The Mercury Are Doing The Most With The Least
While the roster may not look like much outside of Satou Sabally and Alyssa Thomas, the Phoenix Mercury have opened the WNBA season as one of the top teams in the league.
Phoenix has managed to both answer many of the the preseason questions I had and still leave me utterly confused. An impressive feat, truly.
So to begin, a quick status check. At the time of writing this the Mercury are currently 4-1 which is good enough for 3rd in the WNBA. And have done this without Kahleah Copper and Natasha Mack. Alright sure why not!
Being without those two are already major on court losses for differing reasons but one of the most underrated consequences of them being out is the connection to last season. This roster has gone through a total overhaul from year one of the Nate Tibbets era as the head coach, besides those two players!
Not only are you losing their on-court production but they are the only players who came into this season familiar with the system and style of Tibbets.
Yet here we are. 4-1. 3rd in the WNBA. How?
The fact you are getting exactly what you need from players such as Kathryn Westbeld, Monique Akoa Makani, and Kitija Laksa is the difference. Players at various stages of their careers in totality but all in their first real WNBA run.
Being able to find players like this due to the lack of draft capital and cap with how you have spent on your stars is such incredible work from this Mercury front office.
To garner that success though I do look to the new stars in town, Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally. The gravity that both of them have has allowed for the role players to excel.
Thomas, even without being able to spread the floor on her own, is a ridiculous engine on both sides of the ball.
Sabally is averaging the most points of her career so far, and while not doing it the most efficiently…I kinda just don’t care? And seemingly neither does Phoenix? You are willing to live and die with Satou’s offense production (especially with Copper out) due to how much it opens up for everyone else and she will get hers while doing it. And buddy if those shooting splits go up? Ooowee.
It isn’t just the offensive side either, you can argue it is primarily what they have done defensively that has lead to their early success. Currently the Mercury are holding teams to 74.6 PPG which is the lowest in the WNBA are over two points less than the Liberty who rank 2nd.
Much of that strength on defense is coming purely from activity. Phoenix joins New York as the only two teams to be top-5 in both steals (10.2 SPG, 2nd in the WNBA) and blocks (4.8 BPG, 3rd in the WNBA).
None of it quite makes sense on paper, and I think a lot of this credit should go to Alyssa Thomas on both sides of the ball for making this work, but either way…4-1, 3rd in the WNBA.
Their biggest test yet is on deck as the ‘Pheetnessgram’ Pacer Test that is Naphessa Collier and the Minnesota Lynx will be the Mercury’s opponent in two of their next three games. We should know a lot more about this team then but already there is much to be impressed about.