After surprising run to 2025 WNBA Finals, what does this season look like for the Phoenix Mercury?

The Phoenix Mercury start their 2026 season tomorrow afternoon with a road game against the defending champion Las Vegas Aces. The Mercury lost to the Aces in the WNBA Finals last season after making a surprise run through the playoffs.

The offseason, of course, was dominated by talk of a new collective bargaining agreement and whether the players and league would be able to agree on a new deal. They ultimately did in March, setting off a fast-paced free agency period.

Cassandra Negley, national women’s basketball reporter for Yahoo Sports, joined The Show to talk about the upcoming season.

Full conversation

MARK BRODIE: Cassandra, let’s start broadly. This was an unusual offseason for the WNBA with a lot of different things going on. How did things shake out and what are you looking for as the new season gets underway?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: Yeah, very different offseason. The collective bargaining agreement, those negotiations took quite a while. And it bleeding deep into March meant that free agency, the two-team expansion draft, the collegiate draft — they all happened pretty simultaneously in a very short window. So there were a lot of just difficulties I think and challenges for general managers in building their rosters.

As we know, most of the league was free agents. We didn’t see a ton of movement, but we did see some pretty big changes and some pretty big moves. So I think as the season gets underway, it’ll be interesting to see how those players adjust to their new surroundings, and what these rosters look like with these little tweaks and changes and everyone kind of fitting everything under the salary cap that’s brand new this year.

MARK BRODIE: Yeah. So the Phoenix Mercury last season made a surprise run to the WNBA Finals; they ultimately lost to the Las Vegas Aces. What are some of the questions that you have about the Mercury going into this season?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: The biggest question is how do you replace Satou Sabally? Now on the one hand, you can make the argument that Satou, Kahleah Copper and Alyssa Thomas actually did not spend a lot of time together on the court due to injury during the regular season. So maybe the Mercury feel pretty good about replacing her.

But losing her to the New York Liberty in free agency I think was one of the major dominoes that we saw. And so the Mercury need to find a way to find that offensive production with the team that they have. They also didn’t sign a lot of big names in this free agency period.

MARK BRODIE: Yeah, not a lot of big names in free agency, not a lot of change overall from last season’s roster, right?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: Yeah, correct. And you know, Nate Tibbetts kind of talked about that I think early on in camp that he liked it. He wanted consistency, and if you look at the team that they had coming into last year, there was so much change. I think they had like one player or two players carry over from the year before, and that’s something they spoke about a lot.

MARK BRODIE: Yeah, it’s interesting because as you mentioned, the year before they’d of course lost Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner, two mainstay players. So I wonder if there’s something to be said for keeping a team that went to the finals largely intact.

CASSANDRA NEGLY: Yeah, I think you’re absolutely onto something, right? We hear this from coaches all of the time. Like you want consistency, you want to build that chemistry, you want to have that relationship with each other. And if the Mercury feel like they have that with this group, kudos to them for maintaining that and and trying to run it back the way that they did.

MARK BRODIE: So you mentioned trying to replace Satou Sabally, especially her scoring. Who do you think has to step up for the Mercury to be successful — either, maybe you don’t replace that scoring all with one person, maybe it’s a couple of people. Are there players that you’re looking for to see how they’re going to do this season that maybe are sort of a barometer of how the team overall is doing?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: Well, I think DeWanna Bonner is maybe that player. You know, she joins them kind of mid-season if you will or during the season. Players always kind of push back on this, but she’s certainly at the back end of her career. I think she’s 38 or turning 38. So what can she produce in that role?

I really like Monique Akoa Makani. She played great for them last year, was kind of a surprise. Her defense is exquisite. I think that’s a player to keep an eye on as well and see what she can do on the offensive end.

MARK BRODIE: OK. And you mentioned the collegiate draft. The Mercury did not have a first-round pick. They did make second- and third-round picks. Would you expect either of those rookies to play significant minutes, have a significant impact this year?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: I wouldn’t. I think it’s just always so rare. But we’ll see what their final roster looks like. And as we know, injuries can play with a lot.

MARK BRODIE: Yeah. So the consensus seems to be that the Mercury should at least make the playoffs again this year, if not make another run to the finals. Do you buy into that? Do you see this as a playoff team at least right now?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: Yes. I also think they’re a playoff team, but as we’ve spoken about pretty extensively, like to lose Satou Sabally — I can’t comfortably in the preseason see them making a deep run. But eight teams make the playoffs, and that’s still a significant number in this league.

MARK BRODIE: So who to you is sort of the class of the WNBA? Like who do you see as sort of the finals or the championship, you know, the best odds at this moment?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: There are four teams that I think are at the top, and I think there’s a general consensus about it. You have the Las Vegas Aces, who you can’t count out at this point with all of their stars, obviously reigning champions.

You have the New York Liberty, who add Satou Sabally. They have a cast of all-stars. They do have a first-year head coach, so that’s kind of the knock there.

You have the Indiana Fever and you hope for them that Caitlin Clark is healthy this year. This is a team that we saw almost upset the Aces in the semifinals, like what an incredible series that was. They’ll have a lot of players back.

And then it’s actually the Atlanta Dream. This is a team that came together pretty quickly last year. They add Angel Reese. They’re in their second year together, more chemistry. That’s a team to watch out for as well.

MARK BRODIE: Given all the sort of tumult of the offseason and some of the bad feelings between the players and the league management, do you get the sense that’s behind everybody? Are there lingering sort of concerns about the state of the league?

CASSANDRA NEGLY: I think there are certainly lingering concerns because there always are, if that makes sense. But overall, I do think that is mostly behind us. I think a lot of it is and was kind of done to push what they wanted out of a CBA and to get a CBA done and to make their stance known publicly.

The CBA was monumental, transformative. We heard it all of the time, and I think it was a win in many ways for both sides.

Now moving forward, part of that whole conversation was about the officiating. We spoke with (WNBA Commissioner) Cathy Engelbert at the draft, and she said that we will see changes in how things are officiated or what the focus is for officials. And I think that will be the thing to focus on to see if there are lingering issues between players and the league and coaches are involved in that as well.

KJZZ's The Show transcripts are created on deadline. This text is edited for length and clarity, and may not be in its final form. The authoritative record of KJZZ's programming is the audio record.

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