s away game against the reigning Western Conference champion Lynx. But through seven games — even shorthanded — the Mercury look less like a team in transition and more like one aiming to shift the WNBA’s balance of power.