The Phoenix Mercury tip off the 2025 season Saturday night at home against the Seattle Storm. When they do, they’ll take the court without two of the franchise’s mainstays: Diana Taurasi, who retired after last season and Brittney Griner, who signed as a free agent with Atlanta.
Ben Pickman, a staff writer for the Athletic covering women’s basketball, joined The Show to discuss a preview of the Mercury’s upcoming season.
Full conversation
MARK BRODIE: Ben, it seems as though this is the end of an era for the Mercury and the beginning of a new one. Do you get the sense that’s how the organization is seeing it?
BEN PICKMAN: Yeah, I mean, I think that is definitely the way to put it, and whether the organization, how often they want to say it or not, that is undoubtedly the truth, right? You mentioned it. Diana Taurasi has finally retired after two decades in the WNBA and Brittney Griner, a fellow former Number 1 pick of the organization, has gone on to the Atlanta Dream.
And so if you go up and down this Phoenix Mercury roster, there are a lot of names that fans of the team are not going to recognize. I mean, Kahleah Copper really is the big headliner who they acquired before last season, who is now on the team this year, but a lot of the roster, especially this new core, has been overhauled. And so yeah, it is certainly the turning of the page from what the team is going to look like in the 2025 season.
BRODIE: And safe to say that they are really sort of relying on a big three to try to lead them here.
PICKMAN: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we have seen this around the league, some concentration of, you know, duos and trios, but Phoenix is is especially stark because, you know, while they have three players who all could make all WNBA first team or all WNBA second team, the rest of the roster really is full of inexperienced players.
I mean, Sami Whitcomb, you know, she is a guard who comes from the Seattle Storms. She's gonna play a big role on the team. She's been in the league for eight years. She'll play a big role, but like in terms of your fourth starter on a roster, you know, she's just a classic role player in the WNBA. And so really it is a top-heavy roster, one of if not the most top-heavy rosters in the whole league with Copper, Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally.
BRODIE: And one of the things that a lot of folks are talking about is this idea of positionless basketball because both Thomas, Sabally and Copper all kind of play the same position, don't they?
PICKMAN: Yeah, I mean they play different positions in that Kahleah Copper is more of a wing and Satou Sabally is 6’4”, whereas again, Copper is 6’1”. The positionless factor, a lot of it goes to Alyssa Thomas, who played a lot of point guard, frankly, despite being a power forward or traditional power forward size at 6'2” throughout her career with the Connecticut Sun, but also it's out of necessity because if you again look at the Phoenix Mercury roster depth like Thomas has shown that she can create and she can bring the ball up the floor and initiate offense.
And so it makes a lot of sense that with this roster that is thin and relatively inexperienced in terms of depth. Like, you want the ball in your hands of your best players as much as possible. And so Thomas is shown she can initiate offense, and so it makes sense that, you know, your 6'2” forward is gonna have the ball in her hand a lot creating offense, and the same is true with Sabally, who at 6’4” can also handle the ball.
BRODIE: So listening to you describe the Mercury roster, I'm struck, especially with the idea of a big three and sort of a top-heavy roster, it doesn't sound that dissimilar to the way a lot of folks were describing the Phoenix Suns roster this past year, and as we all know, that didn't work out that well. Is there a chance that it might work out better for the Mercury?
PICKMAN: I think there is a chance, but I think the comparison is certainly a fair one to make, and it's certainly a question, you know, that I have of what happens if one of these three players does go down with an injury for an extended period of time. Of course you never wish that upon a player, but it's just a potential reality of the situation. You know, an injury to Sabally, Thomas, or Copper really could be especially detrimental to You know, the Phoenix Mercury in their desires to compete and be among the WNBA's best this year.
BRODIE: So where do folks, where do prognosticators think the Mercury will be this year? I mean, does this look like a, have a feel of a playoff team?
PICKMAN: Yeah, I mean, I think there's still certainly enough talent on this team to be a playoff team, and there's a chance if the new big three of Copper, Thomas, and Sabally gels the way, you know, people in Phoenix suspect or want, they could be in the top four if everything really, really, really does go their way.
But it's a really interesting franchise, too, because we have seen the Phoenix Mercury invest and they have this new beautiful practice facility which opened last year on All-Star break. They're well positioned, I would say no matter how they performed this year on court, to still be an attractive place for prospective free agents to play in the future, because again, we have, they have an ownership group that has shown that they will invest in the franchise, they have been aggressive making trades, and they have this beautiful facility that you know, has tons of amenities that any player would want. And so it's still a desirable place to play in the future, even if this season does not go the way that fans might hope.
BRODIE: It's interesting though, because it seems as though a lot could change in the not too distant future in the WNBA with the collective bargaining agreement ending.
PICKMAN: Yeah, I mean, there's a new, as you mentioned, a new CBA, a new collective bargaining agreement that is currently being negotiated and it sets to, you know, be a transformative document, In the league going forward, I mean, the salaries, among other priorities are, are very it's widespread. There's widespread belief that salaries are going to increase substantially, so that's going to be one significant change.
But one other thing to be aware of is that pretty much all of the veteran players in the WNBA are free agents after this season. They'll all hit the open market and have the opportunity to sign with different teams. That includes, you know, the Phoenix Mercury trio that we talked about.
And so what that does is teams are trying to kind of position themselves not only as great encore products and show off their cultures and foundations right now, but, you know, they're trying to show that they have great facilities, that they have great ownership investment. They're trying to position themselves, really jockey for position to attract some of these big free agents. And so, you know, next summer or next winter rather, I should say sets up to be one of the craziest ever, not the craziest in league history.
BRODIE: Interesting. So last year the WNBA saw tremendous growth, a lot more higher TV ratings, a lot of ticket sales, and a lot of folks were attributing that to the Caitlin Clark effect. How does the league try to maintain that momentum?
PICKMAN: Well, the short answer is that they've put Caitlyn Clark and the Indiana Fever on national television in 41 of Indiana's 44 games. That is the most of any team in the league. And so, if you want to keep the Clark mania and Clark effect high and the ratings, you know, as high as they possibly can be, they've made the decision to put the Indiana Fever on as pretty much as much as they can. So that's kind of the starting point.
And then if you go down the line, I mean, the Aces and the Liberty are on national television a lot, like, you know, they're certainly going to, they're promoting the stars that they know. Are draws. And we shall see. There's a lot of really, really talented teams in the league this year, and, you know, again, those TV decisions help paint a picture of what the league thinks and and where they're directing eyeballs to.
